Thailand is a country with a rich culinary history. Food is given special importance.
Locals eat around the clock, but at the same time remain slim, young and fit.
And all thanks to the fact that soups are the basis of the diet.
They do not have high calorie content, but have bright and rich tastes.
Thai soup - general principles of cooking
To prepare the basis for Thai soup, use seafood, fish, meat, chicken, mushrooms. Many dishes are prepared on vegetable broths or just water. A large number of flavoring additives, original dressings and sauces do not allow soups to remain watery and empty.
In addition to the main products, vegetables are added to liquid dishes. Most often these are different types of onions, garlic, tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, corn and cabbage. But potatoes in Thailand are used extremely rarely. Perhaps this is the secret to the harmony of local residents. Thais also love rice noodles.
Another feature is the unusual combination of products. For example, mushrooms can be combined with seafood, cheese and chicken at the same time. And all these strange compositions are complemented by a large number of spices, aromatic herbs and spices.
Recipe 1: Thai Tom Yum Soup
The first recipe with an exotic, sour-spicy taste. Despite the fact that Thailand is home to Thai soup, it can be found in many European and American restaurants. A special feature of the dish is Tom Yam pasta, which has a spicy taste.
Ingredients
• 200 grams of chicken fillet;
• 200 grams of shrimp;
• 400 grams of coconut milk.
For pasta:
• 25 grams of ginger;
• 2 chili peppers;
• 5 cloves of garlic;
• 1 lemon;
• A spoonful of sugar;
• 3 tablespoons of oil.
Cooking
1. Peel the garlic, cut into slices, put in a saucepan with a small amount of oil and fry.
2. Add the hot pepper rings and pass together. Then take out, grind with a blender. Add the zest of lemon, 2-3 tablespoons of citrus juice and grated ginger. Then put the mass again in the same stewpan and warm it together for 5 minutes. Add sugar and grind again in a blender to make the paste homogeneous.
3. Boil the chicken in the broth. We take out and cut into cubes.
4. In Thai cuisine, shrimp are most often boiled in unrefined form. But if there is a desire, then the shell can be removed. Throw the seafood in the soup, cook until tender and also take out.
5. At the end, pour coconut milk, add shrimp, chicken, salt. Let it boil and introduce aromatic paste. Stir, boil for 2 minutes and turn off.
Recipe 2: Thai Beef Noodle Soup
A feature of an unusually fragrant Thai soup is technology. The dish is prepared quickly and easily. If there is boiled beef and broth, then the whole process will not take more than 20 minutes. Ideally, the dish is prepared with raw meat, which is cut into strips and only boiled for a minute. Do as you wish.
Ingredients
• liter of beef broth;
• garlic 5 cloves;
• celery stalk;
• 2 onions;
• 2 tablespoons of fish sauce;
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce;
• 250 grams of boiled beef;
• black pepper;
• one shallot;
• 150 grams of rice noodles.
Cooking
1. Cut the peeled garlic cloves, not very finely. Throw in the pan. Add chopped onion, celery slices, fish and soy sauce. We fill everything with beef broth and cook 5 minutes after boiling.
2. Cut the beef into strips, lower it into the pan.
3. Next we pour rice noodles, let it boil.
4. Add chopped shallots and immediately turn off. If necessary, add salt and spices to the soup. The dish is served immediately until the noodles are sour. If you are afraid to digest, then you can cook it separately, put it on plates and pour ready-made soup.
Recipe 3: Thai soup "Tom kha kai" with mushrooms and lemongrass
Traditional Thai soup with mushrooms and chicken, which is prepared with coconut milk. It is prepared simply, almost all the ingredients are available. If you can’t find lemongrass, then you can cook a dish without it, the soup will still turn out to be tasty and aromatic.
Ingredients
• 1.3 liters of water;
• 400 grams of chicken;
• 250 grams of mushrooms;
• 2 cups of coconut milk;
• 2 hot chili pods;
• a piece of ginger;
• 3 slices of lemongrass;
• green cilantro.
Cooking
1. Cooking chicken stock. We take out the meat, cut into arbitrary pieces, salt the broth.
2. Add coconut milk to the broth, let it boil. Throw slices of lemongass and a slice of ginger.
3. Put chopped champignons, boil for 5 minutes.
4. Run the chicken pieces, chopped chili pepper, cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Season the soup with chopped cilantro. Ginger and lemongrass should not be eaten, so it is better to remove them from the pan.
Recipe 4: Thai Fish and Eggplant Soup
Unusual dish, rich and aromatic. For Thai soup, you can use any fish, but better not bony. There are 2 options for this dish: with and without coconut milk. It is better to cook just a soup, and then optionally add milk directly to the plate. The same technique will help reduce the severity of the dish, if necessary.
Ingredients
• 400 grams of fish fillet;
• 2 eggplants;
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• 5-7 chili peppers;
• 3 shallots;
• a spoon of fish sauce;
• salt, greens;
• 120 grams of champignon or oyster mushroom.
Cooking
1. Baked vegetables are needed to make this Thai soup. We lay out chili peppers, eggplant, shallots and garlic cloves on a grill rack or on a baking sheet in the oven. Bake until light brown.
2. Grind the chili peppers with garlic and shallots. Ideally, this is done in small portions in a mortar. But you can ease the process and just scroll with a blender.
3. Add crushed eggplant to the hot mass.
4. Pour about 1.2 liters of water into the pan, salt and let it boil. We start the fish pieces, let it boil for a couple of minutes.
5. We put oyster mushrooms or mushrooms, previously cut into slices. Add fish sauce and cook all together for 5 minutes.
6. Put the spicy vegetable puree in the pan and cook the soup until the fish and mushrooms are ready, usually another 5-7 minutes. At the end, add chopped greens.
Recipe 5: Thai Fish Meatball Soup
For the preparation of this Thai soup, it is better to use red fish, it turns out to be much tastier with it. You will also need couscous, but you can use regular millet.
Ingredients
• 300 grams of fish fillet;
• fish bones, head for broth;
• 1/2 cup couscous;
• 2 liters of water;
• a bunch of cilantro;
• salt;
• egg;
• onion;
• some oil;
• a spoon of fish sauce;
• hot pepper pod.
Cooking
1. From the bones, head, fish scraps and illiquid pieces we prepare the broth. Then filter it, add salt, fish sauce and couscous. Cook for 15 minutes.
2. Grind the fish pulp through a meat grinder. Add onion, egg, spices and mix well. If the minced meat is liquid, then you can add a little semolina or flour.
3. We make meatballs and fry in a pan on both sides.
4. Run the meatballs into the soup. The oil on which they were fried can also be added to the pan if you want a more fatty dish.
5. Chop finely hot pepper and add to the pan. Boil for 2 minutes.
6. Season the soup with chopped herbs and turn it off.
Recipe 6: Thai Tofu and Rice Noodle Soup
For spicy Thai soup you will need a vegetable broth. Instead, you can simply use purified water. Rice noodles are used according to the recipe, but you can also cook a dish with wheat products.
Ingredients
• 100 grams of tofu;
• 2 slices of ginger;
• a bunch of cilantro;
• one chili pepper;
• clove of garlic;
• 50 grams of rice noodles;
• 4 glasses of broth;
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce;
• 150 grams of champignons;
• lemon juice.
Cooking
1. Put the broth on the stove, add slices of ginger, pepper and garlic. Cook for 10 minutes.
2. Tofu cut into cubes, mix with soy sauce and cilantro. Leave to marinate while the soup is cooked.
3. Filter the broth, put the chopped mushrooms, cook for 15 minutes. Salt to your liking.
4. Add rice noodles to the soup and turn it off immediately. If wheat noodles are used, then we boil almost until readiness, we make sure that the products do not boil and remain a little hard.
5. Put in the plates the pickled tofu cheese with herbs, pour the cooked soup, add a spoonful of lemon juice and can be served.
Recipe 7: Thai Carrot and Cabbage Soup
A feature of this Thai soup is the egg omelet with which it is served. The dish is simple and light, cooks fast enough. The soup is not sharp, but if you wish, you can pour more pepper into it or put chopped pods.
Ingredients
• 200 grams of Savoy cabbage;
• 2 carrots;
• 2 eggs;
• a spoonful of oil;
• liter of any broth;
• 3 tablespoons of soy sauce;
• a pinch of black pepper;
• greens of cilantro or parsley.
Cooking
1. Pour the broth into the saucepan, pour in the soy sauce and bring to a boil.
2. Peel the carrots, cut into small cubes, boil until almost ready.
3. Shred finely the leaves of Savoy cabbage, send to the carrots and cook until soft, about 2 minutes.
4. Pour a little black pepper, cover and turn off.
5. Break the egg into the bowl, add a few grains of salt and beat with a fork. Pour a pan with half a spoonful of oil, pour the egg, spread on the surface and fry. The resulting pancake is pulled onto the board. Beat and fry the second egg in the same way.
6. Egg pancakes slightly cool, one turn into a tube and cut into noodles.
7. Put the omelet noodles on plates, pour hot cabbage soup with carrots, season with herbs.
Recipe 8: Thai Seafood and Corn Soup
Ideally, for cooking Thai soup, boiled milk is used, but due to the shortage of this product, we will use canned grains. Seafood is added squid, shrimp and crab sticks.
Ingredients
• one big squid;
• 15 medium shrimp;
• a bunch of green onions;
• 150 grams of crab sticks;
• 50 grams of cornmeal;
• a can of corn;
• 5 tablespoons of soy sauce;
• some oil;
• hot pepper pod;
• clove of garlic;
• greens, a little sugar and salt.
Cooking
1. We clean squid and shrimp. Then we cut the squid into rings, put the shrimps in a pan whole, fill with water and set to cook for 10 minutes. If there is a vegetable broth, then instead of water you can cook on it.
2. Divide the corn in half. In one part, add the whole jar marinade, combine with crab sticks and chop in a puree with a blender.
3. Fry a clove of garlic in a pan, add chopped chili pepper. Stew for a minute and add mashed corn with chopsticks. Stew for another half a minute, put the corn in the grains and warm.
4. Send the contents of the pan to the seafood pan. Let it boil for a couple of minutes, season with salt, soy sauce, put a spoonful of sugar and herbs. Turn off.
Thai soup - tips and tricks
• If raw fish or meat is found in a Thai soup recipe, this point can be ignored. What is the norm for some peoples seems wild to others. Therefore, if there is no desire to eat fish or meat in raw form, the products can be slightly boiled, fried or baked.
• Thai cuisine has a large number of hot spices, but not everyone likes vigorous dishes. Therefore, for beginners, when preparing the dish for the first time, it is better to put half of the spices and, if necessary, add the second part to the plate, focusing on your taste preferences.
• Many Thai soups are prepared on the basis of wood mushrooms, which are difficult to purchase in stores. Therefore, they are boldly replaced with more affordable champignons or oyster mushrooms. The proportion is the same.
• Soy sauce is a favorite ingredient in Thai dishes. But do not forget that these products are salty, so add in limited quantities.
