Spicy Prawn and Coconut Soup

Feel like a bowl of hot spicy soup? Something bursting with lovely Asian flavours of lemongrass, ginger, coconut, lime? Something that will satisfy all those taste buds and warm you up from the inside? Here you have it. A soup packed with layers of flavour and filling enough to be a meal in itself. Switch the prawns for tofu or chicken if you prefer. It will still be delicious.

You could also vary the type of mushrooms you use but I think the shitake give a very distinctive flavour to this soup. And note, that brands of coconut milk vary enormously from solid to watery. Try to use one in the middle if you can. If you don’t have any on hand, click the link to see how you can make your own.

Spicy prawn and coconut soup

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1 tbs freshly grated ginger
• 1 stalk lemongrass, very finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon red curry paste
• 2 cups stock
• 1.5 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1.5 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 can coconut milk (use more if using light)
• 100 grams fresh shitake mushrooms
• 250 grams prawns, peeled and deveined
• 1+ tablespoon fresh lime juice
• Fresh coriander to garnish
• Optional: add more chilli to taste, depending on your chilli paste

Method

Heat some vegetable oil in a pot over medium heat. Then add the ginger, lemongrass and red curry paste, stir and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the stock and mix well. Add the brown sugar and fish sauce and simmer for 15 minutes.

Stir in the coconut milk and mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Add a little extra chilli if desired and add the prawns and cook for a further 5 minutes until they become firm.

Take off the heat. Squeeze in the lime juice and test the seasoning. and add more lime juice according to taste. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

This spicy prawn and coconut soup is complex in flavour but simple to make. Enjoy!