Coconut Curry Soup with Shrimp

I added shrimp, but you can add chicken or no meat at all, either way this soup is a winner!

If you’re going the chicken route you can skip the next few step and saute chicken instead.

If you decide to use shrimp, which I highly recommend, peel 1/2 pound and add the shrimp shells to a sauce pan.

Set aside the peeled shrimp in the fridge until they’re needed.

To the shrimp peels add enough water to cover them well, 1/2 large onion and 1 clove of garlic.

No need to peel or slice the garlic or onion because they won’t go in the final soup.

Also toss in 2 heaping tablespoons full of ketchup.

Bring to a low boil for about 20 minutes. If the liquid over-reduces, you can add a little more water as needed.

While the seafood stock is cooking, start on the body of the soup.

Grab a large saucepan or dutch oven and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/2 tablespoon butter.

Toss in 4 large sliced mushrooms.  What ever type of mushrooms you love will be perfect.

Once the mushrooms have browned, add a little more olive oil and add 1 finely chopped clove of garlic.

Followed by 3 chopped spring onions.

Cook over low heat to sweat the green onions. Do not brown the garlic, or it will make the soup bitter.

Next pour in 2 – 13.5 ounce cans of coconut milk and add a couple of shakes of tabasco.

Followed by 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. At this point it’s not too spicy, and the children will eat it. I’ll add more cayenne once I’ve served their portions.

Add 1 heaping tablespoon of fresh chopped cilantro.

Next add 3 tablespoons of lime juice.

1 teaspoon of sugar.

1 teaspoon of turmeric, and 1 teaspoon thyme.

Now back to the seafood stock. I fished out all the onion, shrimp shells and garlic clove with a slotted spoon.

Add the noodles from 1 pack of Ramen noodles, don’t add the Ramen seasoning pack.

Cook the noodles for 3 minutes in the hot seafood stock.

Add the stock and noodles to the soup base.

Toss in your peeled shrimp and cook for  3 to 5 minutes.

Taste test, and see if you need to add salt or more cayenne to spice it up a bit. You can also add red pepper flakes if you like.

Mmmm, perfection.

Garnish with fresh cilantro and strips of green onion.

Enjoy!

the wanna be country girl – Caroline