- Today, I'm making this easy vegan Thai coconut soup.
It's delicious.
If you've had tom kha kai, you know that.
This is veggie packed,
I'm packing it with veggies.
I got some purple sweet potatoes here.
You can use whatever sweet potato you want.
(sizzling)
So I just have a little bit of vegetable oil,
and I'm just gonna cook the sweet potatoes
until they're nice and tender.
(sizzling)
So this recipe is inspired by an interview I did
with Brian Sims,
so be sure to check that out.
There's a link in the show notes to that.
We had a really fun chat about politics, Pennsylvania, food,
everything you could possibly imagine.
Okay, so our sweet potatoes are
pretty much tender at this point,
so we're gonna add in our next ingredients.
So this recipe is just super packed with veggies,
that's the thing about this one.
It's like a great, crazy good Thai soup,
easy to make.
Like I said, it's really easy.
We're not using,
for example, there's no lemongrass,
we're kind of using a little bit of a hack.
But it's super packed with veggies.
So I've got our sweet potatoes in there.
Now I'm gonna add in my rice broccoli.
I gonna add in some sliced mushrooms.
(sizzling)
And we're just gonna cook that down a little bit.
Now, if you need to add in more oil, add in more oil.
(sizzling)
So, while those mushrooms are cooking,
I really love Thai coconut soup,
I just always want it to be like,
way more packed with veggies.
All of my soups always end up like stews,
I put way too much stuff in there as it is,
and this is sort of a good example of that.
So we have sweet potatoes,
we have broccoli, we have mushrooms.
The thing I really love about this soup
is how many veggies are packed in there.
So, storage tip for sweet potatoes,
don't put them in the fridge.
They don't like to be too hot,
they don't like to be too cold.
The perfect way to store sweet potatoes
is to have them just a little bit cooler
than room temperature.
Put them in the pantry in an open bag, perfect.
Not the refrigerator.
Smells so good.
(sizzling)
Okay, let's add in some garlic.
(crack)
I'm just gonna saute that for about a minute,
just to kind of get those oils out of the garlic
and infuse it into our veggie mess here.
And so here's a little trick I like to do
when I'm making soups or if I'm making soups,
or if I'm making anything that requires hot liquids,
a lot of hot liquid.
So, I pour in some of the broth
and then I'll pour in the ingredients
that are gonna infuse the flavors,
and then pour it in the rest of the broth
after I bring that up to a simmer,
just to get it up to heat faster,
but you can do it however you want.
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So I'm gonna add in my vegetable broth.
Just a little bit, just to get it going.
Gonna add in my ginger.
Love that smell, that fresh ginger smell.
Now we're just adding in the rest of our flavors, right?
So, instead of using lemongrass for this recipe,
because access to lemongrass is not super common,
you actually can use lemon peel
to sort of imitate lemongrass.
So, lemongrass is kind of lemony and also a little herbal.
And we're gonna actually be using kale in this recipe,
so we'll get some of those herbal flavors,
and then the lemon kind of provides
the other part of the lemongrass.
So it's really accessible in the sense
that you can easily find all of these ingredients.
Add in our lemon.
Our red curry paste.
I'm using a vegetarian oyster sauce
for this recipe,
so it's basically a mushroom sauce.
So, that's really common in a lot of Asian cuisine,
but also especially Thai food.
The oyster sauce is what kinda gives that umami, that base.
And so I'm using a mushroom version,
which is what makes this recipe vegan.
And our lime juice.
Just mix that altogether,
and then just gonna let that come
to a little bit of a simmer,
then I'm gonna add in the rest of the broth.
But as I mentioned, you can add it in all at once,
just how I like to do it.
Okay, so I'm adding in the rest of my broth now.
There we go.
It smells so amazing in here right now, guys.
I think you're gonna love this soup.
Like I said, this was inspired by my conversation
with Brian Sims.
We talked about Trump,
we talked about all the craziness of the election,
we talked about food, all things gay,
like everything you could possibly imagine.
So be sure to check out that interview.
Oh, so by the way, garlic, right?
A pain in the butt to peel.
Little quick tip.
Take a bulb of garlic, take a clove of garlic, whatever,
however much garlic you need, put it in a Mason jar,
put that lid on really tight
and just shake the heck out of it
for about 10 to 30 seconds.
And those peels will just fall off,
and you'll have all the garlic that you need to use.
Super easy way to peel garlic.
Remember that.
Okay, so now I'm gonna add in our coconut milk,
it's a little chunky.
It's the fat separating from the liquid in the coconut,
but the heat from the soup will actually
just make it all combine.
I dunno if you can see, it's kinda split right now,
there's like the white side and then like the dark side.
(chuckling)
The dark side of the soup.
So we're just gonna bring this to a low simmer,
get that stirred in.
Cover it up and let it come to a low simmer.
By the way,
a little thing about coconut milk.
So, canned coconut milk will last,
it's good for about six months past the best buy date.
Once you open it, though,
just for about five days in the fridge.
Now, you can freeze it,
but it will get kinda grainy.
So two things, if it gets grainy,
you can either strain that out
or you can put it in the blender.
And it just kinda depends on like
how you're gonna use the coconut milk,
but that's a little storage tip for coconut milk.
Okay, so we're gonna add in our tofu,
without trying to splatter it everywhere.
It's a big pot of soup I got going right here.
Next we're gonna add in our kale.
So the thing about this, like I love greens in a soup,
but they can get a little slimy
if they stay in there too long.
So, what I like to do is I'll make the soup
and then right before I'm about to serve it,
throw in the kale, throw in the cilantro,
and boom, and there you have it.
So add in our kale,
and add in our cilantro.
Now we're gonna add in our brown sugar,
and a little bit of sea salt.
And that's you make a delicious,
easy vegan Thai coconut soup.
Super, super tasty.
Like I said, this is inspired by my interview
with Brian Sims,
so please check that out.
If you like this recipe,
hey, you know what?
Give me a thumbs up.
If this is something you wanna see,
drop a comment down below.
And if you'd like to cook like I do,
I release new videos every single week.
See you guys next time.
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