VEGAN KHAO SOI SOUP

serves: 3-4
prep: 20 min
cooking: 20 min
INGREDIENTS
KHAO SOI PASTE
4 hot red chillies (fresh or dried*) I used fresh
6 garlic cloves
5 cm / 2 ” piece of ginger, peeled and roughly sliced
4 tbsp / ¼ cup coriander stalks, chopped
2 lemongrass stalks, white inner part only, roughly chopped
2 small shallots, roughly chopped
1 tbsp coriander seeds or ½ tsp ground coriander
1½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp curry powder (I used hot Madras curry powder)
REMAINING INGREDIENTS

favourite noodles (GF if needed), 1.7 oz / 50 g per person
½ head of broccoli, divided into florets
½ butternut squash, peeled and sliced into dice
a large handful of flat green beans, cut on the diagonal
oil (I used peanut, for frying)
about 750 ml / 3 cups of vegetable stock
250 ml / 1 cup full fat coconut milk**
about 3 tbsp vegan fish sauce or tamari / soy sauce
juice of ½ lime
1-2 tbsp sugar, I used coconut sugar
fresh coriander, to serve (optional)

METHOD
OPTIONAL STEP: If using whole coriander seeds, I recommend pre-roasting them on a dry pan until golden and fragrant and pounding them to a powder in a pestle and mortar.
Place all the paste ingredients in a herb chopper or a food processor, add about 4 tbsp of water and process until you get a uniform paste.
You can cook your vegetables in the soup (see STEP 7) or separately, like I did. It takes a bit more work but I find that they taste better than if you simply boil them. If you want to cook them separately, heat up the oven to 225° C / 435° F and line a tray with a piece of baking paper. Coat diced butternut squash in a tablespoon of oil, season with salt or tamari / soy sauce and bake for about 30 mins, until golden. Heat up one tablespoon of oil in a wok and stir fry broccoli florets for about 1 minute, add sliced beans and stir-fry for about 1 minute. Season with tamari or soy sauce.
Cook noodles according to the instructions on the packet.
Put the bowls into a warm oven (100 °C / 210 °F) to heat them up for serving.
Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a medium size pot. Add Khao Soi paste to the hot oil and stir-fry it for about 4-6 minutes, until slightly darkened. Add vegetable broth and coconut milk and allow them to come to the boil. Season with vegan fish sauce (tamari or soy sauce), fresh lime juice and sugar to taste.
If you want to cook your vegetables in the soup, place diced butternut squash in the soup, allow the soup to come to the boil and simmer for about 7 minutes, add broccoli florets and sliced beans and cook for a 5 further minutes.
Pour over cooked noodles and serve with fresh coriander.
*If using dried chillies, soak them in boiling water for 30 minutes. Adjust the number of chillies according to personal preference and the type of chilli you are using. I only have one, generic, red chilli at my disposal here and as they are not very hot I used 4. I also roasted them in a 220 °C / 430 °F for about 10 minutes to deepen their flavour a little.
**The original recipe used 2 cups of broth to just over 3 cups (2 x 14 oz / 400 ml tins) of coconut milk. I found even half of the coconut milk (1 x 14 oz / 400 ml tin) too rich so I suggest 3 cups of broth to 1 cup of coconut milk. If you prefer a richer and creamier soup, substitute some of the broth for extra coconut milk.