Thai Zoodle Soup with Eggplant and Peanuts
At first glance these eye-catching chile peppers look like red jalapeno. However, they have a different flavor and are less meaty than Jalapeno. Red Fresnos are great roasted and added to salsas. Try grilling them alongside your steaks or in kabobs.
When roasting these they should char, blister, and become soft. Try substituting these in your favorite chile recipes.
INGREDIENTS
Per person/serving:
1 carrot, peeled
1 zucchini, ends trimmed
½ an orange kumara (sweet potato), peeled
1 long Asian eggplant or small round eggplant, thickly sliced into chunks
3 tbsp cooking oil
1 garlic clove, crushed or finely grated
1 knob fresh ginger, finely grated
1 kaffir lime leaf (optional)
3 tbsp red Thai curry paste (check label if vegan)
1½ cups vegetable stock
½ cup light coconut cream
2 tbsp peanuts, dry toasted
Optional garnishes:
Spring onion, thinly sliced
Red chile, deseeded and thinly sliced
Kaffir lime leaf, thinly sliced
Lime wedges, for squeezing
INSTRUCTIONS
Begin by spiralizing your zucchini, carrot and sweet potato. Set aside in separate piles.
Heat a frypan to a moderate heat and fry eggplant in 2 tbsp cooking oil until deep golden brown on all sides. Season with salt and set aside to drain on kitchen towels.
Heat remaining 1 tbsp cooking oil in a deep frypan or saucepan. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds or so until fragrant.
Add curry paste and kaffir lime leaf and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Curry pastes vary a lot in their intensity, so if you know you don’t like too much heat start with less (maybe 1-2 tbsp) as you can always add more later on if needed.
Add vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. Taste and add more curry paste if needed.
Add coconut cream and bring back up to heat.
Add sweet potato spirals and cook for 2 minutes.
Add carrot spirals and cook for 1 minute.
Add zucchini spirals and cook for about 30 seconds – just enough to heat them through.
Ladle soup and spirals into a deep bowl. Add eggplant into the broth around the edges and sprinkle with peanuts. Add garnishes and serve immediately.
NOTES
Serves 1 but can easily be multiplied to suit more people. If you’re multiplying the recipe use common sense with the cooking oil. You probably won’t need to double or triple it – use as little as you can get away with to fry the eggplant, for example.
You could also add tofu or another protein of your choice to make this a more substantial meal.
From quitegoodfood.co.nz