Cold Weather Requires Warm & Comforting Soup

Last week Mom and I had a girls night while Dad was out with a friend of his and my brother and his wife, Dasha, were on their way back from their 3 month trip around Eastern Europe. When Mom asked me if I had any particular craving I thought of soup... but what kind of soup? One of my all time favorite soup is Tom Kha. It's so delicious that I'll order it any time we go to a Thai restaurant and I've even requested it as a birthday dinner two years ago. I was so impressed with our homemade version that I am now almost certain that we might be part Thai! It definitely stands up next to the Tom Kha soup at Khai Thai Restaurant (the best place I've been for Thai food in Vancouver so far).
Cooking with Mom is great :) Without knowing it, she and Dad raised my brother and I with a strong connection to food. Now that we're older, my brother and I are taking that love for food that we were raised with and we're passing it on to our friends and one day we'll pass it along to our own family.

Tom Kha Soup

Serves 8 (Not full meals

• 3 (13 1/2 ounce) cans low-sodium low-fat chicken broth or veggie broth
• 1 (13 1/2 ounce) can coconut milk (regular, not lite)
• 2 stalks lemongrass, sliced in large pieces
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon shrimp paste (use anchovy paste as a substitute)
• 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 3 limes, zest of
• 3 limes, juice of
• 3 serrano chili peppers, chopped
• 2 tablespoons ginger, julienned in fine,short 1/4 inch strips
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 block of Firm Tofu diced and fried
• 8 ounces white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 bunch bok choy, chopped (we used chard because we had some from the garden but I think this can be omitted all together because I've never seen bok choy or chard in a Tom Kha soup)
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (leave the stems in!)
• 1 -2 tablespoon lime juice, to taste (probably)

1. In 4qt or larger, heavy-bottomed pot, begin heating chicken/veggie broth and coconut milk on low-medium heat.
2. Add the other ingredients for the broth, down through the brown sugar, as you prepare them.
3. Bring broth to a slow simmer; never allow it to reach a rolling boil, and do not cover it at any time during cooking.
4. When broth is simmering, start stir frying your tofu cubes. Make sure to turn often so they are cooked on all sides.
5. Continue down the list of ingredients, adding them to the soup while the tofu cooks, stirring regularly.
6. Once the tofu is fully cooked, add it into the soup then add the cilantro.
7. About a minute after adding the cilantro, taste the soup and add some additional lime juice as desired to punch up the flavor (maybe 1-2 T--don't overdo it!)
8. Serve immediately.

*Some ingredients in the soup made me wrinkle my nose. Fish sauce on its own smells pretty gross! Anchovy paste too! I didn't even want to touch the stuff. When you mix it all together the smell of the fish sauce or the anchovy paste blend really nicely. I'd be afraid to try the recipe without these possible key ingredients.

The original recipe can be found here.