Ingredients
| 3 small tomatoes | |
| 1 litre chicken stock | |
| 1 teaspoon palm or white sugar | |
| 1⁄2 teaspoon salt | |
| 3 lemongrass stalks, cut into 5cm lengths and bruised | |
| 2 shallots, sliced | |
| 4 slices galangal | |
| 4-6 bird’s eye chillies | |
| 4 makrut (kaffir) lime leaves | |
| 1 chicken breast, (approx 250g) | |
| 150g shiitake or button mushrooms, cut into small quarters or wedges | |
| 1-2 tablespoons fish sauce | |
| 1-2 tablespoons lime juice | |
| to serve, sliced chilli, coriander, Thai basil or Vietnamese mint |
This light soup is perfect for lunch or dinner on a cooler day. Feel free to remove the aromatics from the stock before serving, but don’t omit the galangal from the recipe as it adds a lemony and slightly camphorous flavour to the soup. It can be hard to find fresh, so I usually buy it frozen and bring out a piece as I need it.
Instructions
| 1. | Cut the tomatoes into quarters. |
| 2. | Set aside the flesh but strain the juice and seeds through a sieve and put the tomato liquid into a large pot. |
| 3. | Add the chicken stock, the palm sugar, salt, lemongrass stalks, shallots, galangal, chillies and makrut lime leaves. |
| 4. | Bring up to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. |
| 5. | Add the chicken breast and simmer for another 12-15 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked through. |
| 6. | Remove and when cool enough to handle, shred or slice into thin pieces. |
| 7. | If you wish you can strain the soup of aromatics at this point. |
| 8. | Add the tomato flesh and mushrooms to the soup and cook for 5 minutes or until tender, add the chicken back to the broth and finish to taste with the fish sauce and lime juice adding more of each of these if necessary. |
| 9. | The soup should be hot, salty and sour. |
| 10. | Add extra chilli and herbs to taste and serve. |
Recipes & food styling Ginny Grant / Photography Aaron McLean / Styling Ellen J Hemmings
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