Thai-style sausage and coconut soup
This tasty and warming spicy soup is substantial enough to have for dinner as it contains balls of sausage meat.
Ingredients
For the sausage balls
- 3 bird's-eye chillies, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh root ginger
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
- 1 tsp shrimp paste
- splash Thai fish sauce, to taste
- 6 pork sausages, skins removed and crumbled
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the soup base
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, for frying
- 1 shallot, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- 2cm/1in fresh root ginger, sliced
- bunch fresh coriander, stalks finely chopped and leaves separated
- 1–2 tbsp Thai red chilli paste
- 1–2 tbsp tamarind paste
- 1 tbsp palm sugar
- 500ml/18fl oz chicken or vegetable stock
- 400ml tin coconut milk
- 5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
- 100²µ/3½´Ç³ú bamboo shoots, julienned
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú green beans, cut into 1cm/½in pieces
- 3 lemongrass sticks, cracked
- 2 limes, for squeezing
- bunch fresh Thai basil, chopped, to garnish
- splash Thai fish sauce, to taste
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
To make the sausage balls, blitz all of the ingredients, except the sausages, in a food processor and then mix in the sausage meat. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Roll into balls, half the size of golf balls, and set aside.
To make the soup, heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the sausage balls until coloured all over. Remove and set aside.
In the same pan sweat the shallot, garlic, ginger and coriander stalks for 5 minutes. Add the chilli paste, tamarind, palm sugar and stock. Add the coconut milk, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, beans and lemongrass. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Add the sausage balls back into the pan and poach gently for 4–5 minutes until cooked through.
Serve in bowls with the limes, fresh Thai basil and fish sauce to season as you like.