Lemongrass Soup

June 27, 2020

Lemongrass Soup

Serves 4

I’ve been making this soup for years, a little different each time, but I finally wrote down the recipe so I could share it. Let me know if you try it and what you think. You can eat it as is, add tofu, add shrimp, add shrimp dumplings, or add pork dumplings. I’ve done all of them but I prefer pork dumplings. I found a great pork dumpling recipe online. I added it to the bottom of this page.

 

Ingredients:

Broth

  • 2-4 lemongrass stalks (ends and thick exterior layer discarded) – cut into 1.5” pieces and crushed with the side of the knife
  • 1 jalapeño – rinsed and sliced thick
  • 2 celery stalks – rinsed and sliced into approx 1.5” wide pieces
  • 1.5 tbsp fresh ginger – grated (I use the small side of a cheese grater)
  • 2 tsp coriander seed – fry it on medium heat for 2 min stirring constantly then crush it with a pestle and mortar

 

My son loves to help me cook 🙂

Soup

  • 3 baby bok Choi – base discarded, rinsed and cut to approx 1” wide pieces
  • 6 cremini mushrooms – rinsed and sliced
  • About a dozen grape or cherry tomatoes – rinsed

Garnish

  • Vermicelli noodles
  • 2 – 3 tbsp of cilantro – rinsed and finely chopped
  • 1-2 limes – rinsed and cut into wedges
  • 2-3 green onions – rinsed and finely chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Notes about ingredients:

  • I only had 2 lemongrass stalks this time and it was okay but I usually use 4.
  • You can use Thai chili peppers instead of jalapeños but Thai chilies are much more spicy. I usually use them or additional jalapeños but I enjoy spicy food. I didn’t find one jalapeño spicy at all but if you don’t want to chance it, just remove the seeds and veins.
  • If you don’t have a pestle and mortar, you can use a spice grinder or meat tenderizer.
  •  I always use Enoki mushrooms in this soup. I love the flavour and texture of them. I pulled them out of the fridge yesterday and they were covered in fuzz/mold 🙁 My husband said it looked like a science experiment. Luckily I had cremini mushrooms which also work well.
  • You can add other vegetables. In the past, I’ve added broccolini, bean sprouts, spinach… which are all delicious.

Directions:

  1. Boil 14 cups of salted water in a large pot (water should only fill about half the pot)
  2. Add prepared broth ingredients, turn down to medium heat and cook for 30 min.
  3. Turn heat off and let sit for 30-90 min. While it’s sitting, you can prepare the other ingredients and make the dumplings.
  4. Strain broth with fine strainer. Keep the liquid, discard the solids.
  5. Heat broth on high until boiling, turn heat down to medium and add prepared soup ingredients. Cook for 20 min.
  6. Line bottom of bowls with hard vermicelli noodles, pour hot soup over noodles, top with cilantro, green onions, lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Add dumplings on top.

This is the recipe I used for the pork dumplings: https://midwestfoodieblog.com/pan-fried-pork-dumplings/. They’re so good!

 

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