Coconut & Lemon Grass Broth with Crispy Tofu

Coconut, Lemon Grass Broth with Crispy Tofu – an immune boosting soup to help keep colds and bugs at bay

My boys had really bad colds last week, high temperature and very little appetite so I needed to create a dish that back a nutritional punch that would blast those bugs out the window.  They absolutely loved this as they could actually taste it and it really helped set them on the road to recovery. 

Serves 4

Broth Ingredients

500ml Vegetable or Chicken broth/stock

1 can of coconut milk

2 lemon grass, smashed

2 inches of fresh ginger sliced

6 Lime leaves

1-2 tbsp Sambal Oelek – a Malaysian and Thai chilli paste for ease I used Waitrose own brand which does have shrimp powder in it but you can make it vegan.  For the recipe please see below.

Soup Ingredients – you can pretty much throw any veggie into this broth but these are what I used 

1 red bell peppers diced

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

10 Cherry tomatoes, halved

1 head of Broccoli, cut into florets

1 bag of Spinach

1 cup Quinoa – cooked as per instructions

XL Firm tofu – cut into cubes, mixed with thai spice, sea salt and cornflour and shallow fried in oil until crispy

Lime

Red Chilli

Method

Cook the quinoa and set aside

Prepare the vegetables and set aside

Prepare the tofu, then pan fry in a 1cm of oil until golden and crispy and set aside

In a large heavy based pan pour the stock, coconut milk and add the lemon grass, ginger and lime leaves bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins. 

Add 1 tbsp of Sambal Oelek and taste, if you like a little more spice then add some more sambal.

When the broth tastes how you like it add the broccoli, pepper and carrots, cook for 3 minutes then add the cherry tomatoes and spinach cook for a further 2 minutes.

While these are cooking get 4 bowls and spoon 1/3 cup of quinoa into each

Ladle the broth into the bowls and top with crispy tofu, slices of red chilli and a good squeeze of lime  

Vegan Sambal Oelek

Ingredients

5 cloves Garlic, peeled

1.5 inch Fresh ginger, sliced

2 Lemongrass stalks, only the white part, sliced

4 tbsp Rice wine vinegar

1-2 tsp sugar

Vegetarian Fish Sauce to taste

Method

Combine the red chillies, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and vinegar in a food processor/nutribullet/vitamix. Blend until you get the consistency you like. I like it slightly chunky, so not too smooth

Transfer the mixture to a small saucepan, add sugar and vegetarian fish sauce and simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the sauce gets too thick, add a little water while its getting cooked.

Taste and adjust for seasonings per your taste. Let the sauce cool completely before transferring into a jar. Store in the refrigerator and keep for up to a week.