Whole30, day 14: Lunch in the sunshine!

Today, I believe, was the first day of spring. We're not quite there yet, but after months of frost, rain, storms and dull grey weather, today was bright and sunny. And I loved it! I wanted to take in as much sun as I could and had my morning coffee outside in the garden. It was a little chilly, I have to admit, and in the shade it was just cold, but I just had to sit outside and enjoy the sunlight. It warmed up a little, and at one o'clock it was warm enough to enjoy lunch outside in a t-shirt. So I did...

If you've read more of my posts, you know that I love all things curried. Today I decided on a very easy curry soup, with some leftover ingredients.

You can make this soup with just about any kind of stock. My favorite is shrimp, but that's not something I have around the house a lot. Another good one is chicken, but ordinary fish stock is fine too. It depends on your preference. Today I was lucky, because a few weeks ago we had lobster for dinner and I put the empty shells in the freezer. Today I took them out and simmered them in water for 45 minutes. Voila: simple lobster stock.

This soup is quite spicy, because of the curry paste I used (Mae Ploy, red paste). You can choose a milder paste, or use less paste. But I think that anything less than half a tablespoon will not give enough flavor. Today, I chose not to put meat or fish in this soup, but you could add some protein if you like. Shrimp, chicken, beef or even boiled egg are a very nice addition. Since I had enough protein for breakfast and knew I would eat lots of protein again for dinner, I skipped it for lunch.

Coconut curry soup (serves 2)

1 cup of good stock (chicken, fish, shrimp, whatever you like)
2 cups of coconut milk
1 tsp salt (optional, if your stock is already salted, you might not want to add more)
3/4 to 1 tbsp curry paste
2 handful of fresh vegetables, bite sized (I had green beans and bean sprouts leftover)
A good squeeze of lime juice
Fresh cilantro (coriander), chopped

Heat the stock with the coconut milk and add the curry paste and salt. Mix well. Add the vegetables (and fish/meat if you want), bring to a boil, lower heat and let it simmer until the vegetables are done. In my case, I added the bean sprouts later, because I like them when they are still crunchy.

Taste the soup, if you think it needs more salt, you can add it. Just before serving, add a splash of lime juice and the cilantro. And that's it. Incredibly easy, but incredibly good. And very Whole30!