Vegetable Thai Broth with Crispy Noodles

What better dish to blow away the January cobwebs than this Vegetable Thai Broth with Crispy Noodles from Lesley Waters. It is packed with fresh flavours including banana shallot, lemon grass, garlic, ginger, coriander chilli, coconut milk, lime and lots more!

Ingredients

For the Thai Paste

1 large banana shallot, peeled and chopped roughly
1 stick lemon grass, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
5cm ginger, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons rape seed oil
1 bunch coriander with stalks
1 fresh mild red chilli, deseeded
! green mild chilli as above
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 x 400ml can coconut milk
300ml vegetable stock
450g tenderstem broccoli trimmed
140g fine rice noodles
55g spinach, roughly shredded
100g cashew nuts, toasted
salt & freshly ground black pepper
oil for deep frying
1 lime
Extra coriander

Method

Print Recipe

Place all the paste ingredients in a medium sized food processor and whizz together (adding a splash of the coconut milk if necessary to help process). Transfer the paste to a wok or sauté style pan and fry for 1 minute.

Add the coconut milk and stock and bring to the boil. Add the tenderstem to the broth and simmer for approx 5 minutes until just cooked.

Deep fry the noodles, in a few batches, in hot oil until crisp.

Add the spinach to the broth and simmer for 30 seconds. Stir in the warm cashew nuts.

Season to taste.

To serve, ladle the broth into bowls. Top with the crispy warm noodles, finish with lime wedges and coriander.

Serve at once.