It’s January and it’s bitterly cold, let’s make something aromatic and comforting. Soup is often the answer, a warming bowl of Thai inspired Crab Noodle Soup to be precise. Packed with fragrant spices, wholegrain noodles and store cupboard vegetables. It is very nourishing, very vibrant and very healthy. This easy seafood broth is what you want to be making for dinner tonight.
Almost all Thai dishes seek a balance between the four flavours: sweet, sour, spicy and salty. The sweetness traditionally derives from palm sugar, (I have replaced this with honey). Additionally the sourness is introduced by lime juice. These four flavour elements and the balance of them are key to this tempting soup.
I cannot say this is truly authentic, I have made substitutions with a few of the hard to get hold of ingredients. The vegetables are inexpensive staples and can easily be replaced with whatever you have in your fridge or freezer. It takes a little while to make the curry paste however there will be enough for several meals: store in the fridge for up to a week or portion and freeze. Please note, keep the noodles separate from the soup until you are ready to serve. If you put them in the soup before serving, they will continue to cook and become too soft and absorb the liquid.
I used gifted delicious, succulent, sustainably caught British crab to make this soup. Dressed crab is an excellent option too. Alternatively, many supermarkets sell lovely pasteurised British crab in tubs.
While the curry paste provides depth and warmth, the fresh herbs add an extra layer of flavour. Oh and go in strong with the lime, it adds a lovely freshness to the soup.
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?
I would love to know how it turned out. Please let me know by commenting below. Or you could snap a photo and share and tag it on Instagram @nordickitchenstories.
Thai Crab Noodle Soup
Ingredients
Thai Red Curry Paste
- 2 tsp each cumin & coriander seeds
- 2 red bird’s eye chillies or 1 hot chillies roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp tomato puree
- 2 lemongrass stalks outer layer removed, sliced
- 4 cm piece fresh galangal or ginger peeled & chopped
- 4 fresh kaffir lime roughly chopped
- 2 shallots peeled & chopped
- 3 garlic cloves peeled & chopped
- 3 Tbls chopped coriander stalks
- 2-3 tbsp fish sauce Nam Pla
- 1 tbls sunflower oil
Crab Noodle Soup
- 1 large dressed crab or 4 Tbls white crab meat & 2-3 Tbls brown crab meat or 2 tubs 50/50 crabmeat
- 400 ml full-fat coconut milk I like Chaokoh
- 750 ml fish or vegetable stock
- 2 Tbls sunflower oil
- 3-4 tbls fish sauce na’am pla
- 2½ Tbls honey or brown sugar
- 220 g Wholegrain wheat (3-4 nests) or rice noodles
- 1 large carrot peeled & cut into julienne
- 1 courgette cut into julienne
- 120 g frozen peas
- 2 limes
- 1 red chilli sliced
- handful coriander
- handful mint
- 3 spring onions sliced
Instructions
- Begin with the curry paste. Place the cumin and coriander seeds in a small dry pan. Heat to medium and bake the seeds until they become fragrant. Set aside to cool at little. Now place them in a nutribullet, spice grinder or a good old fashioned pestle and mortar. Grind to a powder. Now place all the other ingredients in a small blender with the ground spices. Blitz until you have a smooth paste. You should have enough paste for several soups. Store in a jam jar in the fridge for a week or freeze in portions.
- Now for the soup. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, drain and run under cold water. Place in a bowl and set aside.
- Heat a medium saucepan to medium-high with the sunflower oil. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the paste. Let it cook for a several minutes. Now add the coconut milk and the fish or vegetable stock, stir until smooth. Now ‘season’ the soup with the fish sauce and honey. Leave it to simmer for a minute or 2. Now add the white crabmeat (reserve a little to sprinkle on the top of the soup when serving) and the brown meat, carrot and courgette julienne and finely the peas. Simmer for a minute or 2. Check the seasoning. Don’t simmer for more than this, you want the vegetables to have some bite. Add more fish sauce and honey if needed.
- Boil the kettle and pour over the reserved noodles to heat through. Place a portion in each bowl. Ladle the soup into each bowl. Serve topped with the herbs, spring onions, chilli, reserved crabmeat and add a good squeeze of lime juice to balance all the flavours. Eat immediately.
Its excellent and i would definitely try that