I miss rice.
When I was little, my mom told me that maybe I should have been Asian, because I loved rice so much. Didn’t matter what kind – white, brown, sticky, I ate them all. A little sauce and a big pile of rice – yum! Or maybe a piece of warm bread. Yeah, I love bread. The best smell in the world is baking bread, right? Second only to the smell of fresh out-of-the-oven warm melty chocolate chip cookies. Or brownies. Or cake!
Ok, maybe this keto thing is getting to me.
Just kidding! I’m actually not doing too bad. I’m still not sure that this is a lifestyle change for me, but I’m not feeling much in the way of cravings. With the exception of that one heinous day in the office when I came home and wanted to face-plant into the twin’s birthday cake, I’ve been pretty good. But I do miss the rice-and-sauce combo so commonly found in Asian cooking. I love all those dishes with ginger and soy and lemongrass and the curries. Without a pile of rice or bread, what do you do with the sauce?
You make it into a soup.
One of my favorite Thai soups is the perfect example of all the deliciousness of a sauce that doesn’t require any additions to make it work. Actually, I could (and have) leave out the chicken when I order it at a restaurant. And I haven’t made it myself – until now! The new recipe book I bought (The 30 Day Ketogenic Cleanse by Maria Emmerich) had a recipe for this soup and it is incredible. The only specialty item you need is the red curry paste, but you can often find this in the Asian foods section of the grocery store. So many of my favorite flavors in one pot – curry and lime and cilantro in a creamy coconut milk base. It’s amazing! This is one of the few recipes that I haven’t made any tweaks of my own – it’s that good!
Tom Kha Gai (Chicken Coconut Soup)
Ingredients
2 tablespoons MCT oil or EVOO
1 cup thin sliced napa cabbage (you can use other kinds, but the napa is very soft and becomes noodle-like in the soup if you slice it very thin)
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced into strips against the grain (the original recipe calls for 2 inch pieces, but I like strips)
3 shallots, diced
1 1/2 cups chicken bone broth (I made my own from her recipe in this same cookbook and whoa! It was even more rich! Also easy – just put the ingredients in the slow cooker and let it simmer away for a couple of days. Yes, I said days. That’s how you get the goodness out of the bones!)
1 can of full fat coconut milk
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 scallions chopped (chop extra cilantro and scallions for garnish)
Juice of one lime
Saute your cabbage in one tablespoon of the oil in a large heavy bottomed pot over medium heat until wilted. Then remove it and set it aside.
Add the 2nd tablespoon of oil and sear the chicken in the pot. Sprinkle the salt over the chicken while it’s cooking and don’t worry about cooking it all the way through. It will cook through in the soup.
Add the shallots to the pot and cook for 2 minutes or until tender. Turn your heat to low and whisk in the curry paste, coconut milk and broth. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, up to 40 minutes if you want a thicker sauce. I simmered mine almost completely covered, and only for 20 minutes because I wanted more soup than sauce!
Add back the cabbage, scallions, cilantro and lime juice. Stir and remove from the heat immediately.
Serve with more scallions and cilantro and enjoy!