Cooking Light: Coconut-Curry Chicken Soup & Acceptance

Someone might have asked me yesterday "so... are you cooking this week?" and the answer is "yes, BUT..." Today, for instance, I made oatmeal, then a bowl of cereal. For lunch I picked up some chicken salad from Brown Bag Deli to eat with Sliced Apples. I also picked up a couple of chocolate chip cookies.... Later I made a pot of Annie's Organic Mac & Cheese for myself Landon and cooked a filet of salmon for her to eat tomorrow and Friday. Then I stopped cooking. Dinner... the meal that "morning" sickness is made of. Lucky for me, S got home and made chicken thighs with sauteed kale. I'm about to probably eat some over an hour later. Feeling sick during dinner cooking time is really putting a damper on the healthy cooking portion of this blog. Then when I do attempt to cook, I'm not doing the best documenting job. Here is a great example... while making one of my all time favorite cooking light recipes (and definitely the one that I have made the most) I look back to find.... 3 pictures of the entire cooking session. This post is about accepting the things I cannot change. I've just got to use what I have at the moment. Please enjoy.

Stock photo from recipes.com

I first spotted this recipe in 2008 and was a little hesitant. The ingredient list was long, which for me can equal dollar signs. At certain times in the month this is not a good thing. Since then I have built up a killer spice collection so it's a cinch to throw this one together. 

Coconut-Curry Chicken Soup

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups water
3 cups fresh spinach leaves
1/2 pound snow peas, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
1 (5 3/4-ounce) package pad thai noodles (wide rice stick noodles)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 teaspoons red curry paste
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1 pound) $
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 small hot red chiles, seeded and chopped, or 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
7 lime wedges 

PREPARATION:
1. Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add spinach and peas to pan; cook for 30 seconds. Remove vegetables from pan with a slotted spoon; place in a large bowl. Add noodles to pan; cook 3 minutes. Drain; add noodles to spinach mixture in bowl.

2. Heat canola oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and the next 5 ingredients (through garlic) to pan; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add chicken broth to pan, and bring to a boil. Add coconut milk to pan; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add chicken, onions, sugar, and fish sauce to pan; cook for 2 minutes. Pour chicken mixture over noodle mixture in bowl. Stir in cilantro and chiles. Serve with lime wedges.

Recipe by: Tina Washburn, San Diego, California, Cooking Light
DECEMBER 2008

Side note: not all of these ingredients are available at your neighborhood store. HEB is pretty reliable with most of them (if you are in TX) and if you have a Central Market, I would head there instead. Whole foods will definitely have everything on hand for maybe a little more $$. I can't compare Trader Joe's since I think ours is a mini version. 

In the picture below I have completed step 1 and you can see the snow pea, spinach, and noodle mixture in the bowl on the left. I had just added the coconut milk and was doing the 5 minute simmer. 

This cook top is the bane of my cooking life.

 Here is where I veer off of the recipe path... usually (as in the photo above) I am cooking the second half in a larger pot. At some point instead of pouring the larger pot over the spinach, snow peas and noodles, I put the noodle mix back into the larger pot with step two ingredients in it and then complete with the cilantro and chiles. This is what my finished product looks like:

Oh, and hey S's legs in the background.... I'm really losing my edge here... acceptance.

 And finally, presented to you atop L's placemat and a 99cent special plastic target cutting board... the final portion to be served with lime wedges.

I really never dreamed I would be a person who cooks Thai at home. Whatever that means. But this soup is just TO DIE FOR. It has so much flavor and is only 315 calories per serving. I'll include the nutritional info a the bottom. Getting the ingredients together and all the steps right the very first time can be a little daunting, but once you get the hang of it this is so easy to make (especially compared to soups and stews that take HOURS) and again, I just want to stress the flavor is OUT OF THIS WORLD. The lime juice also helps this soup transition to warmer temps so you can eat it longer than just a couple months of the year (for anyone else living along the southern Gulf Coast). 

While I am accepting the lackluster performance above, and overjoyed by the circumstances that have caused it, I am striving to get better. I happened to do some amazing documenting of Christmas sweets cooking, but I'm saving that one for another edition of fattening Friday. Until then, let's accept one another and get cooking in the kitchen no matter how you have to do it. Sitting on a stool stirring soup anyone? yes please. 

-RT

Nutritional Info:

Amount per serving

• Calories: 315
• Calories from fat: 22%
• Fat: 7.8g
• Saturated fat: 3.7g
• Monounsaturated fat: 2.2g
• Polyunsaturated fat: 1.3g
• Protein: 29.3g
• Carbohydrate: 30.9g
• Fiber: 2.4g
• Cholesterol: 62mg
• Iron: 3.2mg
• Sodium: 841mg
• Calcium: 78mg 

Can You Boil Water??

Great! Good job. That means you are well armed for winter cooking. A lot of cooking intimidation comes from not knowing how easy it really is to make something delicious and healthy. My favorite things to eat in the wintertime are made in pots on the stove. Basically, you are boiling water and just throwing things in the pot. Today I'm going to talk about HEALTHY comfort food. Food that makes you feel warm and full, but is great for you and the whole family will love it. One of my personal favorites: Chicken, Rice & Vegetable Soup. 

My cooking adventures began with a last minute decision to try out the new Trader Joe's. I have heard ALL about Trader Joe's from my friends on both coasts, but I forgot that the new Houston location had opened until my Aunt was talking about it on Saturday. I will definitely go back, but I feel that it is a store that is best taken advantage of with a game plan. I had no idea what I was walking into. BUT I have good first impressions. They really do have amazing prices, especially on their organic produce and their flash frozen fish. Cons: I like having a butcher and a seafood monger. Call me old fashioned, I like to interact with people at the store. The staff was super friendly, and the people shopping there were as well, despite the fact that it was SO crowded and everyone was kind of stalled by people just coming in to visit and not shop. I digress... 

Step one in my Chicken, Rice and Vegetable Soup starts the night before. I picked up a big, fat organic boiler to... well to boil. Here is some very important advice if you ever cook with a whole chicken or turkey or any sort of fowl... there is usually a package stuffed inside with the neck and  some organs (liver almost always, heart sometimes). Listen up: TAKE THIS OUT BEFORE YOU COOK THE CHICKEN. 

Ma Trader Joe's Chicken.. Great price for an organic chicken that is this big.

Reach up in that chicken and pull out that packet o' neck and such.

 I took my chicken and rinsed it under some water. Chicken skin really weirds me out for some reason. Just wanted to throw that in there. Then put your chicken in a tall pot and cover it with water. 

Chicken funeral

I figure you know what boiling water looks like. I brought the water to boil and then kept it on somewhat of a low rolling boil, mostly covered, for about 45 minutes. Then I turned off the stove, closed the lid on the top and let the pot come to room temp. THEN I put the whole pot in the refrigerator and didn't look at it again until this morning. This is a weird step, but it helps make this soup much more healthy. You could easily buy a package of chicken breasts and some boxed chicken broth and make a really great soup, but nothing tastes like the broth that comes from boiling a whole chicken. You just have to take an extra step. The next day when you remove your pot from the fridge, a nice layer of fat will have floated to the top and solidified. Get out a skimming spoon and remove it. Toss it out. You won't miss it. Get ready.... this is my Oprah Wagon of Fat moment.

Solid Fat

Once you see this, you won't want to eat it. Especially once you see it in person.

So after I skimmed the fat I removed the chicken and put it on a plate (to be molested at a later date.) When you do this your broth drops down to an alarming level, but don't sweat it. You are about to add TONS of things to the pot, and you won't know if you need add water until you are done adding everything back in. I put the pot with the broth on the stove and turned the heat on medium. Then I got to chopping.

About 3 cups of celery and 3 cups of carrots.

Three zucchini

One VERY large yellow onion. If you have small or medium onions use two.

The carrots went in first, then the celery. I added a couple of teaspoons of Better Than Bouillon for some added flavor and then added in the onion (cut into large chunks) and a cup and a half to two cups of brown and wild rice. I had some leftover so I just dumped the rest in.

Great find courtesy of Mama RT.

While all of that was cooking on a nice low boil with the top of the pot partially covered to keep all of that delicious broth from cooking off, I started my least favorite task.... chicken mutilation. Chicken skin is just.... gross. Unless it's fried, then it's completely fine. Even better than fine. But we are being healthy here, so it has to go. I didn't shred the chicken, because I like getting a good bite of chicken in my soup. I just took it all off of the bone and made sure it was in manageable pieces. I got elbow deep in chicken goo, but I made it through. 

Some chicken goo got on my iphone lens so we've got fuzzy chicken pieces.

Veggies and rice living a happy life.

 I had the veggies and rice on the same low boil for about 30 - 40 minutes and then added the chicken back in and let it boil 10 more minutes. Then I took out a scoop and made sure the veggies were tender and the rice was cooked (they were and it was) then covered the pot and turned the heat off. I don't salt my chicken soup while it cooks just because sometimes I don't want the extra salt and I don't miss it. With something like this people can always salt their bowls to their taste. Easy.  

It was a big hit with Landon, who loved the carrots most of all, but ate all of the veggies and the rice. Right now she is only eating chicken when it's part of Brown Bag Deli chicken salad. I take what I can get. Here is a finished bowl... the one I had for dinner tonight:

MmmmmMMMmmmMMmmmm

Here is the great part: it's filling, it's warm, it tastes amazing and it's just chicken, fresh veggies, brown and wild rice, and a couple of scoops of bouillon. You can add whatever veggies you want. Sometimes I love to take out the zucchini and throw in some broccoli for a little crunch. It's also very easy. If you boil the chicken the night before (so you can scoop off the yucky wagon of fat) all you do the day of is chop, add, molest a chicken, and heat for 45 ish minutes. Really you are just boiling water and taking things in and out. YOU can do this. I know you. It is so possible. 

-RT