Souper Dooper: Tom yum soup

It's actually a take on Tom yum soup. Without the coconut milk, and with a dash of fridge-bottom ness about it, making it slightly more frugal than either the name or this post would suggest.

I really have no appetite right now, my inclination is oddly, not towards traditional comfort foods, but to the clearing spice and cleanness of thai (or at the very least, thai influences). That said, this was a cobbled together lunch that made use of the last of my veg box, and a jar of tom yum paste left over from the Fusionfood challenges late last year.

1 glug oil
3 tablespoons tom yum paste (I used FusionFoods)
1 clove garlic crushed
3 pieces of galangal (I use Waitrose's dried galangal)
1/2 tsp lazy chilli
250g prawns (it's amazing what you find when you dig through your freezer)
Spring greens, leaves finely shredded
1 stick celery shredded
1 red pepper, chopped into matchsticks
Handful rice noodles
Boiling water

Heat the oil gently in a wok or frying pan and add the paste, cook until you can smell the aromatics
Add the garlic, chilli and galangal and continue to fry gently
Add the prawns and cook through until hot
Meanwhile, pour a kettle full of boiling water over the noodles and the shredded greens, and leave for about 4 minutes
Drain, the greens & noodles and add to the wok/ pan, stirring briefly
Add 150ml(ish) of boiling water into the wok/ pan and stir so that everything is combined
Serve in a bowl, and eat, alone and away from a mirror

The original recipe asked for coconut milk to be added at the end of cooking, and then coriander. I didn't add these as I didn't have them in and I didn't want the cooling sweetness of the coconut milk. That said this was particularly fiery and the sourness really came through, so it could probably do with the balance of the coconut milk. Something about it's clearing heat really appeals to me, with the lightly cooked vegetables and freshness of the broth says healing to me. And after all, that is what I'm after at the moment.

What appeals to me about this is that it could be prettied up into a lovely dinner, or if pushed for time and fresh food (like myself) a quick and easy lunch for one.