Tom Kha or Tom Yum with Spiced Coconut Dumplings

I love Thai food. The flavours are always so fresh and vegetables are often the star. Tom Yum is one of the cooked dishes I will eat if I am going out to dinner with friends and there are no raw options. It’s still all vegetables in a light spicy broth. But making a raw version of Tom Yum or Tom Kha is so easy to do at home. The main difference between the two is just the coconut which is used in Tom Kha. So if you are looking for a fat-free version just leave it out and perhaps add extra tomato for a Tom Yum version.

 

Tom Kha

Ingredients

 

Stock

1 Stalk of Lemongrass

1 Lime Leaf

1cm Piece of Ginger

1cm Piece of Galangal

2 Stalks of Celery

1 Cup Dried Coconut

2 Cups of Spring Water

1 Tomato

2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1 Tbsp Miso Paste

1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper

 

Fillings

Choose from a variety of fresh raw shredded or spiralised vegetables like cucumber or zucchini noodles, carrot, mung bean sprouts, snow pea greens, cabbage, tomatoes, turnips or anything else that you have. In the picture above I used snow pea greens and cucumber sliced into wide noodles with a vegetable peeler and a few slivers of avocado.

 

Preparation

Place the lemongrass, lime leaf, ginger, galangal, celery, coconut and water into a blender and process until well mixed. Strain through a nutmilk bag or a fine sieve. 

Pour the liquid back into the blender and add the remaining ingredients. Blend well.

You may like to gently warm the stock to a low temperature before pouring over the vegetables, but it does just fine as a cold soup as well.

Place your vegetables of choice into a bowl and pour the stock over the top.

 

Dumplings

As a way of using up the pulp left over from creating the stock, I tried making these little dumplings. Simply form hand rolled balls from the pulp. They will crumble if you sit them in the soup for too long, but you could place them on top of the vegetable of your tom kha or eat them right away. They would probably do well in the dehydrator also.

Tomato Basil Soup

This is something like an Energy Soup. Or you might call it a savoury green smoothie. I just call it it delicious and eat it all the time.  Don’t worry too much about the amounts, I never measure, I just chop it up and blend. The capsicum and basil really make it, so make sure you don’t skip those. Serve with some herby flax crackers for extra crunch.

Ingredients

1 Cup Cubed Cucumber

1/2 Zucchini

1/2 Red, Orange or Yellow Capsicum

1/2 Avocado

2 Tomatoes

1 Cup Tightly Packed Spinach

1/2 Cup Fresh Basil

2 Tsp Unpasteurised Miso

1 Tsp Tamari

Juice of 1 Lemon

1-2 Cups Water

Himalayan or Celtic Sea Salt and Freshly Cracked Pepper to Taste

Method

Place everything in the blender starting with the cucumber and peppers and blend until smooth.

Serve cold with extra chunks of tomato, cucumber and avocado.

Green Curry Soup

A lot of raw vegans find it difficult to keep warm in the colder months. This soup uses a lot of warming spices to heat you up from the depths of your belly. I made it in the middle of a hailstorm, parked myself by the heater and got toastie.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups filtered or spring water

1 cup tightly packed chopped spinach

1 cup chopped broccoli stalks

1/2 cup chopped leeks

1 avocado

1 carrot

4 – 6 soaked sundried tomatoes

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp miso paste

1 tsp himalayan or celtic sea salt

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp cumin

2 tsp tumeric

1 tbsp tamari or nama shoyu

1/2 – 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Method

Blend the water, spinach, broccoli and leeks in a blender until smooth.

Add the remaining ingredients and blend again until smooth. You can adjust the spices to taste.

This can be served chilled in the summer or in winter it’s nice to warm it up a little. You can warm it either in the dehydrator for about an hour, or it can be warmed on the stove. If you are warming it on the stove, to preserve the enzymes, keep it on the lowest heat, stir constantly and make sure it doesn’t go over body temperature by dipping your finger in. It should be just warm, not steaming hot.

Sprinkle with cayenne pepper, flaxseed oil and top with some crunchy kale chips.