Ingredients:
1L (4 cups/34 fl oz) good chicken stock
8 prawns peeled and deveined, leave tail intact
3 turmeric tubers peeled and chopped finely (wear gloves or expect yellow fingers)
3 stalks lemongrass sliced thinly
10 lime leaves pulled off stem
15 birdseye chillies chopped roughly
15 slices galangal
8 button mushrooms washed and halved
4 tbs lime juice
4 tbs fish sauce
coriander for garnish

Tom Yum Goong is probably the most well known Thai soup in the world. It is known for it’s sour taste and the level of spice, thus the term hot ‘n’ sour is usually applied.

Tom Yum is a combination of 2 Thai words; Tom means to boil whilst Yum (aka Yam) refers to a spicy and sour Thai salad.

The soup can best be characterised by its distinct herbaceousness, with the generous addition of things like lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal. In this version, fresh turmeric is added to give the soup a distinctive ‘southern‘ feel.

Method:

Bring the chicken stock to the boil in a large saucepan then add lemongrass, lime leaves, chilli, galangal and turmeric and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the fish sauce and prawns and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

Now add the button mushrooms and simmer for a further 2 minutes.

Turn off the heat and add the lime juice. Now taste and adjust the seasoning with lime juice and/or fish sauce.

Ladle into bowls and top with fresh coriander

Serves 2