Coconut-Curry Chicken Soup

As promised, here is the delicious Thai soup recipe!

Coconut-Curry Chicken Soup (adapted from Cooking Light)
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Ingredients:

• 4  cups  water
• 3  cups  fresh spinach leaves
• 1/2  pound  snow peas, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
• 1 bag of sliced mushrooms
• 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 (next time, I'll add more, probably half another can)
• 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
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 7  lime wedges

Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add spinach, mushrooms 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.

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.

Side note: it helps in a recipe like this to have everything mise en place or 'in it's place' and ready to go

Add coconut milk to pan; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

Add chicken, onions, sugar, and fish sauce to pan; cook for 2 minutes.

Stir in snow peas, spinach, mushrooms and noodles. Add cilantro and red pepper flakes. Serve with lime wedges.

A few notes:

*While this has a long ingredient list, it's not that bad if you make Thai food regularly. There were 5 or 6 basics I had to buy in order to make it, but now that I have them I'll be more inclined to make other Thai recipes I've bookmarked!

*I am a huge coconut milk fan, so I think I'll do more next time just to give it a little bit more of a creamy texture

*The fresh limes are critical. I LOVE the flavor it added!

*You could totally use frozen, thawed spinach to make it easier.

*Makes good leftovers!