Tom Yum Noodle Soup

I love tom yum and not just the soup kind. I would willingly order tom yum fried rice (if I saw it on the menu) or a  pipping hot bowl of tom yum noodle soup filled with thin vermicelli, fat prawns and rubbery squid!!

So when a dear colleague went to Bangkok recently, I asked her to get me two packets of tom yum paste of any brand. Am very aware that you can get these here as well, however I just wanted to be all Bangkok about it. So she bought me the paste (brand: Lobo) and I put it to the test.

You will need 2 of these. Brand: Lobo

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Two 30g tom yum paste packs

1 lemongrass - sliced at the white portion

Couple of chilli padi or bird's eye chillies

About 10 kafir lime leaves - I plucked out the stem and snip the leaf in half

Grey mushrooms - bought these all sliced already from the supermarket

Fresh prawns

100g of meehoon/vermicelli - soaked in water for a couple of minutes and drained

1) Bruise the chilli padi 2) Remove the lime leaf stem and snip in two 3) Use only white portion of lemongrass - sliced

What to do:

1) Bring 1 litre of water to a boil. Cover the pot to ensure faster boiling time.

2) Add contents of tom yum paste and stir. Add in prawns and continue to boil for a few minutes.

3) Add in lemongrass, chilli padi, lime leaves and mushroom. Stir. Add in meehoon.

4) Serve hot.

Tip:

Submerge the unopened packet of tom yum paste (as pictured above) in hot water for 1 minute. This allows the paste to soften.

If you don't wish to add the noodles, then don't. You may also look to this video for a visual on how to prepare tom yum soup using this paste. It really helped!

Verdict:

My husband and I loved it. You can of course add squid or any other ingredients you fancy. Adding the noodles in I think gave it a nice touch. Would definitely recommend this brand. Try and buy peeled prawns - saves you a tonne of time!!!

I have no shame when it comes to using ready-made paste once in a while. I also used one to make this spicy fried vermicelli - da bomb!