Difficulty Level Easy

I'm spending a few glorious days at the cottage with my husband and son and two of his friends. Just as it has been in the city, the weather has been all over the place; hot, chilly, damp, and then some thunderstorms, so the menu choice was not so easy. They are adventurous eaters all, so I was looking for something a bit different from the usual fare. On the stormy afternoon, I decided on a Thai-style soup that would suit the day. This is really a broth kind of soup, so I served it in mugs during the spectacular lightning and thunder show we had, rather than a cup of tea.

I've made many recipes with cilantro as last minute ingredient, or as a garnish, but you seldom see a recipe where it is front and centre. Two of the weekend group are vegetarian, so the chicken stock called for in the recipe was out of the question and I hadn't prepared any vegetable stock, so I made the soup with water. I didn't get the depth of flavour that I would otherwise have had, but it still was a really tasty soup. My son, who is a fiend for hot chilies, raised his eyebrows when I asked him to seed and chop four very hot bird's eye chilies to add to the pot. He thought it would be much too hot for everyone else, but the soup just had a nice tingle to it.

This recipe was really easy to make and the smell of garlic, ginger and chili floated through the cottage whetting everyone's appetite all the more. It seems to me that you could add some noodles to this if you wanted to, or use it as a base for a larger vegetable soup.

INGREDIENTS