Banana Blossom Tom Kha Soup
Sarah Jansala, with the help of her mom, Renoo, opened the first vegetarian Thai restaurant in Portland, Oregon, KaTi Portland. In their cookbook, Vegan Thai Kitchen, the Jansala mother–daughter duo has squeezed all of their generational and industry knowledge into one simple guide to traditional Thai food. This recipe is reprinted with permission from Vegan Thai Kitchen by Sarah Jansala and Renoo Jansala, Page Street Publishing Co. 2019. Photo credit: Toni Zernik
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 3 cups coconut milk
- 2" piece galangal sliced into thin rounds
- 4 stalks lemongrass sliced into 1″ lengths
- 10 grape tomatoes
- 8 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 package Upton's Naturals Banana blossom pieces sliced 1⁄4″ thick
- 10 button mushrooms halved
- 6 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice plus more as needed
- 5 fresh Thai chiles chopped, plus 2 chiles, hand-pounded, for garnish
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- ½ lime cut into wedges
Instructions
- Place the water and coconut milk in a large pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the galangal, lemongrass, grape tomatoes, lime leaves and banana blossom. Boil for about 10 minutes or until the herbs release their flavor and the water turns light green. Add the mushrooms and boil for 3 more minutes.
- Remove from the heat and add the soy sauce, sugar, lime juice and chiles. The flavor should be spicy and sour. If you like it more sour, add lime juice as needed.
- Garnish with the cilantro, lime wedges and pounded chiles.
- Notes: Don’t eat the lemongrass, galangal or lime leaves – they remain in in the soup for herbal flavor.
- This soup tastes best hot because when it is cold, the coconut milk will separate and float up to the top.