Light Coconut Broth with Pak Choi and Basil

Serves 8

I absolutely love this kind of recipe; you throw a few things in a pot, boil for a few minutes and end up with the most delicious result. I also adore these South-east Asian flavours.

Ingredients

• 2.4 litres (4 pints) vegetable (or light chicken) stock
• 2 x 410g tins coconut milk
• 2 red chillies, deseeded and finely sliced into rings
• 4 spring onions, trimmed and sliced thinly at an angle
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 2 heaped tsp grated ginger
• 4 heads pak choi, stalk and leaves shredded
• 6 tbsp Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 4 tbsp sliced basil

Method

1. Place the stock, coconut milk, chilli, spring onions, garlic and ginger in a saucepan and bring up to the boil. Add the pak choi and continue cooking for 1–2 minutes or until the pak choi is just cooked. Add the fish sauce, lime juice and basil. You probably won’t need any additional salt since the fish sauce is already quite salty. Serve in warm bowls.

Variation

• Light Coconut broth with Pak Choi and Prawns
• Add 32 peeled tiger or other large prawns into the broth with the shredded pak choi and cook as above. The prawns will cook in the same time as the pak choi.