When I was first getting into cooking my all time favurite soup was this incredibly rich number made with sweet potato, coconut cream, sour cream, Thai red curry paste AND peanut butter. As you can imagine it was super addictive.
I was day-dreaming about that soup a few months ago and then the image of mushrooms crossed my mind. Of course! A low carb version!
I couldn’t wait to get myself some mushrooms and try it.
And here it is. Just as addictive as the original (if not more so). And way more nutritious. You’re welcome 🙂
I use home made macadamia or almond butter for this but it’s also fabulous with good old peanut butter.
Addictive Thai Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
- 750 g mushrooms
- 1 can coconut milk (400mL / 14oz)
- 4 scant tablespoons Thai red curry paste
- 1.5 cups water
- 500 g ground (minced) pork
- 100 g nut butter (approx 4 tablespoons)
- 1 bag baby spinach
Instructions
- Slice the mushrooms lengthwise into 3 or 4 slices. I leave the stems on.
- Heat a medium saucepan on a medium high heat. Scoop a few tablespoons of coconut cream from the top of the coconut milk can and add to the pan. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring every now and then for 7 or 8 minutes or until the mushrooms have shrunken down and softened. If they brown a little great, but no worries if they don't.
- Add the curry paste, the rest of the can of coconut milk, 1.5 cups water (or just fill up the can to measure it out) and pork. Simmer rapidly for 5 minutes or until the pork is cooked through.
- Add the baby spinach and remove from the heat. Stir in the nut butter. Taste and season with salt or more curry paste as needed.
Nutrition
Variations & Substitutions
pantry-friendly – use frozen spinach
short on time – just put everything (apart from nut butter and spinach) in the pot to boil until cooked.
vegetarian – skip the pork and water and serve 2 with the soup.
no coconut milk – use other dairy-free milk or replace with 1 cup whipping cream.
no Thai curry paste – make your own with this recipe OR replace with 2-3 teaspoons curry powder.
more substantial (carb lovers) – add rice noodles or other cooked noodles at the end.
more substantial (low carb) – zucchini noodles! Or roast cashews.
Low FODMAP – halve the coconut milk and use canned champignons instead of fresh mushrooms.
family-friendly – I actually make this without the curry paste. Serve out for the boys and then add the curry paste for my Irishman and me. The flavour isn’t quite a good this way but everyone is happy.
different vegetables – sweet potato (if you don’t mind the carbs), zucchini (courgettes), broccoli (also excellent with green curry paste), kale, spinach, cauliflower, red capsicum (bell peppers), cabbage.
different protein – any minced (ground) meat will work. Or use fish fillets or chicken thigh or breast fillets chopped into bite sized pieces.
more fancy / for entertaining – serve with basil leaves or finely sliced makurt lime leaves.
smooth soup – feel free to puree the soup with a stick blender.
Waste Avoidance Strategy
mushrooms – keep in the fridge in a brown paper bag. Once cooked will keep for weeks. And can be frozen raw or cooked.
coconut milk / Thai red curry paste / nut butter – keep them in the pantry.
ground (minced) pork – freeze them.
baby spinach – either freeze or wilt down in a pan with a little oil and then keep in the fridge for weeks.
Problem Solving Guide
bland –Â more salt! If it tastes a little flat after you’ve added the salt a squeeze of lime will help.
too watery –Â Â keep simmering to reduce the soup a little (or add some almond meal or bread crumbs to thicken things up).
too hot – next time use less curry powder (or a different brand). For now diluting with extra coconut milk (coconut cream) will help.
Prepare Ahead
Yes! Just cook as per the recipe. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or can be frozen. To serve, bring back to a simmer.
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
Its really fun, to play with Your variations/substitutions – I learn a lot this way – thank you, Jules!
4 people
1000 g mushrooms
1 can coconut milk (400mL / 14oz)
2 scant tablespoons Thai red curry paste
2 cups water
2 cans lentils with 2 tablespoons soy sauce
no nut butter (they said, it was better without)
200g /2 Bags of field salat (big surprise – green leaves let it look complete different)
Nice one Michael!
Yay for the greens 🙂
I’m torn about making this: neither my husband nor I care much for mushrooms, but this soup still sounds wonderful to me. Given that the last time I tried a mushroom recipe it totally bombed, I probably won’t make this, but it still sounds excellent.
No Susan! Don’t do the mushrooms. I originally made it with sweet potato. But a roast cauliflower version has been on my list to do for a while – thanks for reminding me!
Okay. I’ll wait for the cauliflower version. Cauliflower makes excellent soup, as in the Turkish cauliflower soup with yogurt.
You don’t have to wait if you don’t want to – just sub in the same weight of cauli as the mushrooms. No need to cook the cauli first – it can just simmer in the sauce.
And I’m going to try a cabbage version next week 🙂 Again just simmering sliced cabbage in the soup so it ends of like thick noodles.
I tried a cabbage version of this for lunch yesterday, and it came out quite nice (I forgot all about the cauliflower version). I was surprised that my husband quite liked it. Don’t know that i would make this often, but it’s definitely a keeper recipe. And I still wish we liked mushrooms, because something tells me that they make the best version.
Can imagine the cabbage would have cooked into lovely noodles Susan.
Another winner! I made tonight without meat (as I didn’t have any) and added zucchini noodles and some fresh coriander as I didn’t have any spinach. I also added a splash of fish sauce instead of salt or lime. So delicious!
I also used your quick red curry paste which was also great.
AWESOME Kate! So glad you enjoyed.
Just made this Jules, as my “go-to” for the week so have only test tasted – yummy! Don’t eat mushrooms but really enjoy sweet potato, so used them & after doing preliminaries on stove top finished it off in slow cooker.
oh yay Carolyn! Glad you enjoyed
This is addicting-and beautiful! I will be making this again and will be eating mine over shredded cabbage. My guys added rice. I used panang curry, peanut butter, and a small amount of sweetener. Boiling the ground meat in the curry mixture provided great texture.
ooh yum to the cabbage option Melodee!
I made this for dinner tonight, and unfortunately it is one recipe I won’t be making again. It tasted okay and was easy enough to make, but neither one of us particularly enjoyed it. I added extra spinach so it would be 4 servings with plenty of veggies, which means we’ll have another meal of it. The quantity of food is the right amount for 4 servings for us.
I;m sorry you didn’t enjoy this Susan – I wonder if your curry paste was lacking in flavour? There can be a lot of variation between brands.
Jules, my curry paste is the same one I always use – the brand is Thai Kitchen, and I think it tasted just fine. I think the issue was probably more that neither of us is a big mushroom eater. Although I will be trying your stroganoff with all the mushrooms during my May cooking time (I’ve already got it on my meal plan).
Yes if you aren’t really into mushrooms I can see it wouldn’t be so appealing. Hope you have a better experience with the stroganoff 🙂
oh this IS addicting!! I used half ground chicken and half ground turkey and a sliced hot pepper. The nut butter gave it a richness.
Glad it lived up to its name Joan 🙂
I left out the pork as I’d been eating a lot of meat recently, and the extra water so that I could have it as a curry with rice, added a capsicum to the mushrooms for extra veg, and used curry powder because I’ve only just recently bought a fresh lot from one of the local Asian grocers. I used crunchy peanut butter and the little bits of peanut were a nice contrast in texture. Good.
Yum Mark! A mushroom curry sounds really good right now.
Although you say that browning the mushrooms isn’t necessary, I didn’t, have just now had some leftovers, and they were still the least tasty part of the dish.
I’ve been working on a mushroom loaf recipe (like meatloaf but with mushrooms) – and it’s definitely more delicious when the mushrooms are browned Mark!
I am enjoying the curries. I don’t normally make them because my husband doesn’t like anything about them. I think he will need to fend for himself a little more often! I loved this!
Fantastic Jessica! It’s good to let husbands fend for themselves more often 🙂