Thai Banana Soup with Chili

Ahh, what a day. Actually, a terrible day. I was awfully grumpy, and the kids were grumpy too. They probably decided Mom needed some company in her grumpiness. It's probably because of this not-very-wintry winter. I never thought I'd admit this, but I miss the cold and the snow.

Oh, this is the kind of winter I want

winter

On top of that, today I decided to give pączki (Polish jelly doughnuts) another try, and I can already tell you that you probably won't be seeing pączki here :-( They're just not my thing, and that's that. So I'm leaving them to other bloggers who have wonderful, tried-and-true recipes, and I'll stick with store-bought pączki. I'll only make oponki (little fried dough rings) (HERE and HERE) and donuts, which luckily turn out well for me and taste wonderful.

That's all from me…

Some time ago, when it was pretty cold and unpleasant out, I felt like trying something new. So I reached for one of my favorite Asian cookbooks. I had a huge craving for something Asian, but as it turned out, I didn't have many of the ingredients on hand to make anything specific. I almost always have bananas and chili at home, so what was left for me was a soup from Thai cuisine, which I've just been telling you about. It seemed like a strange dish to me, and I treated making it as an experiment.

chili

What a tasty and successful experiment it was. We (Michał and I) really liked the soup. It has a distinctive but pleasant flavor, and how warming it is… I don't love spicy food, but in this case I handled it all, and happily. It was exactly what I needed at that moment :)

The recipe comes from the book “Asiatisch kochen”, published by Lingen.

banana chili soup

Directions:

Cut the green part off the scallions and slice the white bulbs into rings. Peel the garlic and cut it into thin slices. Peel the bananas and slice them too. Wash the chili, cut it in half, remove the seeds, and cut it into thin strips.

Heat the oil, add the scallions and garlic, and fry them for about a minute, stirring constantly. Pour in the vegetable broth and stir in the coconut milk, soy sauce, sugar, and salt. Season with pepper and cook for 5 minutes.

Add half of the bananas and chili to the soup, bring it to a boil, and blend. Add the remaining bananas and chili and cook for another 3 minutes over low heat. Serve right away.

Additional information:

Personally, I liked it finished with the banana slices. For Michał, my husband, it was too sweet that way, and he preferred the version with all of the banana blended in.

Enjoy!

I'm submitting this recipe to the event organized by Irena and Andrzej – “Z Widelcem po Azji” (“Around Asia with a Fork”).