Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

With the recent ice and snow hitting the DC area, I decided it was time to start making some warm, hearty soups for dinner. Something about snow and wind makes me crave hot soup and bread, so I turned to Cooking Light (Dec 2008) and found a delicious recipe for Coconut Curry soup. It's definitely filling, with the chicken, spinach and pasta.

This definitely has a long list of ingredients, but it makes about 8 servings, so it'll last a while.

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• 3 cups fresh spinach leaves
• 1/2 pound snow peas, trimmed and cut in half
• 1 5.75oz package pad thai noodles
• 1 T canola oil
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
• 2 tsp red curry paste
• 1 1/2 curry powder
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 cups fat-free, low sodium chicken broth
• 1 13.5 oz can coconut milk
• 2.5 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 2 T sugar
• 2 T fish sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 4 small hot red chiles, seeded and chopped
• 7 lime wedges

Directions

1. Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add spinach and peas to pan, cook for 30 seconds. Remove vegetables and place in a large bowl. Add noodles to pan; cook 3 minutes. Drain; add noodles to spinach mixture in bowl.
2. Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and next 5 ingredients (through garlic) to pan; saute 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add chicken broth to pan, and bring to a boil. Add coconut milk to pan; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add chicken, onions, sugar, and fish sauce to pan; cook for 2 minutes. Pour chicken mixture over noodle mixture in bowl. Stir in cilantro and chiles. Serve with lime wedges.