Last year I discovered khanom jeen nam ya, a wonderful red curry with fish which is served atop thin rice noodles and accompanied by lemon basil and other vegetables. Since making this discovery, I’ve found that I’m constantly on the lookout for lemon basil, just so I can make this dish… Yes, it’s that good!
I’ve scoured local groceries, driven across the Bay to Thai specialty stores, and even planted my own (which is thriving, but unfortunately not big enough to pick yet!) This past weekend, however, I was lucky enough to find several bunches of lemon basil right down the street at my local farmer’s market. And you have no idea how happy I was to see them!
The boyfriend and I enjoyed batch after batch of khanom jeen nam ya earlier this week. But after making as much of this curry as we could eat and still having some lemon basil in sight, I decided to try something new.
I had heard that lemon basil is used in a lot of different Thai soups. It seems like the most common (or perhaps the most accessible to Americans) is gang liang, a spicy vegetable soup with shrimp and lemon basil. There are quite a few different recipes out there, so I ended up combining a few that looked the best to me, and came up with one seriously good soup!
This version is nice and spicy – it’s definitely one of those soups that will clear your sinuses. But it’s also light and fresh and something you can feel good about eating. There is an undertone of shrimp that brings unctuousness to the soup as well as some slight sweetness from the kabocha squash. And then, of course, there’s the lemony brightness that comes from the lemon basil.
I’m not sure that gang liang will replace my favorite khanom jeen nam ya, but I do know that whenever I’m fortunate enough to find lemon basil again, I’ll definitely be picking up an extra bunch with this soup in mind!
Recipe
Spicy Vegetable Soup | Gang Liang | แกงเลียง
Ingredients
Paste Ingredients:
- 5 cloves garlic
- 5 shallots
- 2 red Thai chili peppers
- 1 Tablespoon krachai AKA finger root or Chinese keys
- 1 teaspoon white peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon shrimp paste
- 1 teaspoon dried shrimp
- 3 cooked shrimp
Soup Ingredients:
- 6 cups water
- 8-10 freshwater shrimp
- ½ cup kabocha squash
- ½ cup chayote
- ½ cup loofah
- ½ cup baby corn
- ½ cup mushrooms
- 1-2 Tablespoons fish sauce
- ½ cup lemon basil
Instructions
- Place your dried shrimp in a small food processor and blend until they are broken down into a fine powder.
- Make your paste by using a mortar and pestle to pound everything together. I generally start with the white peppercorns, garlic, shallots, and Thai chilis. Once this has formed a paste, I add the dried shrimp powder, krachai, gapi, and cooked shrimp.
- Bring a pot of water to a slow boil. Add the paste you just made and allow it to cook for a few minutes.
- Next add your vegetables to the soup, starting with the ones that require the longest cooking time. Once they are almost done, add the fresh shrimp and cook until they are done.
- Add fish sauce to taste.
- Take the soup off the heat. Add the lemon basil leaves and serve with fresh jasmine rice.
wilai
This is my favorite ,I haven't had for years. It;s hard to find lemon basil(ใบแมงลัก) here in the US.
Rachel
It really is! I decided to grow my own from seeds (www.seedsofchange.com) and they're doing remarkably well... but I'm thinking I need to plant a few more pots before I can cook with them!