Red Curry Soup with Chicken and Rice Noodles

The thermostat inside my house currently reads a very chilly 58°. A winter storm knocked out our power last night, and 12 hours later it’s still not back. Sleeping wasn’t so bad; we bundled up with extra blankets and got a little cuddly, but once the sun came up this morning we were at a loss. My daughter and I passed some time with a rousing game of sevens, followed by a few hands of “go fish”. My son had absolutely no idea how to occupy himself without electronics during the two-hour delay before school started, but alas, he survived. Now I’m at a neighbor’s house, enjoying her heat and wi-fi, and acknowledging the fact that we’d make pretty poor pioneers.

Since I’ve spent much of the day bundled in multiple sweaters, images of steaming bowls of soup have all but taken over my mind. In fact, a spicy Asian noodle soup would make an ideal breakfast right about now. The cold weather surely counts as a driving force behind these thoughts, but the upcoming Chinese New Year plays a role as well. I’ve been tossing around ideas for some dishes to cook for my family next week to welcome the year of the dragon. My kids love celebrations and holidays, and even though we’re not Chinese, I know they’ll appreciate partaking in the festivities.

The New Year’s celebration includes many types of traditional foods, including dumplings, whole fish, noodles, steamed cakes, fried sesame balls, and many more. A number of these foods are naturally gluten free, or at least adaptable to gluten-free versions. Take glutinous rice, for instance. The word glutinous (with an “i”) simply means sticky. Sticky rice is gluten free. Many New Year’s dishes are made from glutinous rice, including eight treasure rice, sweet rice dumplings (such as tang yuan), and glutinous rice cakes. And some of the steamed cakes, such as turnip cakes and taro root cakes, are made from a batter consisting merely of rice flour and water. Whole steamed or fried fish can be adapted to a gluten-free version if you keep an eye on the sauces, and rice noodles or cellophane noodles make perfect stand-ins for wheat-based noodles.

So while I’m finalizing my thoughts on next week’s dishes, I leave you with a recipe for Red Curry Soup with Chicken and Rice Noodles from my book, The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen. No, the soup isn’t Chinese (it’s Thai), but it’s creamy, spicy, delicious, and perfect for a stormy day. The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen also has several recipes suitable for a New Year’s celebration, including Porcupine Balls (pork meatballs), Gingery Pork Pot Stickers, Steamed Radish Cake, Sticky Rice Dumplings with Chicken and Mushrooms, Ants Climbing a Tree (stir-fried cellophane noodles with ground pork), Steamed Sea Bass with Sizzling Ginger, and more. Do you have other favorites you’d like to see? Let me know in the comments section. ~LbR

Recipe: Red Curry Soup with Chicken and Rice Noodles

Makes : 4 servings | Soups/Stews Dairy Free , Soups/Stews Print

Ingredients

8 ounces flat rice noodles

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut crosswise into thin slices and then into thin strips

2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 small onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons gluten-free red curry paste, such as Thai Kitchen

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 (14 ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk

2 cups gluten-free chicken broth

Cilantro leaves, for serving

Shredded cabbage, for serving

Lime wedges, for servig

Sriracha or other gluten-free chili-garlic sauce, for serving

Instructions

Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling water until just done, about 5 minutes, or according to package directions. (Remove a noodle with tongs and taste it for doneness.) Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Set the noodles aside until ready to use. In a small bowl, toss the chicken with the fish sauce. Let stand while you prepare the soup.

In a pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic, curry paste, turmeric, and coriander and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute. Add the salt, coconut milk, and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, to infuse the flavors, 10 to 15 minutes.

Add the chicken and fish sauce to the simmering broth. Continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. To serve, divide the noodles among 4 bowls and ladle the soup over the noodles. Top with the cilantro, cabbage, a squeeze of lime juice, and hot sauce to taste.

Variation- Brew up a delicious seafood curry soup: Instead of the chicken, add a pound of medium raw shrimp, bay scallops, crab, or a combination of these (tossed with the fish sauce) and simmer for 5 minutes.

Reprinted with permission from The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen: Recipes for Noodles, Dumplings, Sauces, and More. Copyright © 2011 by Laura B. Russell. Published by Celestial Arts, an imprint of Ten Speed Press and the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, CA. Photo Credit: Leo Gong.

3 Comments

derek says:

January 19, 2012 at 3:13 pm ·

This sounds delicious and perfect for weather in Portland right now.
ben says:

January 25, 2012 at 6:43 am ·

Where I live in Sapporo, Japan there is a local dish called Soup Curry where they use local fresh vegetables and spices combined with other meats. It’s my favourite kind of Japanese food. Every place has their own unique soup ranging from tomato base, to coconut to beef and tonnes more. This is my favourite soup curry at the moment: crunchy fried chicken leg with veggies. yum!
Emma says:

June 27, 2014 at 10:16 pm ·

Amazing dish! Just cooked this for three friends, beautiful, added more curry paste and cooked a couple of slices of lime and fresh coriander in the soup for additional zing. Would totally cook this again! Lovely!

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