Thai Coconut Soup

I was looking for a good coconut soup recipe and found this one, but I think it's always hardest the first time you try a recipe. The soup was tasty, but I really wish I'd added more carrots and mushrooms. I also had to double check whether the recipe says to cook this in a large stockpot, because that was just overkill.

I'm always torn about whether I should record my failed dishes, whether I should write about what I eat at restaurants, whether I should write about the things that everyone (probably) knows about. In the end, and maybe there should be some sort of mission statement to come from this, I decide to write about these anyway. This dish is far from a failure; in fact, it was so promising that I'm eager to try it again, with improvements. I may also, though, look for a coconut curry soup recipe. The good news, though, is that it's really easy, and the most challenging part was finding new ingredients. I suspect my supermarket lemongrass was not fresh, but I wasn't sure what to look for. I also have to figure out how to store the leftover ginger.


Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/2 onion, sliced thin
1 carrot, sliced thin
1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 jalepeno pepper
1-1/2 cups vegetable broth
12 oz coconut milk (my can came in 14 oz, so I just used it all)
5-6 thin slices of fresh ginger
5-6 1-inch slices of lemongrass
Juice of 1 lime
1 package tofu, frozen and thawed, then cubed
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

First, heat the oil in the pot and add the onion, garlic, carrots, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for an additional minute.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except cilantro) and cook over low heat for 15 minutes.

As for the ginger? You can wrap it in a towel and put it in a bag in the fridge, or else freeze it. Refrigerated ginger should keep 3 weeks, according to my search results.