Vegan Tom Kha Soup

Tom Kha is a delicious Thai coconut soup made with a simple homemade red chilli paste, coconut milk, kaffir limes, lemongrass, galangal or ginger, soy sauce or vegan fish sauce, an assortment of your favourite vegetables and tofu. This is one of our favourite dishes that we keep cooking at home especially during winter or rainy days.

Tom Kha Soup or Tom Kha Gai is normally served with chicken (Gai) but this is a vegan version of the original Thai recipe. This recipe calls for galangal and we love it but it's not always easy to find. If you are in the same situation, don't worry, simply substitute the galangal for ginger just like we do. Your soup will still be extremely delicious!

We learnt how to cook this dish while in Thailand. We took different vegetarian cooking courses and made Tom Yum and Tom Kha soups. They are both delicious but we find Tom Kha soup just more enjoyable containing coconut milk. A rich, creamy, sweet and spicy soup, this is what you can expect from our lovely Vegan Tho Kha Soup!

How to make Tom Kha Soup Step by Step

Prepare the Red Chilli Paste

Prepare a chilli paste to add flavour and spiciness into the soup. This is a simple step that will make a big difference in the taste of your Tom Kha soup. Our red chilli paste is made with four simple ingredients: Dried bird's eye chilli, carrot, garlic and onion. If you want to make this step a bit simpler, just add the store-bought red curry paste.

• Using gloves, cut some red chillies down the side with scissors, remove the seeds and leave them soaking in water for around 10 minutes. We normally add around 10-15 bird's eye chillies. The soup comes out spicy but not too spicy. If you prefer a milder soup, get larger chillies, as they will be less spicy.
• Chop the carrot, onion and garlic while the chillis are soaking in water. Heat some coconut oil in a pan to medium-high temperature.
• Drain and rinse the chillies and add the chillies, carrot, garlic and onion in the heated pan. Fry for a couple of minutes and transfer into a blender jug or food processor.
• Add into the blender sugar, lime juice and soy sauce and blend until you have a smooth-ish paste. Instead of soy sauce, you can add homemade vegan fish sauce or just the store-bought one.

Tom Kha soup

This is a really flavourful soup, based on a broth that contains essential Thai cuisine ingredients such as galangal or ginger, lemongrass or kaffir lime leaves.

• To make the broth, add into a litre of vegetable stock sliced galangal or ginger (unpeeled), kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass. If you don't have all those ingredients, a great alternative is to get this packed set to make the broth.
• Bring it to the boil and add the coconut milk, chopped vegetables of your choice and tofu cut into small cubes. For our Vegan Tom Kha Soup, we add carrot, mushrooms and sliced onion.
• Leave simmering until the vegetables are cooked to your taste, we like them to still have some crunch.
• Add the chilli paste that we prepared and a little bit of sugar if needed. Stir the paste into the broth until everything is perfectly combined.
• Serve the soup with some chopped coriander on the top

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How to serve our Vegan Tom Kha Soup

Tom Kha is normally served as an appetizer or starter. It's a great option for a light lunch or dinner or it can be served as a main dish as well if you want to add some rice noodles or make a bigger portion.

If you want some ideas of main dishes to serve with this lovely appetizer, have a look at our Vegetarian Pad Thai or check our homemade curries such as this Thai Red Curry, Massaman Curry, Thai Green Curry or Penang Curry.

For the perfect presentation, chop some fresh cilantro and sprinkle on the top before serving.