For a quick, light lunch, this soup is hard to beat. Gently infused with Asian aromatics and sweet coconut, it somehow manages to work as a summer refresher or a winter warmer, and can be on the table in less than half an hour. If you want to bulk it out a bit, add some rice noodles towards the end of cooking.
Ingredients
- 3⅓ cups (800 ml) fish stock, preferably homemade
- 10 fresh kaffir lime leaves
- 5 large slices fresh ginger
- 3 garlic cloves, whole but bashed
- 8 spring onions [scallions], greens sliced on the diagonal and whites halved lengthways
- ½ green chilli, halved lengthways
- 1 small bunch coriander [cilantro], stalks separated and leaves roughly chopped
- 14 oz [1 x 400 ml] can coconut milk
- 3½ oz [100 g] baby corn, halved lengthways
- 2 oz [50 g] mange tout [snow peas] or sugar snap peas, halved on the diagonal
- 2 sea bass fillets, chopped into chunks
- a squeeze of lime juice
- sea salt
- lime wedges, to serve
How to Make It
- Put the fish stock in a saucepan and add the lime leaves, ginger, garlic, spring onion whites, chilli and coriander stalks. Bring the liquid to a simmer, then simmer for 20 minutes, with the lid on, until the stock is well infused with the flavours.
- Strain the stock into a clean pan and add the coconut milk. Bring the liquid up to a simmer again (don’t boil once the milk is added) and add the baby corn. Cook for about 3 minutes until it is beginning to soften. Add the mange tout and sea bass and cook for 2–3 minutes more, until the fish is just cooked and all the veg is tender but with a little crisp bite.
- Stir in most of the coriander leaves and spring onion greens, then season with a good squeeze of lime juice and a little salt.
- Ladle into 4 warmed bowls and serve topped with the reserved coriander and spring onion greens, and with lime wedges on the side for squeezing over.
