Thai Chicken Noodle Soup: The Secret Recipe Club

 A few months ago I joined a foodblogger group on Yahoo groups.  It was so fun to find that many of my favorite bloggers were already members of the group.  If you want to join the group, go here.  Anyway, Amanda, the moderator and all round gal in charge had a brilliant idea to form a Secret Recipe club within the group.  Those of us who wanted to participate signed up and were then were assigned another blog to visit and cook from...secretly. We are going to do this every month.  If you want to participate, sign up here.

 Today is the reveal.  I was given Winnie's Healthy Green Kitchen.  I had so much fun looking through her recipes.  She has beautiful photos and great healthy ideas.  She has recently started a blog party called Eco-Friendly Friday.  If you have any environment conscious posts, ideas, recipes, etc...go over and join her!

 Of all of Winnie's recipes, I knew I had to try her  Thai-inspired Coconut Chicken Noodle Soup.  It looked so delicious.  I love soups, too, because they are easy to stretch to feed a large group.  The soup I made served ten.

 I did a little fiddling with the recipe.  I don't have access to kaffir lime leaves.   I bet there aren't any within 100 miles of my house.  I also didn't have any Date and Tamarind Sauce.  So I punted.  The results were a huge hit with everyone.  My second son, the Thinker, said, "Mom, you could sell this soup in a restaurant."  Thanks, Winnie.

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup (adapted from Healthy Green Kitchen)

8 cups chicken stock (homemade is best, but 4 can chicken broth will do)

1 1inch chunk ginger root, peeled

2 Tbsp Thai fish sauce

1 1/2 tsp ground corriander

1 small onion, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp chile oil

1 can coconut milk

3 medium carrots sliced

1 red bell pepper, chopped (I actually used a handful of dehydrated red peppers)

1 cooked chicken, boned and chopped

1 package soba noodles, broken up

salt and pepper

1/2 tsp sriracha hot chile sauce (or more if desired)

juice of 2 limes

cilantro for garnish

In a skillet, saute the coriander with the onion and garlic in the chile oil. Set aside.  In a Dutch oven, heat the chicken stock with the fish sauce and ginger root.  Heat to boiling and then turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 20 minutes.  Remove the ginger root and discard.  Add the contents of the skillet to the Dutch oven, along with the coconut milk, carrots, red pepper and chicken.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes, covered, until the carrots are soft.  Add the noodles, salt & pepper to taste and lime juice.  Turn off the heat, let the noodles cook in the warm water for 15 minutes.  Serve with cilantro as a garnish.