Tom Yum Mushroom Noodle Pot
Coconut, lime leaf, and chili built from dry parts in one pot.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 600 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried mushrooms | 1/2 cup | shiitake, wood ear, or straw mushrooms |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered coconut milk | 1/4 cup | |
| Thai red curry paste | 1 tbsp | single-serve packet or a squeeze from a tube |
| Freeze-dried shrimp | 1.5 oz | or a foil pouch of shrimp |
| Rice noodles | 2 oz | thin vermicelli, they rehydrate off the heat |
| Dried makrut lime leaves | 4 leaves | |
| Dried galangal or ginger slices | 3 slices | |
| Lemongrass, dried | 1 tsp | chopped, or half a stalk sliced thin |
| Dried Thai chilis | 2 | crushed, or a pinch of chili flake |
| Garlic and onion, dried | 1 tbsp total | minced garlic and onion flake |
| Fish sauce | 1 tbsp | in a small leakproof dropper bottle |
| Sugar | 1 tsp | or a maple syrup packet |
| Lime juice | 2 tbsp | one lime, or a lime juice packet |
| Dried spinach | 1/4 cup | optional, adds bulk for no weight |
Method
- Boil 600 ml of water. Drop in the mushrooms, lime leaves, galangal, lemongrass, chilis, garlic, and onion.
- Simmer 8 minutes. This is the stock, and it is the whole point. Do not rush it.
- Stir in the curry paste and the coconut milk powder until nothing is lumpy.
- Add the shrimp, noodles, and spinach. Kill the heat and put the lid on for 4 minutes.
- Season with fish sauce and sugar. Stir in the lime juice last, off the heat, and taste before adding more.
The original is built on a shrimp stock made from heads and shells, which is not a thing you carry. The dried mushrooms, lemongrass, galangal, and lime leaves do the same job: eight minutes of hard simmering pulls enough out of them to make water taste like something. Skip that step and you get curry paste in hot water.
Order matters at the end. Coconut milk powder clumps in boiling liquid, so it goes in after the simmer with the heat low. Lime juice goes in dead last, off the flame, because heat flattens the sour edge that makes this soup work.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one bag except the shrimp, which rides separately so it stays crisp. Fish sauce and lime juice in dropper bottles inside a second ziplock. The lime leaves and galangal are woody and stay in the pot, so fish them out or eat around them.
Variations
- Swap the shrimp for a foil pouch of chicken and this becomes tom kha.
- Instant rice instead of noodles if you want a thicker bowl. Add 100 ml more water.
- No fish sauce means no anchovy, so vegetarians can use soy sauce and skip the shrimp.
https://foragerchef.com/thai-mushroom-soup