Thai Herb Soup, A Low Calorie Yet Delicious Soup

Background

Hi guys, this is Adam writing this post.  I made one of my old favorites today, Thai herb soup.  It's a great warming recipe for anytime but especially when it's cold out.  I first had the soup at the Thai restaurant my wife worked at, Banana Leaf in Dallas.  This recipe is actually just inspired by their soup and some others I found online but altered for healthier ingredients and based on the ingredients we happened to have.

A Low Calorie Soup

Several years ago I was watching Scientific American, the TV series, and saw Alan Alda interviewing researchers who were looking at restricted calorie diets and their effects on longevity.  I had read about the research before but had never been sold on it.  Alan Alda sold me, I couldn't find the exact video but found this Alan Alda video on the topic in case you want to check it out.  I also started my own series of videos on it and will add to it when I figure out tools that help.   Below is my take on the diet which has helped me stay lean and mean.

I am still trying to follow an easy restricted calorie regimen on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I have been struggling more with it the last two years since Swanson stopped making their conveniently packaged broth or I at least stopped finding it.   My plan is to make a big batch of this below soup and take it to work in soup container to tide me over and help me resist fast food.

My Version of Thai Herb Soup

This soup can be made vegetarian if you want it to by just leaving out fish sauce and using a vegetable broth.  I personally used a low sodium free range chicken broth to make it a bit healthier.  You can also use pretty much whatever vegetables you have.  We typically have Thai peppers, basil, minced garlic and baby spinach on hand so I used those.   Use what you have of course and a chopped jalapeño will suffice if you don't have Thai peppers.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 pinch of pepper
• ⅓ cup lime juice
• 4 tablespoons minced garlic
• 4 chopped small mushrooms
• 8 cups low sodium broth
• ½ cup cilantro
• ½ cup basil or Thai basil
• 2 tablespoons stevia
• ½ cup baby spinach (optional)
• Low sodium fish sauce and or soy sauce to taste

Directions:

1.  Place the olive oil in a saucepan and saute the garlic, peppers and mushrooms.
2.   Add the broth and simmer for 16 minutes.
3.   Add the stevia and simmer for 15 more minutes.
4.   Turn the burner to low and serve with the herbs on the side as an option if you want to enjoy the soup like they do at Pho restaurants or just add it in otherwise.
   

   Optionally add Thai herbs

5.  Add fish sauce and low sodium soy sauce if you're not worried about sodium too much.

Thai Herbs For Thai Herb Soup

Thai Herb Soup

If you liked that recipe you might like some of the other recipes in our soup category.

https://healthythairecipes.com/category/soups/

Mod’s Thai Style Chicken Dumpling Soup (เกี๊ยวไก่น้ำ)

Healthy Tom Yum Soup (ต้มยำกุ้ง)

Spicy Spinach Soup with Chicken (ซุปผักโขมไก่อบ)

Healthy, Rehabed Thai Coconut Soup, Tom Kha Gai (ต้มข่าไก่)

Beef Stew Northern Thailand Style (จิ๊นฮุ่ม)

Special thanks to cookinghawaiianstyle.com for some of the inspiration for this recipe.  Give them a little lovin if you liked this please.  ;0)