girl in a food frenzy

This a Gluten free, Vegan recipe. You can option to add some Seafood, which is traditional or fish sauce/shrimp paste, if you’d like as well.

Time: 30-40 mins prep for all the chopping/mise en place. You can use a food processor to speed it up if you like. Once all the condiments are ready it’ll take next to no time to assemble, the broth will take 10 mins max. **If you decide to serve a protein allow time for the fish, shellfish or chicken etc**

Ingredients:
Chopped herbs, mint, coriander & basil work well
Hot chillies to taste
Bean sprouts
1 x Lemon chopped into wedges,
Carrot, shredded or chopped (apologies I couldn’t be bothered with precision cuts-hungry!!!)
Cucumber strips
3 x Kaffir lime leaves,shredded
1 x Spanish onion finely chopped or (use the food processor) half for the stock & half for garnish
1 x Ginger root, grated
2 Tbsp Tamarind Paste
1/2 cup Salted peanuts, crushed
1 Star Anise bud
Rice noodles to serve (pre soak in hot water for a few minutes and drain)
2 Tbsp Cornflour
2 Tbsp Raw sugar (I actually forget to get the Asian palm sugar, but hey substitution is the key)
Red vinegar
Soy (use tamari for gluten free version)
Pinch of salt
Few drops of sesame oil
Peanut oil for the sauté
Freshly boiled water from the kettle

Method:

First step is to get all the condiments ready for the Laksa.

crushed peanuts,

mince the onion,

Then get the veg and herbs chopped.

I like to remove the stem from my Kaffir lime leaves before I shred them too,

Hopefully, everything starts to look a bit more like this,

In a large pot add the sugar, tamarind, ginger, star anise and half the minced onion. The sesame oil and peanut oil can go in too, (as pictured)

Now to sauté the mixture, get some good colour and let the fragrance develop.

Measure out approx 2 Tbsp each of red vinegar

And soy sauce (or tamari-gluten free soy)

**option to add some fish sauce and shrimp paste if you would like, best at this stage**

Add to the pot where the Laksa paste should be coming along nicely,

In goes half a juiced lemon,

Add approximately a liter of boiled water. Check the seasonings, If its too tart you can add more sugar, or tamarind if you prefer more sour, (adjust according to taste)

Mix the cornflour with cold water to a runny paste and pour into the broth to thicken, simmer for a few more minutes.

Measure out the rice noodles, (which should be presoaked and drained)

Next add some broth to cover the noodles,

Garnish time, I like to start with the raw carrot and cucumber batons,

A good tablespoon or so of the reserved minced onion,

Shredded mint & basil

Bean shoots, yum!

Chillies and kaffir lime leaves,

Coriander,

Crushed peanuts yum!

Ready to devour!