Thai red pepper soup

Details

• Cuisine: Thai
• Recipe Type: Soup
• Difficulty: Easy
• Preparation Time: 20 mins
• Cooking Time: 30 mins
• Serves: 6

Step-by-step

1. First, preheat the oven to 180°C/350ºF/gas mark 4, ready for making the spicy seeds later.
2. Put the oil into a large saucepan and bring the heat up to medium. Add the garlic paste, red curry paste and salt and cook the paste out. If it starts to stick, turn the heat down and add a splash of water to stop it burning.
3. Meanwhile, drain the roasted red peppers. Chop them up roughly and add them to the curry paste mixture. Pour in the boiling water – this helps to speed up the process. Tear in chunks of the bread and bring back to the boil, then leave it on a rapid simmer.
4. Now make your spicy seeds. Whisk the egg white in a bowl until the mixture is foamy. Stir in the sunflower seeds, making sure all of them have an even coating. Sprinkle in the salt, sugar, paprika and garlic granules and mix well, without using your spoon otherwise all the flavour will stick to it.
5. Toss in the desiccated coconut and coriander, then spread the seeds on a baking sheet in an even layer. Bake in the oven for 10–12 minutes, but be sure to keep an eye on them – they will need turning halfway. Once the seeds are dry to touch, they are ready to go. Take them out of the oven and set aside.
6. While the seeds are in the oven, add the coconut milk to the soup, stir through, then whiz until smooth, using a stick blender.
7. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle over some of those delicious spicy sunflower seeds and a drizzle of oil, if you like. There will be plenty of soup to freeze, and the best way to do this is in individual portions.
8. As for the seeds, you will have plenty of those to sprinkle on whatever you like or just for snacking. Store them in a clean jar.