Thai Coconut Curry Soup with Sweet Potato Dumplings

I recently spent the afternoon in the kitchen with our contributor (and former Top Chef contestant) Valerie Bolon, and one of the dishes we prepared was a Thai Coconut Curry Soup with Sweet Potato Dumplings made two ways—one with an organic pre-made wrapper (contains eggs and wheat) found at the local health food store, and one gluten-free and vegan veggie wrapper made simply from sweet potatoes. Both are delicious, so pick your fave, grab your ingredients and watch the video(s) of us making this incredible soup so you can too.

This recipe is in three video segments—it’s a long one—but we cover a lot of bases for you. Val shares some helpful kitchen tips, including knife skills, how you use lemongrass and more.

Makes: approx. 6-8 servings | Preparation Time: 50mins

Tools:
Mandoline Slicer (only necessary if making gluten-free, vegan dumplings)
Large stock pot
Chef’s knife

Ingredients:
Soup:
3 15 oz. cans of organic coconut milk or 6 cups of homemade coconut milk
1 1/2-2 cups pure water
2 tbsp organic, vegan curry paste (be sure to look for gluten-free if you need to or make your own)
1 8 oz. medly box of organic mushrooms (ex: clamshell, trumpet, royale, forest nameko and velvet pioppini )
1 stalk of lemongrass
4 cloves organic garlic, minced
2 tbsp organic ginger, minced
1 organic shallot, minced
2 medium organic tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp cold-pressed virgin coconut oil
pink Himalayan or Celtic sea salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste

Gluten-Free & Vegan Dumpling Filling:
1/2 large organic sweet potato, roasted
2 tbsp cold-pressed virgin coconut oil
1 tsp pink Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Gluten-Free & Vegan Dumpling Wraps:
1/2 large organic sweet potato
1/4 cup cold-pressed virgin coconut oil

Regular Dumpling Wraps*:
1 pack of organic wonton wrappers

*The wrappers we used contained wheat and eggs, they were found at the local Whole Foods in the refrigerated section.

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

Let’s Get Started:
For sweet potato filling, spread coconut oil on open sides of 1/2 sweet potato and sprinkle with sea salt. Place uncovered in a glass dish (with about 2 tbsp water in the bottom) and roast in an oven set to 350°F for 35-40 minutes.

Begin preparing the vegetables. Bruise and chop lemongrass into 4″ lengths, mince garlic, ginger and shallot and chop the tomatoes. Prepare your mushrooms by slicing or breaking apart.

In large stock pot, place 2 tbsp coconut oil and warm over medium heat. Once warm, add lemongrass, shallot, ginger and garlic—you should hear a sizzle. Stir until coated and cook for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and stir until thoroughly coated. Cook one minute. Next, add tomato, stir carefully and cook for another minute. Now add curry paste and stir well. Once thoroughly coated with curry, add water to the pot. Follow with coconut milk and stir. Increase heat to medium-high in order to bring soup to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low-medium and cook for about 30 minutes so flavors “infuse.”

This is a great time to make dumplings. Remove sweet potato from oven and scoop out flesh and place into a bowl. Add seasoning and mash up well.

For gluten-free, vegan dumpling wraps: warm coconut oil over medium heat in small saucepan. Slice 1/2 sweet potato over mandoline slicer and place slices in hot coconut oil for 1 minute. Remove from oil and dry on paper towel.

For regular dumpling wraps: lay out on a glass plate covered with a damp paper towel (to keep them from drying out).

No matter what your wrap is, place a dollop of sweet potato filling in the center, leaving about 1/2″ of wrap around perimeter. Either fold over and pinch edges (regular wraps) or place another wrapper on top of (sweet potato) and pinch edges to close.

Sweet potato wrapped dumplings are ready to eat once closed. Regular dumplings will need one more step until they are ready. For them, bring a pot of water to a boil. Place regular dumplings in water and boil for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon or tongs.

Spoon soup into a bowl, top with dumplings and enjoy!