Instant Pot Review: Thai Coconut Curry Soup

January 24, 2018 7 Comments

I absolutely love post holiday winter time.  The craziness of the holidays is over, there’s time to breathe and relax and it’s still boot weather.  I love boot weather!  It’s been pretty chilly around these parts recently which gave me urge to snuggle on the couch with my family and have a bowl of something warm. Soup time!  Now if I was going to make soup, why not give the ole’ Instant Pot a go again?  Off to Instant Pot challenge #2.

Before I met my husband I didn’t have the broadest palate in the world.  I was a meat and taters kind of girl.  Thankfully, he opened my culinary eyes and one of the first introductions to my new cuisine experiences was Thai food.  At first I stuck with the basics, like Pad Thai, but I soon stretched my wings and began to love all Thai cuisine.  Massaman curry dishes quickly became my favorite. Rice included.

Rice.  I miss rice sometimes.  Unfortunately it doesn’t fit into a gut healthy diet because it likes to feed those “bad buggies” that we’re trying to squash.  (sigh)  That doesn’t mean we can still scoop up those fantastic Thai flavors in different, healthier, ways though.  This was my goal when I created my Thai Coconut Curry soup using my Instant Pot Ultra.

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Hands up if you love curry!!  What, what?!  If you don’t have your hands up right now I promise I’m going to convert you to a curry lover so hang on for the ride.  Curry gets a bad rap a lot.  Many curries are super spicy so I get it.  I used to assume that all curries tasted the same but they don’t and I highly encourage you to not give up on your first curry experience.  You’ll be missing so many wonderful dishes if you do.

Massaman happens to be my favorite curry blend because it’s not overly spicy and contains just a hint of sweetness.  I prefer to buy the Mae Ploy brand because it has a wonderful flavor and is gut ingredient friendly.  So far, I have only found it on Amazon but if you live near a specialty store you may be able to find it there.

Heads up, if you’re avoiding nightshades then you may want to try and blend your own mix.  There are tons of recipes for blending your own curry mix on the internet.  Because my husband and I follow the Plant Paradox chiles are supposed to be off the menu (they contain lectins) but for the sake of my craving, and the small amount used, I decided it was worth a try.

That’s the thing with gut health and leaky gut diet protocols.  They all differ a bit on allowed foods.  They all have very similar base ideas such as cutting out sugar and grains completely but they begin to stray away from one another on the allowance of other foods such as  dairy, nightshades, fruits, eggs, etc. and I personally believe that they all have their pros and cons. I believe that YOU must find what works for YOUR body.  Just because my body can handle eggs doesn’t mean they won’t cause inflammation in yours.  I will share my opinions and what has worked for me but I am far from an expert.  Think of my advice as merely as a starting point or guide to help you discover what works to heal your body.

Okay, I’m hungry so lets dig into cooking up some soup.  Now I will admit I normally prefer easy recipes with as few ingredients as possible and no speciality foods.  I don’t like buying something for one recipe and never using it again.  This beauty is not one of those recipes.  There are some specialty ingredients like fish sauce and lemongrass but I PROMISE it’s worth it.  Besides, we can find a use for that fish sauce in another recipe so it won’t go bad. 🙂

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I started by using the sauté feature on my Instant Pot. I adjusted my heat temperature to medium and gave it a minute or two to come up to heat.  I added my coconut oil in and allowed it to melt and then began to sauté my onions.  After my onions had sautéed for about 5 minutes I added in my garlic and curry paste.  I stirred the curry paste in until it had coated all of the onions.  That was it for the sauté portion of my Instant Pot feature.  It worked great!  The pot heated fast and the temperature seemed perfect.  No onion burning.  Sauté feature is a win and I’ll be using it again very soon.

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Next up, I added in the rest of my ingredients except for the coconut milk.  All of them, all at once.  That’s the beauty of the Instant Pot.

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By the way, do you hate peeling ginger? Me too but ages ago I found that if you use a spoon to peel it you don’t lose as much ginger as you do using a knife.  Anyway….

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I left my peeled ginger and lemongrass whole for this recipe (I did split the lemongrass down the center) because I have found that you can get plenty of the flavor from the ginger without having to go about a lot of chopping.  Call me lazy but I prefer to spend more of my time eating food than preparing it.  That’s probably why the Instant Pot and I are quickly becoming BFF’s.

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Next, make sure you added in your broth (don’t forget, the liquid is a MUST), double check to make sure your ingredients are lower than the max fill line, put that lid on and lets get cooking.

I used the “soup/broth” button and changed my default time to 7 minutes with high pressure.  If you like your broccoli with a little snap to it I would try decreasing your cooking time.  I haven’t tried it out yet myself but I’d be willing to say you would get great flavor and less cooked broccoli with a 4-5 minute cook time.  I wanted my broccoli cooked fairly well so 6-7 minutes is my cook time.

After completing the cooking cycle I released the pressure manually.  I’m notoriously impatient and was excited to try my new soup out.  Manually releasing the pressure also keeps your veggies from overcooking too.

With the pressure released it’s time to check it out.  There she is.  Now scoop out the ginger chunk and lemongrass that should be still sitting on top and then mix in your can of coconut milk.  Let the coconut milk sit in the hot soup for a few minutes until heated through.  I have found that if I cook the coconut milk in while pressure cooking it lost a bit of it’s flavor.

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Spoon it into your favorite dish and enjoy.

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NOTE:  You might notice what looks like white noodles in my soup.  I was caught in between a Thai and Pho craving so I decided to try out Miracle Noodles for the first time.  They’re Plant Paradox approved and I hadn’t had noodles in 7 months so I gave them a shot.  I’ll share a review on them very soon but the soup is delicious with or without them.

Hope you all will give this soup a try and let me know what you think.  Do you love Thai food?  What’s your favorite dish?

**Don’t have an Instant Pot?  See my notes at the bottom of the recipe for guidelines on cooking this delicious soup on the stove top.

Instant Pot Thai Coconut Curry Soup

Servings: 4-6
Prep time:  15 min
Cook time:  7 minutes
Pressure release method:  Manual

  • 2 tbsp unrefined, cold pressed coconut oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tbsp Massaman curry paste
  • 3-4 cups of broccoli florets
  • 1 – 8 oz package of mushrooms, washed and sliced
  • 2 tbsp good quality fish sauce (I use Red Boat because it contains no sugar) *(omit for vegetarian/vegan option)
  • 2″ piece of ginger, peeled (this is equal to approximately 1 tbsp freshly ground ginger.  Sub in 1/2 tsp of ground ginger instead if desired)
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass (approximately 3″ long)
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 1 cup of vegetable or mushroom broth
  • 1 can of full fat coconut milk (Look for a brand like Trader Joe’s or Native Forest that has no guar gum added.)
  • 3 tbsp cilantro, chopped (optional)
  • 1-2 tbsp honey (optional)
  • 1-2 limes for garnish (optional)

Directions:

  1. Plug in your Instant Pot and turn on the sauté setting and set to a medium heat.  Allow the pot to heat for a few minutes before adding your coconut oil.
  2. Add your coconut oil to the pot and allow to melt.  Then add in your chopped onion.  **Note:  I use coconut oil to accent the coconut milk but if you do not have any on hand, use another gut healthy oil instead.
  3. Sauté the onions for 3-5 minutes and then add in your garlic and curry paste.
  4. Mix the onions, curry paste and garlic together until the curry paste breaks down and coats the onions.  This takes about another 1-2 minutes.
  5. Once the onions are coated, turn the sauté feature off and add your broccoli, mushrooms, fish sauce, lime juice, broth, cilantro and honey to the pot.
  6. Stir the ingredients with a large spoon to mix them together and then place your piece of ginger and lemongrass on the top of your soup mixture.
  7. Check to make sure your ingredients are below the max fill line and then secure your Instant Pot lid.
  8. Turn your Instant Pot to the “soup” setting and adjust the time to 7 minutes on high pressure (turn the time setting to 5 minutes for broccoli that is less cooked.  You may have to play with the timing to get the broccoli the way that you like it).
  9. When the cooking time has finished, use the manual pressure release button to release the steam from your Instant Pot.
  10. When the float valve has released and is flat, open your Instant pot lid.
  11. Remove the lemongrass and ginger pieces and stir in your coconut milk.
  12. Allow the coconut milk to sit in the hot soup until it has warmed through.  This takes a few minutes.
  13. Serve and enjoy!  We love to top our soup with a squeeze of fresh lime and some fresh chopped cilantro.
**Stove Top Instructions:
  1. Ingredient changes–use 2 cups of vegetable or mushroom stock.  Since you will be stirring occasionally, you will want to go ahead and use fresh grated or ground ginger so your ginger piece doesn’t get lost.  Leave the lemongrass whole as it will be easy to pick out before serving.
  2. Follow steps 1-6 above.
  3. Bring soup to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer.
  4. Simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour (until broccoli reaches your desired tenderness) stirring occasionally.
  5. When broccoli is cooked, turn heat off and add in the coconut milk.  Allow the coconut milk to warm in the hot soup for a few minutes before serving.
  6. Serve and enjoy!  We love to top our soup with a squeeze of fresh lime and some fresh chopped cilantro.

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CategoriesDinner, Instant Pot, Product Review, Recipes