I’ve actually posted a recipe very similar to this before (here), but considering the photo was appalling and this recipe really deserved better, I thought I’d redo it.

Now, if you’re one of those people who cooks everything from scratch, you might hate me for this one, because it’s a bit of a cheat’s recipe. I enjoy making things from scratch (e.g. my homemade red enchilada sauce) but I’d be lying if I said I never take a short cut. This soup recipe uses shop-bought red Thai curry paste (why faff around with unfamiliar ingredients when someone who actually knows what they’re doing has already done it?), and I even used a pre-prepared mixture of stir-fry veg (far cheaper than buying each vegetable individually). If you’d prefer to buy each veg separately so you can have more control over what you include, that’s doable too. You could even view this as a fridge clear-out recipe and just use whatever you have on hand.

Red Thai curry is one of my favourite Asian dishes – it’s got a nice amount of spice but it isn’t overwhelming, and isn’t overly heavy unlike some Indian curries. The sauce is usually fairly thin, which is why it was so easy to serve this as a soup-style dish – although if you wanted, you could make this a little thicker and serve it as a curry with the noodles or rice on the side. The shop-bought curry paste is really easy to use – just mix it with some coconut milk and you’ve got yourself a tasty red Thai curry.

This recipe is perfect for this time of year because it’s fresh and fragrant, and you don’t need to turn your oven on! The heat is just about holding up here in the UK (though the sunshine has been a bit shy the last couple of days), so a stovetop meal is ideal.