Spicy Coconut Soup with Broccoli and Shrimp

 

 Just in time for Lent and meatless meals,  here is a wonderful soup with shrimp, broccoli , onion,  garlic,and red bell pepper in a flavorful broth with curry powder, crushed red pepper, coconut  milk and chicken stock.This soup is easy to make,  is low in sodium and fat, and tastes so good.  As the broth simmers, your kitchen will smell so good!. The recipe is versatile, because the original recipe has fresh spinach, but I didn't have any, so I subbed broccoli.  The recipe also called for red curry paste, and I  used regular curry powder. I looked at red curry paste in the grocery store, and almost dropped the bottle, when I saw that it had 920 mg of sodium for 2 tsp.! Yikes. Obviously, I didn't buy it. I had made this soup before I saw Boulder Locavore's  post on making your own curry paste, which I will have to do.

When I first started blogging, I wanted to use my tried and true recipes, the go to recipes that you knew by heart.  Now, the longer I blog, the more adventurous I am becoming with my cooking and baking, thanks to all of my Foodbuzz friends. I am discovering all sorts of food I had never used or seen before like pomegranates, dragon fruit, quinoa, Nutella, just to name a few.  Thank you all for the inspiration to better with every post.

Now, back to the soup.  I adapted a recipe from Cooking Light 2006, and it is delicious.

Spicy Coconut Soup with Broccoli and Shrimp-

Adapted from Cooking Light 2006

 Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 2/3  cup  chopped onion
• 1/2  cup  chopped red bell pepper
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons  red curry paste, or regular curry powder.
• 1/4  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 2  (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1  (14-ounce) can light coconut milk
• 1  pound  medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 16 oz fresh or frozen broccoli, or fresh spinach

Preparation

Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic; sauté 4 minutes. Add curry paste or curry powder and red pepper; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in broth and coconut milk; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shrimp and broccoli (We don’t like mushy broccoli).  Cook 4 minutes or until shrimp and broccoli are done.