Sluttishly Savoury: Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

I call this Magic Soup as it seems to soothe everything from colds to hangovers! Fresh herbs, chicken broth, noodles and a good chilli kick combine to lift my spirits after even the crappiest of days at work.

You can buy ready made Thai Green Paste but this is a really simple fresh version that whilst not completely authentic tastes awesome! I often make this the day after we have had roast chicken to use up any leftovers and use fresh chicken stock  but it's not essential, powdered is fine too and if you don't have palm sugar you can just use brown sugar instead. The star of the show is the spicy herb paste so if you make this bit from scratch you can get away with pretty much anything!

You'll need: (serves 2 big bowls)

• 1 litre chicken stock
• 1 clove garlic thinly sliced
• 2 birdseye chillies (left whole)
• leftover cooked chicken
• 2 portions dried egg noodles
• 2 handfuls baby spinach
• chopped fresh coriander (couple of big handfuls of each herb)
• chopped fresh mint
• 2 chopped green chillies
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 tsp palm sugar 
• 2 tblsp fish sauce
• half a red onion grated finely

Make it!

1. Put your chicken stock, garlic and 2 whole birdseye chillies and cooked chicken in a saucepan and bring just to boiling. 
2. Meanwhile put a bit of your coriander, mint and green chilli to one side for later and put the rest in a mortar with the lime juice, palm sugar, grated red onion and fish sauce and bash the hell out of it with a pestle (see I told you this helped after a crappy day at work!).
3. Remove the whole chillies (or leave them in if you like it super hot). Cook your noodles in the chicken broth for a few minutes until done. Add your paste to the saucepan and give a stir.
4. Put a handful of baby spinach into the bottom of each bowl, cover with noodles and broth then scatter with the remaining chopped herbs and green chilli.

Tip:
The herb and chilli paste is really addictive, I usually end up making a couple of batches as I keep dipping bits of crusty bread into it as I'm waiting for the noodles to cook! Use fish stock, frozen prawns and crabsticks for a seafood version.