Clear Thai mushroom soup

This is an easy to prepare mushroom soup filled with an assortment of mushrooms and ground pork. Aside from the more popular tom yum, you can find also gaeng jued which literally means “bland soup”. This is far from an accurate description though as you will find that the soup contains chunks of vegetables and ground meat made flavorful with the addition of soft tufo from soybean or what I call the egg tofu. Celery leaves and other aromatic leaves such as cilantro rounds up a very tasteful broth. If you are not into spicy foods, this is a good option for you to try.

Here’s how to cook gaeng jued (my version of it):

1. Heat a tbsp of oil in a pot then saute the garlic and minced pork.

2. When pork has cooked, add a tsp of fish sauce, the celery stalks and a pinch of crushed black pepper. Saute some more, then add the water.

3. Bring to the boil for about 15 minutes.

4. Add the mushrooms. In this recipe, I used four mushrooms- shiitake, enoki, black ear, and oyster. Simmer until mushrooms are cooked (3-4 minutes) then add the cilantro leaves.

5. Season to taste with fish sauce and pepper before serving.