Southern Thai Sour Curry Soup (Kaeng Som)

A thin, bright orange southern sour curry with prawns and vegetables, tangy with tamarind and warm with turmeric.

TIME BREAKDOWN
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 20 min
Total: 50 minutes
Vegetarian
❌
Nuts
❌
Serves
4 people
Difficulty
Medium

Ingredients

  • 400g raw peeled king prawns
  • 8 dried long red chillies, deseeded and soaked in hot water for 15 minutes
  • 4 shallots, peeled
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 3cm fresh turmeric, peeled, or 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tbsp shrimp paste
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 litre water
  • 150g cauliflower florets
  • 100g long beans or green beans, cut into 4cm lengths
  • 150g white cabbage, cut into 3cm pieces
  • 3 tbsp tamarind paste
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tsp palm sugar or light brown soft sugar
  • 1 tbsp lime juice

Method

  1. Drain the chillies and pound them in a pestle and mortar, or blitz in a small processor, with the shallots, garlic, turmeric, shrimp paste and salt to a smooth paste.

  2. Bring the water to the boil in a saucepan. Stir in the paste until it dissolves, then simmer for 5 minutes.

  3. Add the cauliflower and cook for 4 minutes, then add the long beans and cabbage and cook for 3 minutes.

  4. Stir in the tamarind paste, fish sauce and palm sugar. The soup should taste sharply sour first, then salty and spicy.

  5. Add the prawns and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until pink and cooked through.

  6. Take off the heat, stir in the lime juice and serve hot with steamed jasmine rice.