Vegetarian Coconut Soup

Jeff the Chef
"Vegetarian Coconut Soup," from Make It Like a Man!

This Thai-inspired recipe for vegetarian coconut soup starts with two young coconuts. Yes, opening a coconut is a lot more fun and interesting that opening a can of coconut milk; thanks for asking! This soup is barely cooked; many of its ingredients are raw. It has alluring flavors, like kaffir lime leaf and Thai chili. All of this makes for an incredibly fresh-tasting dish.

Coconut Soup
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Coconut Soup

Servings

4

servings
Prep time

30

minutes
Cooking time

40

minutes
Calories

300

kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 young coconuts

  • 4-6 kaffir lime leaves

  • 4 Tbs sesame seeds, plus more for garnish

  • 2 lemons

  • 1/4-1/2 c. water

  • 1 Tbs sugar

  • 3 Tbs sesame oil

  • 2 Tbs soy sauce

  • 1 clove garlic, peeled

  • 1 dried Thai pepper, stem and seeds discarded

  • 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

  • 1 tsp salt

  • Fresh basil, julienned, plus a few small leaves, for garnish

  • ½ zucchini, cut into matchsticks

  • ¼ – ½ of a red bell pepper, cut into matchsticks

  • Avocado wedges or slices, for garnish

Directions

  • Extract the meat and water from the coconuts, and place it into a blender.
  • Place the lime leaves and sesame seeds into a clean coffee grinder. Use a vegetable peeler to remove three 3-inch slices of peel from the lemon; add them to the grinder. Finely process, Transfer to the blender.
  • Juice the lemons. Add 4 Tbs of the juice to the blender. (Repupose the rest.) Add water, sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, Thai pepper, ginger and salt. Blend thoroughly on medium-low speed (setting 2 of 6), 2 minutes. Transfer to a saucepot, and cook over a low flame (setting 2 of 9) until it just begins to boil, 20 minutes.
  • Divide the basil, zucchini, and bell pepper among four soup bowls. Ladle soup over the veg. Garnish. Serve immediately.

Notes

  • A small brush with very stiff bristles will help you get all the lime leaf mixture out of your grinder.
"Vegetarian Coconut Soup," from Make It Like a Man!

The Backstory

I knew nothing about coconuts before embarking upon this soup recipe. I was curious, though, which is what prompted this post. This is what I’ve learned so far about coconuts:

Social Learning

There are “young” coconuts, and “mature” coconuts. If your only real exposure to coconuts is from Gilligan’s Island reruns, what you envision when you think about a coconut is a mature coconut. A young coconut looks different (refer to the video link in the recipe), its milk is much milder and imho more delicious than that of a mature coconut, and is flesh has a soft, gelatinous quality. A young coconut is often called a Thai coconut. They’re fairly easy to find in a well-stocked grocery, especially if you live in an area with a diverse population.

There are a few ways to open a young coconut. The one I linked to in the recipe is the best. Others I’ve seen look like they could easily turn dangerous. I’ll add a few of my own observations to the method that I followed: you should work at removing the husk just about all the way to the husk’s top ridge, so that when you remove the top of the nutshell, you’re removing a fairly large piece. If you remove only a small chunk, you’re going to find it challenging to maneuver your spoon around to scoop out the meat. In order to make this work, as soon as you’ve punctured your way into the coconut, drain the juice immediately. Then proceed with opening it up.

I believe the object is to remove only the white meat, leaving the brown skin behind. This all but impossible to do completely. I have to say, though, that I don’t mind the taste or texture of the brown skin, so long as there’s not too much of it. I’ve watched a few videos, and it seems that I’m not the only one in this boat.

I also know precious little about Thai cooking – although I do know a few things about eating Thai food! If you’re looking for a way to get raw foods into your diet, and want a reprieve from salads, and live near a Thai or pan-Asian grocery, this is the soup for you. If you’re looking for something elevated, keep looking … although with care, this could be quite nuanced. This soup is squarely in the “everyday” category; a bit more of a workhorse than a show horse. It’s a hot soup, so it makes sense in cold weather, but its freshness would make it seem like a great hot-weather soup, too.

"Vegetarian Coconut Soup," from Make It Like a Man!
Vegetarian Coconut Soup

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Thank you, Kesor. Thanks, Prosper Circle. This recipe is a modification of one from Breaking muscle.

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36 thoughts on “Vegetarian Coconut Soup”

    • Thanks! It was a lot of fun, that’s for sure, and I did love the soup.

      Reply

  2. Absolutely love the flavours in this soup particularly the kaffir lime leaves. The video is very helpful, never knew there was a difference in age with coconut but it makes sense. The gelatinous texture frightens me a bit, but the soup looks divine.
    Éva+Taylor recently posted…Liz’s Biscoff Cookies

    Reply

    • I love kaffir lime leaves. The only drawback is that – at least where I buy them – you can’t buy just one or two. You have to buy quite a few. And although I love the flavor, it is very particular, and you can just add it willy nilly to everything. So what to do with all those leaves? I’ve been toying with the idea of making a keffir ice cream.

      As far as that gelatinous texture, yeah – so weird.

      Reply

  3. Well this is a fun recipe! I happen to have all of the ingredients on hand except for the young coconut. Like you, I’ve never worked with “real” coconuts before…the closest I’ve ever come was a can. I kinda imagined wielding a machete and going crazy on that coconut. I guess I would’ve been wrong. 🙂 Soup sounds quite delicious, Jeff!!
    David @ Spiced recently posted…Tuscan Chicken Pizza

    Reply

    • Actually, David, if you look around, weilding a machete is what a lot of people seem to do! That’s what the author of the video that I cited probably was refering to when she said that she’d seen a lot of dangerous practices. Anyway, I’ve no doubt that you could make this soup quite easily with a can of coconut milk.

      Reply

    • I love Mounds and Almond Joy! I should figure out how to make a candy soup out of them.

      Reply

    • Thanks, Ben. I think the biggest advantage of using canned coconut is that you’d probably wind up with a whiter soup, which would be nice. I couldn’t seem to get the nutmeat out without also coming away with large portions of the brown skin. But the brown skin tasted just fine, and my hunch is that things like that are often full of nutrients. And the soup tasted great.

      Reply

  6. Well I’m certainly impressed. Working with coconuts for the first time and not knowing much about Thai food, you certainly took on a challenging dish. You made the coconut milk from scratch! I’m sure it tasted quite different than what comes from a can. Well, the result looks fabulous. I’m sure it takes as good as it looks.
    mjskitchen recently posted…Green Chile Deviled Eggs

    Reply

  7. This looks and sounds amazing! I’ll probably never attempt to open a coconut at this point in my life to avoid potentially losing a hand.
    Chef+Mimi recently posted…Turkish Eggs

    Reply

    • You mean aside from the coconut cream pies that Ginger and Mary Ann always made?

      Reply

  10. What a gorgeous soup and a fascinating read Jeff! I know nothing about coconut, but use coconut milk and shredded coconut frequently. You’ve inspired me to buy a young coconut and do the work myself. Especially if this delicious Vegetarian Coconut Soup is the result. 😋
    Shannon recently posted…Grilled Potato Spinach Piroshki

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  15. Love that you used actual coconuts for this! So cool and impressive. And the flavors in the soup are simply dreamy! 🙂 ~Valentina

    Reply

    • ??? Not sure what you meant, but young coconuts looks completely different from mature ones. Mature ones are what we all think of as coconuts. Young ones have their shells shaved off, so they are completely white and usually there’s a cone carved into the top. If you search for images, you’ll see what I mean.

      Reply

  17. I’ve had young coconuts and they are very different than a mature coconuts.You vegetarian soup recipe looks really delicious.

    Reply

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