Thai Soups

Chicken soup is considered well not only for bodily health but also for the refreshment of the soul. This is something that you cannot get behind. The springs of noodles softened pieces of carrot, and shredded chicken always gives a sense of healing.

However, turning to plain chicken soup always maybe something that you cannot try every day as your taste buds demand versatile ideas for a soothing experience. If you are in Thailand, there are many ideas that you choose to surprise your taste buds, like tom yum, joke, and Kaeng jud.

The plus point of Thai soups is that you can carry them anywhere. These are perfect for take-out.  Garnishes are packed separately to make sure that their freshness would be kept for a long time. Thai soups are the easiest to revive as you can toss into a bowl and heat it, and it would appear as good as new.

 

Soup is considered to be a universal love language. Listed below are some amazing Thai soup ideas that you can try whenever you need something inspirational.

Savory Soups

TOM YUM

The most popular soup out there in Thailand is Tom yum, and all for a good reason. Tom Yum is a Thai term and translates as "Tom" into boiled and "yum" into a salty, sour, or spicy flavor of Thai dishes.
An entire category of Thai salads is referred to as "yums." Tom Yum comes in unique, sweet, spicy, and sour flavors, all owe to the taste of lime and stripes of hot Thai chilies.

It is served hot. Its first sip comes with a surprisingly complex fragrant, all due to the addition of makrut lime leaves, fish sauce, galangal, and lemongrass.

A hotchpotch of vegetables adds to the freshness, crunch, and volume of the soup. The veggies drive a fantastic flavor from the ingredients like ginger, pepper, spring onion, and herbs.

The soup can either be prepared without protein or have shrimps, tofu, or chicken. It all depends on your personal choice. Tom Yum is served with sprinkles of cilantro, baby corn, and straw mushrooms.

You can add to the beauty of your day by ordering it any time. However, it becomes more enjoyable on a cold rainy day.

 

TOM KHA

Tom Kha is Thailand's national dish from the north, and its taste bears Tom yum's influence. It is equally spicy, salty, and sour. However, it is a lot creamier due to the addition of coconut milk.

Tom Kha translates to boiled galangal chicken soup containing the shreds of chicken and pieces of mushrooms. It is milder than Tom yum. Tom refers to hotness, and yum refers to galangal, a tropical rhizome known for its unique flavor.

Sour and floral peppery galangal provides amazing contrast to the creamy texture of coconut milk. Its flavor is further enhanced by lime leaves, fish sauce, garlic, mushrooms, and lemongrass.

You can either enjoy it by having sips on your own or using it with jasmine rice. It has great medicinal properties, including its ability to relieve gastrointestinal track.

 

GAENG JUD

Gaeng jud translates into plain soup. This broth soup Is generally filled with glass noodles, white pepper, and some heart vegetables. It appears to be simple if compared with ingredients rich tom yum.

It is different in different places. Some versions come with floating meatballs of pork with garlicky flavor. Others come with coins of carrots, squares of tofu, or fuzzy Asian squash.

Whichever way it is prepared, it is light and relaxing and allows you to add veggies to your daily meal.

 

GAENG SOM

Gaeng som has gained much popularity in Southern areas of Thailand for its mouth-watering sour taste. The curry paste of Gaeng Som is made with Thai chilies, pounded shallot, and paste of shrimp.

This curry paste is mixed with tamarind, which is known for its signature sour aromatic flavor. Typically, it contains all the ingredients native to Southern Thailand, but some of its variations also come with green beans and cauliflower. This curry soup is usually served with white rice.

 

GAENG LIANG

Gaeng Liang is closely linked with Gaeng Jud as both have brothy soup enriched with fresh veggies. However, the difference between both lies in the flavor. Gaeng Liang contains fermented shrimp paste known as Kapi and filled with dried shrimp and shrimp sauce.

This brothy soup is more savory than any other soup. It comes with the freshness of Thai basal and heat jolts of Thai chilies.

 

KHAO TOM

The usage of Gaeng Jud with rice grains gives you a combination known as Kho Tom. Khao tom translates into boiled rice.

It is a soupy porridge containing rice grains with an array of protein in lakes of steamed white fish, shredded chicken, ground pork, or preserved eggs.

It comes with various topping options that include fried garlic, sliced green onions, and a sprinkling of white pepper. If you want some light perfume to enjoy till the last spoon, it is a good option to go for.

 

JOKE

A joke is just like a relative of Khao tom and is often written as juk or jok. It comes with more porridge than Khao tom and contains boiled white rice with spicy silvers of ginger.

This is not only a Thai thing. Rather in East Asia and Southeast Asia, its variations can be found with different pairings.

It is commonly paired with fresh cilantro leaves, pork meatballs, white pepper, garlic, soft poached egg, and fried shallot in Thailand. You can take it in breakfast and can ensure the whole good day.

 

Dessert Soups

BUA LOY

If you like the springy texture of rice cakes and mocha, Bua Loy can be your favorite Thai dessert. Bua Loy translates for floating lotus. Although these come in the form of round rice balls, which don't resemble the beauty of water lily, the flavor might resemble.

The chewy spheres are made from rice flour dyed in different colors like purple, green, blue, and yellow. To give a funky look to the soup. The rainbow rice bowls float in the soup made of coconut milk and palm sugar.

 

GAENG BUAD

Gaeng Buad represents an entire Thai soup dessert. It is a coconut milk-based sweet soup consisting of four simple ingredients: veggies and fruits of your choice, salt, coconut milk, and palm sugar.

Traditionally the fruits used in Gaeng Buad include taro, pumpkin, bananas, sweet yam, and squash. As mentioned earlier, or squash, only one of the fruits is used to make sure that soup is cooked evenly and its taste is consistent. The gaeng buad appears like floating fruits or squash in a sweet broth of coconut milk.

 

RUAM MIT

All the soup included in the list is served hot no matter it's sour or sweet. However, this is the only soup that is served cold. Ruam Mit means "mix. " The ingredients of even the two bowls of Ruam Mit can vary.

The variations of ruam mit include pink dyed chestnuts, cornstarch coated water, sweet corn, pandan jelly, jack fruit, palm seeds in palm sugar, coconut milk broth served over ice.

 

THAO SUAN

Thao suan is a mixture of soup, pudding, and porridge. The categorization depends upon the texture of the broth. Here, we can call it soup.

It is made from soaked and swollen mung beans floating over syrupy gelatinous soup that is given a thick texture by tapioca or potato starch. It is usually topped with salty and sweet coconut milk in Thailand and other countries may serve this sweet soup with crullers.

 

So, which of the Thai savory or dessert soup are you going to order for yourself?