Cooking Thai-style recipes can mean having countless bottles, jars and exotic ingredients lined up on cupboard shelves prepared to hand. This is great in case you cook this food regularly and can get your hands on the ingredients. This recipe has been devised with the busy cook in mind and can be made with ingredients are often present in the freezer, fridge and cupboards. Feel free to experiment and add a little fish sauce (nam pla) or soy sauce in case you have it, and substitute the prawns for sliced chicken breast and the fish stock for chicken stock. Salmon fillets grilled separately and then placed on top the noodles on serving also works well, but in the event that they are added to the soup while cooking, will break up basically.

Many people are looking out for a filling and nourishing meal that is also speedy to prepare and leaves little washing up. This soup is the answer. Soft undulating noodles sit piled within a creamy gently spiced soup. 

The beauty of this recipe is that it can basically be adapted to suit lots of tastes and diets, and because it is so simple and speedy to prepare, it can be cooked while putting the shopping away or straight after getting in from work, without the necessity to shop for special ingredients. If the soup is mild , it can be enjoyed by babies, who love the creamy coconut sauce and noodles!

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon red thai curry paste (can be adjusted to taste)
• 1 x 400ml can regular or light coconut milk
• two handfuls ready-prepared peeled king prawns
• 2 handfuls frozen whole green beans
• 2 sheets dried noodles
• 3 spring onions, sliced thinly
• 500ml light fish or vegetable stock (can use a stock cube in boiling water)

Method

Heat a tablespoon of sunflower or other flavourless oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the Thai curry paste and allow to cook, releasing its aroma. Throw in the sliced spring onions and stir to coat in the paste. (If using chicken instead of prawns, add this now).

Pour in the coconut milk, stirring to mix, and then add the stock. Stir, bring to a simmer and then drop the dried noodles into the pan along with the frozen green beans.

Two or three minutes before serving drop in the raw prawns and stir gently until the prawns are pink and the noodles are cooked.