Thai Curry with Noodles (gluten-free, can be vegetarian)

A while back, Dan and I discovered *Noodles* restaurant.  The food is good and fresh and, which is unusual for a chain restaurant, they understood the need for balanced taste and texture.  Balance is one of those concepts that has application in every part of my life.  Anyway, I don’t want to take you too far afield here with my philosophical wanderings, so I will just say that my favorite *Noodles* dish was their Thai Curry, so I looked for a basic recipe that I could modify to my taste.  I found one on the allrecipes.com website. I punched up the flavor a bit, and experimented with some variations.  It is a visually beautiful dish.  Here’s the result:

Thai Curry with Noodles

2 oz. rice noodles (either flat pad thai noodles or the very thin rice noodles are fine)

1-2 T.olive oil

2 T.  fresh lemon grass, chopped fine

1 T. grated fresh ginger

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 t. red curry paste (must be red curry paste because of the taste and the color)

1 quart chicken broth or vegetable broth

2  T. Soy or Tamari sauce (look for the wheatless variety for gluten free diet)

1 T sugar or light honey

1 (13.5 oz.) can low fat coconut milk

1/2 cup peeled and deveined medium shrimp (or for vegetarian dish–leave out shrimp or else replace shrimp with sauteed cubed firm tofu)

1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

1 (10 oz.) bag baby spinach leaves

3 T. lime juice

1/2 to 1 T. Sriracha sauce

1/4 cup chopped cilantro (Note: some folks don’t like cilantro.  For them, use parsley, but the taste will change)

2 sliced green onions to garnish

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil.   Add rice noodles and cook until al dente (3-4 minutes).  Drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking.  Set noodles aside while you continue with the rest of the dish.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in garlic, lemon grass, and ginger; cook until aromatic (try not to burn it) about 1 minute.  Add curry paste and cook for about 30-60 seconds (try not to burn it).  Pour in about 1/2 cup of the chicken or vegetable broth, and stir until the curry paste has dissolved.  Then pour in the rest of the broth, soy or tamari sauce, and sugar or honey.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium low.  Simmer for 20 minutes, partially covered.

Remove cover.  Add coconut milk, shrimp or tofu, mushrooms, spinach, lime juice, sriracha sauce, and cilantro. Increase heat to medium high and cook about 5 minutes.  If you are using shrimp, the shrimp should turn pink and lose its translucence.

To serve:  First place some rice noodles into a bowl.  Ladle the soup on top.  Garnish with green onion.