Curry Laksa Recipe | Vegetarian | Yotam Ottolenghi | Life and Style

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Yotam Ottolenghi's curry laksa recipe Malaysia's rightly famed aromatic, coconutty noodle soup gets the Ottolenghi treatment

Yotam Ottolenghi The Guardian, Saturday 13 March 2010

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Yotam Ottolenghi's curry laksa: Malaysia's national noodle soup gets a vegetarian makeover. Photograph: Colin Campbell

Make a special trip to an Asian grocer to get the ingredients for this heart- and limb-warming soup. If you can't get tofu puffs, cut firm tofu into big chunks, coat generously in cornflour and deep-fry. Thai basil and mint would make a welcome addition at the end. Serves four, generously.

100g peeled baby shallots 8 garlic cloves 25g peeled ginger, sliced 15g lemongrass (soft white stem only), sliced 2 tsp ground coriander 3 large dried red chillies 2 tbsp sambal oelek (or other savoury chilli paste) 4 tbsp vegetable oil 50g fresh coriander 1¼ litres vegetable stock 3 branches laksa leaves (aka kesum leaves), or curry leaves, or both 2 tsp curry powder 1½ tsp salt 2 tbsp caster sugar 400ml coconut milk 100g rice vermicelli noodles 300g bean sprouts 150g french beans, trimmed and halved 250g fried tofu puffs (optional) 4 limes, halved

Put the first seven ingredients in a small food processor bowl. Add half the oil, and the roots and stems of the fresh coriander, and process to a semi-smooth paste.

Heat the remaining oil in a saucepan and fry the spice paste on medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring all the time – you want to cook it slowly without burning. Add the stock, laksa branches, curry powder, salt, sugar and coconut milk, simmer gently for 30 minutes, then taste and add more salt if necessary.

Once the broth is done, steep the rice noodles in boiling water for three minutes and drain. Throw the bean sprouts into a pan of boiling water, drain at once and refresh. Cook the beans in boiling water for three minutes, drain and refresh. Just before serving, remove and discard the laksa branches (the leaves can stay in the soup). Add the beans, noodles and half the sprouts, ladle into large bowls and top with the remaining sprouts, tofu puffs and shredded coriander leaves. Squeeze lime juice on top and throw one half of squeezed lime into each bowl.

• Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi.