I love quick and easy soup recipes and try to make at least one soup a week, even in warmer weather. That way, we usually have leftovers and it just makes life easier. This Lime and Mango Peanut Noodle Soup is a tasty whole food, plant-based soup, and especially so if you like the flavors of Thai food.
It’s actually a take on Laksa, a spicy noodle soup from Malaysia which is near Thailand and is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy.
This recipe is part of my post about Dutch ovens because a Dutch oven is a kitchen essential. I love them for cooking soups and stews and they’re beautiful, to boot. They’re great for gift-giving, as well. I think you’ll like this one from Uno Casa because it’s at a good price point and is a lively red color.
This Lime and Mango Peanut Noodle Soup is simple but full of whole food, plant-based goodness. It has:
- Broccoli
- Vegetable broth
- Peanut butter
- Garlic and ginger
- Green onions
- Rice noodles
- Mango, cilantro, and mint
- Cucumber and chopped peanuts for garnish
The toppings are what really bring out the flavor. The mango, cucumber, lime zest, and chopped peanuts are a flavor burst, and then there the cilantro and mint. Yum-Oh!!
The one ingredient that can be harder to find is fresh mango. You can purchase it frozen and that can work in a pinch. You can sometimes find it already chopped and ready to use, but it may be hard to find ripe mango in the market. If you plan ahead with your meal planning and grocery shopping you should be good but you may need to give it a few days to ripen.
Types of Asian Noodles
There are 11 types of Asian noodles according to this article from The Spruce Eats, A Comprehensive Guide to 11 Types of Asian Noodles. There are wheat, rice, glass (or cellophane and made from mung beans), and buckwheat which is gluten-free. there are even egg noodles.
For our purposes, you can use any of these noodles except the egg noodles but rice noodles are the most traditional. You might have heard about arsenic in rice and want to avoid these, however. I have an article about this if you’re interested. It’s my article, The Low-Down on Arsenic in Rice.
Whatever noodles you use, be sure to check the cooking time on the package because they can vary from what I have in the recipe. You don’t want to overcook them. Try to time them just right with the broccoli
How to Reduce Arsenic in Rice
You can actually reduce the amount of arsenic in rice by using the following method. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to rice noodles as far as I know.
Reduce arsenic in rice by boiling 4 cups of water to every 1 cup of uncooked rice. Once the water is boiling, add the rice and boil for 5 minutes. Then drain and add back to the pan with 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of raw rice. Cook with the lid on according to the package.
How to Make Lime and Mango Peanut Noodle Soup
This is a quick recipe and besides cooking the broccoli and noodles in the vegetable broth, it mostly takes chopping of the other ingredients.
I hope you enjoy the recipe.
I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below for this Lime and Mango Peanut Noodle Soup recipe! If you have a photo, post it on my Instagram page, tag me using the hashtag #plantbasedcooking in your caption, and I won’t miss it!
Lime and Mango Peanut Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 bunch broccoli
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 inch fresh ginger grated
- 2 green onions chopped
- 1 tablespoon chili paste
- 4 cups vegetable broth *see notes
- 1 13.5 oz can light canned coconut milk (unsweetened)
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
- 4 ounces thin rice noodles (or your preferred noodles) See Note below*
- 1/4 cup fresh mint
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro roughly chopped
- 1 mango diced
- 1/4 cup peanuts chopped
- 1/4 cup cucumber thinly sliced
- 1 lime zested
Instructions
- Prepare the broccoli: discard the tough bottom ends and use a vegetable peeler to peel off the outer skin on the remaining stalks. Slice the stalks off at the base of the florets and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Slice the florets into 1-inch pieces, as well.
- Heat 1/4 cup water or a little vegetable broth in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger, green onions, and chili paste. Heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add in the vegetable broth, coconut milk, soy sauce, and peanut butter, stirring to combine. Add the broccoli and cook for about 3 minutes.
- Add the rice noodles and stir. Notice the cooking time on the package (the Pad Thai rice noodles I used took about 5 minutes). You may want to undercook them because they continue to cook once you remove the soup from the heat. Be careful not to overcook the noodles.
- Once the broccoli is tender, transfer it to the bowls and stir in the mint and cilantro into the soup. Ladle the soup over the broccoli, then top with mango, peanuts, cucumber, and lime zest.
Notes
1. NOODLES: Depending on which noodles you choose, you may need less than the recipe calls for. 8 ounces of pad Thai noodles was too much and I needed to increase the broth by about 2 cups,
2. DON'T OVERCOOK: Be careful not to overcook the noodles. Check the label for cooking times. The pad Thai noodles I used got a bit too mushy because they continued to cook once they were done.
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