Curried Coconut Soup with Lemongrass

I made several Thai dishes using recipes adapted from Mark Bittman's How to cook Everything Vegetarian book. I am happy to report that all of them came very well.

2 tbsp oil
1 large chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic (opt)
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
3-4 thai chilies, deseeded (dont mince it or it could get too spicy)
3 stalks lemon grass, peeled trimmed and minced
1 tbsp curry powder (MTR all purpose curry powder worked great for me)
1 quart veg stock (from store or homemade)
2 cups coconut milk (from 3/4 can of canned coconut milk)
2 tbsp soy sauce
Fresh Squeezed lime juice
Cilantro for garnish

o Peel skin, chop woody parts of lemongrass and mince the soft parts
o Put oil, add ginger, garlic, chilies, onion and sautee until soft; Then add lemongrass cook 2 mins, finally add curry powder and cook for 3 mins
o Then add stock and boil until raw flavor goes away
o Finally add coconut milk cook atleast 5 mins and until raw coconut flavor goes away
o You can strain the lemongrass stuff to get a smooth soup
o Before serving add soy sauce, lime juice, salt, pepper etc. and garnish with cilantro

This can be made quite spicy to clear your sinus. It is a great soup for the winter days. You can use low cholesterol coconut milk to make it healthy. This is quite easy to make and comes out flawless.