Malaysian Laksa

Ingredients

  • 400g fish
  • OR 400g chicken
  • OR 400g tofu (see notes for vegetarian adaptations)
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 12-16 raw prawns (shelled/deveined)
  • 180g laksa paste (we usually use Ayam)
  • 1 brown onion
  • 2cm fresh ginger
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 400mL coconut cream
  • OR 400mL coconut milk
  • 1L chicken stock
  • OR 1L vegetable stock
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 limes
  • 150g rice vermicelli
  • 350g egg noodles
  • 1 packet bean sprouts
  • 2 spring onions
  • 1 red chilli (optional)
  • 1/2 cup coriander leaves
  • 1/2 cup mint Leaves (Vietnamese mint works well) (optional)
  • fried eschallots

Method

  • Prep Ingredients: Cut your chosen protein into chunks. Finely chop the onion, finely grate the fresh ginger, mince the garlic cloves and slice 1 lime into wedges, set aside.
  • Thinly slice the spring onions and slice the chilli (if using).
  • Juice the remaining lime and reserve the liquid in a small bowl. Set aside.
  • Over a medium-high heat, stir-fry chicken, fish or tofu in a small amount of olive oil until just cooked through. Set Aside.
  • Shell the prawns and reserve them in a bowl. Set aside.
  • In a large pot, add the olive oil and heat. Once oil is hot, add the prawn shells and fry for around a minute until they turn red. Remove the shells from the pan and throw away - you now have prawn flavoured oil.
  • To make the broth, add the laksa paste, onion, ginger & minced garlic to the flavoured oil and fry for 2 minutes.
  • Pour in the stock and bring to the boil.
  • Next, add the coconut cream/milk, chicken or fish, tofu, sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. Bring down to a simmer.
  • While this is simmering, cook the vermicelli in a separate pot of boiling water for a few minutes (unitl soft). Place them into separate serving bowls.
  • In the same pot, add egg noodles into the boiling water and cook for 5mins until soft. Divide them into the serving bowls.
  • In the boiling water again, poach the prawns until they are pink. Transfer them to the serving bowls.
  • Pour the laksa broth in the the serving bowls over the prawns and noodles.
  • Top each bowl with bean sprouts, onions, chilli, herbs, fried shallots and wedges of lime.

LCHF adaptation:
Simply omit the egg and vermicelli noodles from the recipe (or use a smaller amount per serve).

Vegetarian adaptation:
Use tofu as protein source.
Omit prawns from the recipe (Skip steps 2, 3 and 9 of the method).
Use vegetable stock.

Vegan adaptation:
Same as vegetarian adaptation + use soy sauce instead of fish sauce + use vegan friendly noodles (e.g udon, extra rice noodles, wheat noodles)