Prepare the vegetables. For lemon grass use the bulb part, with a pestle crush the lemon and galangal lightly so that the flavours are released more. Don't throw but Boil the upper part of galangal and lemon grass to add the aromatic water to the soup.

In a pot, add little oil, saute the onion and then the chicken, no need to brown it. Then add enough water or chicken broth to boil and cook the chicken. Throw in the Thai herbs,cilantro, chillies & salt (add little as we are going to add other ingredients which already has enough salt, so we are going to add the salt at the end if needed) and boil for about half an hour. Throw in the mushroom too. When the chicken gets cooked, add in the fish sauce (optional) and the instant Tom yum paste.

Cook for another 5 minutes or so, if needed add some water or broth to make enough soup. Then add coconut milk (if you want thicker soup add little bit more) and boil for few minutes. Pour it in a serving bowl, garnish with cilantro / dhania patta and more chillies if you like. Serve hot with Steamed rice or Thai Fried Rice or Pad Thai along with Prik Nam Pla/ Cucumber Slices and Lemon wedges.

Prik Nam Pla

Morning Glory