The peanut curry soup base pairs so delightfully with the light and fragrant meatballs. You can even make the meatballs in advance for a quick week night meal. this isn’t a big bowl of soup, the soup base creates a sauce that the noodles poke out of and coats everything in deliciousness.

You can easily use this noodle soup as the basis for cleaning out your fridge and add any finely sliced vegetables you have on hand. I like to have some contrasting colours in there but you can do as you please. Frozen vegetables would work a treat too.

I’ve halved this recipe before, but prepped the full amount of meatballs, and used them in other ways: pa fried then cooked in a packet butter chicken sauce (mixed with coconut cream), as an appetizer with chilli mayo, or in a bahn mi like roll. So many options!

The idea behind the meatballs was to mimic dumpling filling, the celery acts like water chestnuts – giving texture – without making the meatballs fall apart.

Note: I made this in a wide high sided pan, if you don’t have one I recommend cooking the meat balls in a fry pan, and the soup base in a pot. Keep the mea balls warm in the oven as you cook the soup and place in the noodle soup when you serve. The fry pan needs to fit all the meatballs in a single layer if you’re cooking the dish in it from beginning to end.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Chicken Meatballs

500g chicken mince

1 egg

1/3 cup bread crumbs

1 TVs freshly grated ginger

2/3 cup finely chopped celery (can replace with spring onion or shallots)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 Tbs finely chopped coriander stem

1 Birdseye chilli, optional

1 Tbs soy sauce

2 tsps Chinese Cooking Wine

1.5 tsps sesame oil

1/2 tsp white pepper

Noodle Soup

4 eggs (optional)

180g ramen noodles

1 Tbs coconut oil

2 tsps curry powder

1 tsp chilli powder

2 tsps freshly grated ginger

1 tsp crushed garlic

1 400 ml can coconut cream

3 Tbs peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)

400ml chicken stock

Soy sauce to taste

300g sliced cup or button mushrooms

1 red capsicum, seeds removed and finely sliced

1/2 cup spring onions, finely sliced

1 Tbs lime juice

Coriander, chilli and lime to serve.

Directions

Make meatballs: combine all ingredients in a large bowl and use your clean hands to mix well. Make wall it shell sized meatballs, rolling until smooth. You should have 20-24, you can refrigerate over night.

Cook noodles according to packet directions and set aside.

Bring a small pot of water to the boil, add eggs in shells and boil for 6.5 minutes. Remove and place in cold water. Remove shells.

Place a medium large, high sided fry pan on medium high heat. See note about pan size immediately above recipe. Add enough olive oil to lightly coat the base of the pan. Add the meatballs, cook in batches if you need to as you don’t want to crowd the pan. Brown them on all sides then remove from the pan.

Keep pan on the heat. Add another Tbs of oil and then add the curry powder, chilli, ginger and garlic. Cook for 1 minute then slowly stir in the coconut cream. Stir in the peanut butter, simmer for 2 minutes then add the stock and soy sauce to taste. Add the vegetables, cook for 2 minutes and the. Add the meatballs. You want the meatballs in a single layer. Turn the meatballs in the curry sauce. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Add lime juice.

Divide the noodles between 4 bowls and top with vegetables and meatballs. Pour over the curry sauce. Cut the eggs in half and place on top. Scatter with coriander and chilli, eat.

HH. x