Korean Beef & Daikon Radish Soup

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It’s been a big week between traveling for Christmas and both Adrian and I battling various colds. That means I haven’t had time to meal plan and we were nearly left stranded for dinner last night. Good thing we had a simple soup in our recipe arsenal from my favorite Korean blogger, Maangchi, and we knew what we needed to eat right away! We love that this soup has very few ingredients and is really easy to make, so shopping last minute was as easy as pie. We added some extra green onions, some turnip greens from our garden, and of course, our favorite garden grown dried chilies. It’s also yummy to taste with a little bit of lime juice and Gochujang, in my humble opinion, and perfect served with a side of rice and kimchi. Yum! 

Korean Beef & Daikon Radish Soup

Time: 45 Minutes
Serves 4
Adapted from Maangchi’s Beef and Radish Soup

Ingredients
14 cups water
1 lb daikon, peeled, cut into 1½ x ¼-inch pieces
1 lb beef brisket, cut into 1-inch pieces
8  garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tsp sea salt
1 bunch green onions, sliced thinly diagonally

To Serve
Lime juice, to taste (optional)
Gochujang, to taste, about 1 tsp per bowl (optional)
4 cups steamed rice
Kimchi

Directions
Bring water and daikon to boil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef, garlic, and turn the heat down to medium, and cook for 25 minutes. Stir in fish sauce, salt, and green onions and cook for 5 minutes longer. Remove from heat.

Ladle soup into bowls and add lime and Gochujang if desired. Serve with rice and kimchi on the side.

Trader Joe’s Thai Chicken Curry

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Even though this recipe is simple and not even made from scratch, it’s sort of sacred to me and Adrian. We’ve been making some version of it since we started shopping at Trader Joe’s together about 10 years ago. As our palates have changed and our cooking skills have improved, we’ve added and omitted a few things. We also took a trip to Thailand in 2012 and fell in love with keffir lime leaves, which added the final touch we needed to perfect this recipe. Below is our little secret to a delicious curry in 25 minutes!

Warning: Our chili recommendations are quite spicy, so you might want to cut your chilies in half or omit them altogether!

Trader Joe’s Thai Chicken Curry

Serves 4
Time: 25 Minutes

Ingredients
Trader Joe’s Thai Yellow Curry Sauce, 1 bottle
Trader Joe’s Thai Red Curry Sauce, 1 bottle
10 garlic cloves, chopped
2 shallots, sliced thin
2 serrano chilies, sliced
10 Thai chilies, sliced
1.5 lbs chicken thigh, cut into 1-inch pieces
5 heads baby bok choy or 1 large head bok choy, roughly chopped
1 bunch Thai basil or sweet basil, roughly chopped
4 green onions, chopped
3 keffir lime leaves, julienned (optional)
Steamed rice, to serve

Directions
Over medium heat, combine curry sauces in a large pan or dutch oven. Add garlic and shallots and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add chilies and chicken and cook, stirring for 5 minutes. Then add bok choy, basil, green onions, and keffir lime leaves (if using). Simmer over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, until sauce has reduced to a curry consistency and the chicken is cooked through. Serve with steamed rice.