Brazilian Rice Shrimp Soup With Coconut Milk & Ginger

OK, so I found this recipe and for some reason, instinctively, I felt the need to recreate … so recreate I did! When I first tasted the original recipe, I sensed nuances of ginger, shallots, nutmeg, etc only they were missing!  But they were almost there. So I began to add, and here’s what I created with the help of my mom who happens to be an exquisite chef …

OK, so I found this recipe and for some reason, instinctively, I felt the need to recreate it. Here's the magic that happened ... Click To Tweet

Brazilian Rice Shrimp Soup With Coconut Milk & Ginger

Gluten free • 40 mins to make • Serves 6

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• Two small shallot cloves
• 1 bell pepper, chopped (I used a red one)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup basmati rice
• several shakes of red pepper flakes
• several shakes of nutmeg
• 2 tsp himalayan sea salt to taste – always to taste, don’t even know why measured salt is added to recipes anymore!
• 1/2 15 oz can crushed tomatoes and 1 cup diced Compari tomatoes
• 4 cups water
• 1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 pounds medium raw shrimp, shelled and sliced vertically down the middle
• Half a pound of large scallops (Slice into 4 quarters each)
• Thumb-sized chunk of ginger (Diced)
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper
• juice from half a lemon
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley for garnish
• 4 stalks of scallions for garnish

Instructions

• In a large soup pot heat the olive oil over low heat. Add onion, shallots, bell pepper, garlic, ginger and cook stirring occasionally until the onion and pepper are soft

• Add red pepper flakes, salt, tomatoes and water to the pot and bring a boil. Simmer    together for about 10 minutes.
• Stir the coconut milk into the soup and add in several shakes of nutmeg. Bring to a simmer and then stir in the shrimp and after a minute add the scallops. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the seafood is just done, 3 to 5 minutes but scallops take less time than shrimp. Stir in the black pepper, lemon juice, scallions and parsley.

DON’T FORGET TO COOK YOUR BASMATI RICE. The original recipe calls for cooking the rice right in the soup, but I prefer not to do it this way. You don’t want that starchiness co-mingling with the delicate texture of the soup as it’s cooking. Add the rice to the bottom of your bowl before you ladle in your exquisite bowl of soup.