What to Cook This Week for Soup Week from Singapore Curry Laksa to French Onion Soup

For this edition of What to Cook this Week I’m sharing 5 soup recipes for warming broths, one for every night of the week. I’m calling it Soup Week. We’ve got every kind of cozy comforting broth, from one of my family recipes for a mushroom noodle soup with handmade noodles to a spicy Singapore curry laksa, a deeply flavourful French onion soup and a creamy Burmese chicken coconut noodle soup.

If you’re a soup lover, you’re going to love this compilation of recipes for What to Cook this Week. I’ve declared this Soup Week, because why not? It’s cardigan weather here in Siem Reap so if you enjoy slurping soups as much as I do – whether they’re chicken soups, noodle soups, chicken noodle soups, fish soups – you’re going to love these brothy bowls.

If you’ve already cooked this week’s What to Cook this Week suggestions and need more soup inspiration, browse the full collection of warming winter soup recipes and our 31 winter recipes to cook this January if you’re in the chilly northern hemisphere, or if you’re fortunate to be in the sunny southern hemisphere, peruse our cold summer soups or our 31 summer recipes to make this January.

If you’re visiting us here at Grantourismo for the first time – welcome! – What to Cook this Week is a random-ish weekly-ish recipe series, where on most Mondays I dig around in the Grantourismo recipe archives, which are bursting with countless recipes from around the globe for five delicious midweek dinner ideas for you.

 

For What to Cook this Week we endeavour to recommend a mix of recipes – ideas for dishes to cook when you don’t feel like cooking, recipes that might require a little bit of an effort but will be worth it, and dishes to make on a Friday night when you’re looking forward to spending some time in the kitchen with loved-ones, a bottle of wine, and good music in the background.

But before you scroll down to my ideas for what to cook this week, I have a favour to ask of you. Grantourismo is partly funded by its readers. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting our work by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee.

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What to Cook This Week for Soup Week from Singapore Curry Laksa to French Onion Soup

Our ideas for What to Cook this Week include everything from recipes for a mushroom noodle soup and a Singapore curry laksa to a deeply flavourful French onion soup and a Burmese chicken coconut noodle soup.

Monday – Mushroom Noodle Soup Recipe with Handmade Pasta

My top pick for what to cook this week is this comforting mushroom noodle soup recipe for a handmade pasta called ‘lapsha’. It makes a centuries-old Russian vegetarian soup. It’s one of my most favourite winter soup recipes and one of my top picks for what to cook this week.

Historically eaten during the Orthodox Great Lent period of fasting, when eggs and sour cream would have been forbidden, this hearty nourishing soup with hand-cut noodles can be enjoyed at any time. Serve with plenty of fresh fragrant dill and rye bread.

Do make these noodles yourself: no matter how intimidated you’ve ever been by the idea of making handmade pasta, don’t be tempted to use shop-bought stuff. These handmade noodles are super-easy to make and there are few things more satisfying than eating rustic hand-cut noodles that you’ve made yourself.

I guarantee that you’ll get hooked on the act of making noodles, which is really very therapeutic, especially if you open a bottle of wine, which will also give you confidence. Make these noodles with loved-ones and you’re also making memories, which I guarantee will give you just as much comfort as this soup one day.

Mushroom Noodle Soup Recipe with Handmade Pasta for a Centuries Old Russian Vegetarian Soup

 

Tuesday – Singapore Curry Laksa Recipe

This Singapore curry laksa recipe is another of my top suggestions for what to cook this week if you’re looking for a warming bowl of spicy broth. Terence has been making Singapore curry laksa since we first started slurping the spicy coconut curry noodle soup in Sydney in the 1980s.

We’d often meet after work at a massively popular ‘Singapore Curry Laksa’ stall in a subterranean food court in Chinatown before we headed to evening uni classes. The big bowls of spicy laksa served as our dinner on many a cold winter’s night, making this one of our favourite winter soup recipes.

While Terence has long been obsessed with recreating that original noodle soup we adored (he has 10 different curry laksa recipes in his recipe manager!) this recipe comes courtesy of legendary Australian chef, Christine Manfield.

Please don’t be deterred by the list of 17 ingredients. The final result is well worth the effort of pounding your own curry paste from scratch. Plus all that pounding is bound to warm you up!

Singapore Laksa Recipe – How to Make the Spicy Coconut Curry Noodle Soup

 

Wednesday – Sweet Corn Soup With Ginger, Turmeric and Chilli Recipe

This recipe for sweet corn soup with ginger, garlic, turmeric, and chilli oil was concocted by Terence in our Siem Reap kitchen here in northern Cambodia and it’s another of my top picks for what to cook this week, especially if you’re under the weather.

It was partly inspired by the ingredients in our crisper – ginger, turmeric, garlic, galangal – as much as memories of the Chinese restaurant dinners of our childhoods growing up in Australia in the 1970s.

While Terence recalls Chinese egg drop soup, I remember the sweet corn soup with crab. Aussies have been eating Chinese food and using Asian ingredients since Australia was colonised.

Ginger arrived in 1778 and an 1825 newspaper ad attests to Sydney’s shops being stocked with “fish sauce, mustard, currie powder, cayenne pepper – spices of all kinds, and ginger…”, so these soups are what we’d make even if we didn’t live in Southeast Asia.

Gently Spiced Sweet Corn Soup Recipe With Ginger, Turmeric and Chilli Oil

 

Thursday – French Onion Soup Recipe for a Fragrant Deeply Flavoured Onion Soup

Thursday 2nd February is the Catholic holiday of la Chandeleur or Pancake Day in France when you’re meant to be making pancakes – and we have pancake recipes here – but we’re making soup this week, so how about this French onion soup recipe?

This French onion soup recipe is another of my top suggestions for what to cook this week if you’re looking for a warming bowl of hearty broth. It makes a deeply flavoured French onion soup that has a hint of Southeast Asian spice and umami, thanks to star anise and a fine quality fish sauce.

Inspired by French chef Raymond Blanc’s vegetarian French onion soup recipe, which uses toasted flour to add a nuttiness to the broth, I’ve added a little fish sauce for umami and star anise for aroma and flavour to create a deeply-flavoured onion soup.

I’ve stuck with the chef’s choice of Comté cheese as I adore cheese but I don’t like those French soups that are completely covered in a thick layer of gooey cheese. That’s my preference but you do as you like. Bon appétit!

French Onion Soup Recipe for a Fragrant Deeply Flavoured Onion Soup with a Southeast Asian Twist

 

Friday – Burmese Ohn No Khao Swe Recipe

This Burmese ohn no khao swe recipe makes Myanmar’s much loved chicken coconut noodle soup, which is another one of my top picks for what to cook this week.

A bowl of ohn no khao swe brims with egg noodles in a perfumed curry chicken soup with a coconut milk base that is garnished with boiled eggs, crunchy fried noodles, shallots, fried garlic, dried chilli flakes, lime, and coriander (cilantro).

It’s the country’s most popular soup, alongside mohinga, and is another dish that Terence has been making since our first trip to Myanmar when we savoured it at Yangon’s grand old hotel, The Strand.

This is a great dish for winter dinners with the family or a group of friends because, as Mi Mi Khaing, author of Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way (1978), wrote, garnishing your ohn no khao swe is one of the most fun parts of eating this soup, which she described as being festive when she was growing up.

Ohn No Khao Swe Recipe for Burmese Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup

 

Please do let us know if you make any of our comforting soup recipes from our What to Cook this Week recipe series this week as we’d love to hear how they turned out for you.