Taboo and Thai Coconut Curry Soup

Thursday nights are 'game night'. A designated night where a handful of my dearest girlfriends get together for grub, gab, giggles, and gaming (and perhaps a bottle or 4 of vino too). The usual suspects are Catch Phrase and Taboo. Between the games and the incredible company it's nothing less than a 'feel good' nite causing my cheeks to cramp from the endless smiles and laughter (a feeling i'm not complaining about nor do i think happens enough). This game night we even had an extra 4 legged friend join us, Delilah the bulldog, who seemed to peak my pug Ollie's interest. I actually don't ever think i've seen my lazy pug (whose main interest is sleeping, followed by eating) chase any dog for more than 5 minutes without falling into complete boredom, but Delilah had him running strong for near an hour. Must have been that sexy underbite or the swagger in her walk!

But enough about gaming...Since it was Earth Day i prepared an all raw dinner for the gals. I suspect it was a hit from the 'oohs' and 'ahhs', 'yums', and second helpings being had. Lauren licked the spatula from the pad thai sauce not unlike how i've been known to attack the beaters from a bowl of raw cookie dough, heidi couldn't keep from picking at the leftovers from the large serving bowl of pad thai, meg took care of any extra shitake garnishes, and i'm pretty sure we all had an even effort in making sure there weren't any coconut cacao haystacks leftover from dessert. Assuming it a hit (based off the many recipe requests), I chose to post the recipe for this standout soup. Fresh Raw Thai Coconut Curry Soup. This soup is great warm or cool. It builds internal heat due to the ginger and red pepper flakes, and provides lots of fiber, electrolytes, and Vitamin K from the Thai coconut water. So if you wanna try it out on your game night, here's the easy pea-sy recipe-sy.

Thai Coconut Curry Soup:

Water from 3 thai coconuts (about 3 1/2 cups coco-water)
1 cup distilled water
1/4 cup dried coconut
1/4 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of one lime (about 2 tbsp)
4 tbsp of tamari or shoyu
2 cloves garlic
2 inch nub peeled ginger
2 pitted dates (medjool)
1 tsp red pepper/chili flakes
1 1/2 tsp curry powder

garnish: 3 shitake mushrooms sliced with tamari (or shoyu)

Put all of the soup ingredients above in a Vita Mix, Blend Tec, or any other high powered blender and let er' rip for a few minutes to combine all ingredients well (otherwise they will separate). Coat the shitakes lightly in tamari and set aside. Garnish individual soup bowls with shitake.

Pour yourself a bowl and eat up. Here's to your health!