This recipe from Betty Rosbottom’s Sunday Soup cookbook is a simple affordable way to get the flavors of Thailand on your table.

What you need: 3 lemongrass stalks, 2 limes, 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth, 8 ounces thinly sliced mushrooms, 1 large red bell pepper (seeds and membranes removed, cut into ½ inch thick pieces), ½ tsp red pepper flakes, 1 pound large uncooked shrimp (shelled and deveined), 1 cup snow peas (ends trimmed, cut on diagonal into ½ inch thick slices, 2 green onions (thinly sliced), 1tsp kosher or sea salt, 3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro.

What you do: Remove tough outer layers from the lemongrass stalks, along with an inch or so of the woody base. Thinly slice stalks crosswise to yield 1/3 cup. Cut 6 thin slices from one of the limes and juice remaining limes to yield 2 tbsp. In large saucepan, combine chicken broth, lemongrass and lime slices. Bring to a simmer for 10 minutes to flavor the stock. Strain the stock and return the liquid to the pan, discarding the solid bits. Reheat again, adding bell pepper, mushrooms, and red pepper flakes. Add shrimp, snow peas and green onions. Cook until shrimp are curled and pink (about 2-3 minutes). Do not overcook or shrimp will be tough. Remove from heat and stir in lime juice and salt. Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro.

For a more thorough look at this cookbook, check out this detailed review.

Related Recipe: Easy Low Fat Thai Shrimp Toast.

Photo Credit: Rick

OK, so my passion for all foods Middle Eastern is no big secret. And with the many uses it has at the dinner table, I figured it was worth searching out the simplest recipes I could find. And, since I’m all about saving time in the kitchen, I’ve included a time saving hack as well. Read on.

Many recipes for harissa have an ingredient list that’s just too long to deal with, in my opinion. Especially since there are simple ones out there for the researching. Here are a couple from About.Com and Recipe Zaar. We’re talking dried chili peppers or flakes, olive oil, garlic, coriander, cumin and not much else, really. Pick whichever of the recipes works for you, and grab a small narrow mouth canning jar and your friendly kitchen blender.

This is a trick I’ve hinted at before in a couple of jar recycling and canning jar suggestion articles. Here’s what you do: Put the ingredients in a pint sized canning jar (the empty Classico brand pesto jars would probably work well) and attach the screw top and blades of your blender to this jar instead of your blender pitcher. You’ll just need to turn the attachment upside down on top of the right side up jar. Once it is screwed on tight, turn it upside down and attach to the actual motorized section of the blender.

Blend away, remove, and replace the blade attachment with the screw on top of the jar. Voila! Your sauce is done, and you only have the blade attachment to clean with a small scrub brush in your sink. Blender pitcher cleaning is one of my LEAST favorite things to do, so any time I can take a pass, I do. Got another great ethnic food hack or recipes. Share the love in the comment section below.

Photo Credit: TrekHound.Com