Thai Red Curry Soup with Chicken & Vegetables

Follow the link to the recipe at Epicurious, but I am going to kind of adapt it here because I change a lot of it.

I am made this on Monday and it is one of my favorite easy dinners. I usually buy enough for two or three sets of this soup so I always have the stuff in the cupboard. Once you have the red curry paste and the fish sauce, everything is pretty easy to have on-hand.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste (i buy the thai kitchen kind)
• 12 ounces skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips (I use the Costco chicken tenders, dump them in the pan frozen, and then cut them up IN the pan after they have cooked awhile. Eliminates all sorts of steps.
• 3 cups canned low-salt chicken broth (I am a huge fan of the trader joe's chicken stock in the carton. Best stuff that you can buy)
  
• 3 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk (I use the light kind)
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla) Thai kitchen also sells this
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (not to go on and on about trader joes, but in their freezer section, they have these little cubes of fresh spices like basil, garlic, parsley, etc. that you can just pop into a pot).
  
• Any vegetable you have (frozen peas, frozen or fresh peppers, I like the tri-color bag of peppers at TJ's, eggplant, zucchini, a can of miniature corn because they're cute, can of bamboo slices, the last two you can find in the asian section of any supermarket).
• About 2 T. of lime juice
• A bit of lemongrass makes this even better (you can buy 2 actual stalks at the supermarket but you can also buy the squeezable tubes of fresh spices that works very easily and lasts in the fridge for quite some time). It's not necessary though. I like everything pretty spicy and it adds that for sure.

Preparation:
Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add curry paste; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chicken; stir 2 minutes. Add vegetables; stir 1 minute. Add broth, coconut milk and fish sauce; bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer until vegetables are tender, about 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in basil and serve.

Note: I usually make rice to along with this. Serve the soup and then scoop as much rice as you want in the center of the bowl. It's pretty that way and more filling.