The Other White Milk

No that's not a typo, I've got milk on the brain not meat.  I had opened up a can of light coconut milk the other day to re-heat some leftover Thai food but only ended up using about a tablespoon of it.  With the remaining milk in a jug in the fridge I knew it needed to be used, but in what?  Coconut milk isn't one of those ingredients that you can just throw into any old dish.  Just to clarify, coconut milk is totally different than coconut water which is really trendy right now.  Coconut milk is made by pressing the flesh or white meat of the coconut, whereas the water is the naturally occurring liquid inside the coconut.

I feel as if my inspiration has been lacking lately; since moving to SF we have been on a Indian/Nepalese food kick and it is still going strong, really strong.  It's also the middle of winter so soups and stews are constantly on my mind, this is no joke especially since now I have started my masters coursework in nutrition and am reading about food almost all day.  So while browsing Deborah Madison's Vegetable Soups cookbook I came across a curried coconut milk corn soup. It couldn't have been more perfect and so it was the inspiration for dinner. 

The original recipe called for just corn in the soup but in my mind I knew it was calling out for cauliflower and maybe a bit of kale.  With the added veggies, I quickly realized my soup was more of a stoup, which was perfectly fine by me.  I cooked up some wild rice and served the stoup on top, the lightly spiced creamy broth worked its way into all of the rice's nooks and crannies,  it was delicious!  Paired with a mixed greens salad, we had a wonderful Tuesday night dinner.