The Thai soup recipe Neven Maguire learned on holiday and still serves today

As I write, I am getting ready to go to the airport. I am travelling with a crew to film some new programmes for my next RTÉ series, featuring Manchester and Liverpool. I always enjoy these weeks away, as you invariably discover something new. Sadly, I cannot see any football on the schedule.

The first of these soups is a good example of travelling and learning about food. I learned all about this Thai broth in a cookery school some years ago. We were on holiday, and I took a few days to go back to school. To this day, we serve it in the restaurant with Irish seafood: lobster, prawns and scallops. The beauty of this recipe is that it’s so fast. I just love the punchy flavours, the sweet and sour with a little spice. And, as they say, there is eating and drinking in it.

The one ingredient that is absolutely essential is galangal, which is related to ginger. You will usually find it frozen in any Asian supermarket. Saba makes delicious coconut milk. You could make this with prawns, or even make it vegetarian, instead of using chicken. It keeps well in the fridge for a week and can be frozen too.

The second soup, butternut squash, could be made more seasonal by using pumpkin. I love all soups made with winter squashes, but this one has a wonderful, subtle, almost nutty flavour. It’s delicious when served with toasted cheese sandwiches. For a more velvety finish, pass the soup through a fine-mesh sieve.

Now, how do I get Man Utd into this filming schedule?

Ingredients: Serves 6-8

600ml chicken stock

2 x 400g tins of coconut milk

Juice of 1 lime

50g shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

20g fresh galangal, peeled and sliced

2 lemongrass stalks, trimmed and chopped

3 kaffir lime leaves

2 tbsp Thai fish sauce (nam pla)

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

2 tsp tomato purée

1 tsp palm sugar (or use light brown sugar as a substitute)

1-2 crushed dried bird’s eye chillies

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets, thinly sliced

1 head of pak choi, thinly sliced

100g frozen sweetcorn

Good handful of fresh coriander leaves, to garnish

Chilli oil, for drizzling

Method

1 Heat the chicken stock in a large pan. Add the coconut milk, lime juice, mushrooms, galangal, lemongrass, lime leaves, fish sauce, sweet chilli sauce, tomato purée, sugar and dried chillies to taste. Bring to the boil, stirring to combine, and simmer for five minutes, to allow the flavours to develop. Then taste and adjust as you think necessary – you may think it needs a little extra of something.

2 Pass the soup through a fine mesh sieve into a clean pan. Add the chicken, pak choi and sweetcorn and bring back to the boil.

3 Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about five minutes, until the chicken is tender and the vegetables are cooked through.

4 Ladle into deep warmed bowls and garnish with coriander and a drizzle of chilli oil.

Ingredients: Serves 6-8

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

2 onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1kg butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed and cut into cubes or pumpkin cubes

1.2 litres of vegetable or chicken stock

4 fresh thyme sprigs

200g crème fraîche

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the cheese toasties:

50g butter, softened

8 slices of brown or white bread

200g mature Cheddar cheese, grated

1 tbsp snipped fresh chives

Method

1 Heat the oil in a large pan. Cook the onions, garlic and butternut squash over a gentle heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened but not coloured. Pour in the stock and add the thyme. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 25 minutes, until the butternut squash is tender.

2 To make the cheese toasties, butter the bread and arrange the cheese over half of the slices, buttered side down. Sprinkle over the chives and cover with the remaining slices of bread, buttered side up.

3 Preheat a griddle or large non-stick frying pan and cook the sandwiches two at a time for two minutes on each side, until golden brown and the cheese has melted. Keep hot.

4 Meanwhile, remove the thyme stalks from the soup. Then purée with a hand blender until smooth. Stir in the crème fraîche and reheat gently, then season to taste.

5 Cut the cheese toasties into fingers. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls set on plates and stack up the cheese toasties to one.