Thai Mushroom Hot Pot

I saw this over at The PPK and my first thought was that it could potentially be pretty carby, however I decided to omit the cornstarch and use a small brown onion instead of a large red onion and found it worked out at between 5- 6g carbs per serving. Pretty good, and pretty tasty!

It's reminds me of a thai soup and you could easily throw some tofu in there for extra protein.

You can check out the original recipe in the link but my lower carb recipe is below.

4 cups mushroom or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil (regular vegetable oil will do, too)
1 small onion
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
Big pinch salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced lemongrass
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 star anise
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 oz dried shiitakes
2 tablespoons soy sauce (or tamari to make it gluten free)
1 roughly chopped tomato
Fresh black pepper

15 oz can lite coconut milk
Juice of half a lime

1. Saute onion and pepper in the oil with a big pinch of salt, until onions are soft, about 5 minutes.

2. Add garlic, lemongrass, ginger and red pepper flakes and mix in. Cook until fragrant, about a minute, then stream in the broth and add most of the other ingredients: star anise, cinnamon, shiitakes, soy sauce, tomatoes and fresh black pepper.

3. Stir often for the first 10 minutes or so then cover pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to simmer and cook covered for a good half hour, until mushrooms are completely softened.

4. Add coconut milk and lime, and taste for salt. Heat through and serve with fresh herbs and other accoutrement.