Gaeng Jued (แกงจืด)

The Soup With No Chilli

แกงจืด means "bland curry" — and the name is a joke the whole table is in on. In a cuisine built on heat, this is the dish that carries no chilli at all: a clear, quiet broth with pork balls, soft vegetables, glass noodles and tofu. It sits in the middle of a Thai family meal like a full stop, the spoon everyone reaches for between the curries and the yam salads. Children start with it; the adults finish with it.

Its calm is built, not empty. The broth starts with coriander roots simmered with salt — the same aromatic foundation as the loudest soups, used here at a whisper. The pork balls are kneaded with cornflour, oyster sauce and seasoning, dropped into the simmer and skimmed so the broth stays clear. And the seaweed — the source's quiet trick — is toasted over a flame first, which turns it from an afterthought into the smell of the whole pot.

The classic version is the glass-noodle one: garlic fried golden first, then pork and soaked dried shrimp, then the broth, then noodles and egg tofu at the end. Two versions, same law — nothing red, nothing loud, everything clean.

The Recipe (seaweed and pork-ball version — serves 4)

The Method

1. The broth. Water with the coriander roots and a little salt, simmered — the foundation at a whisper.
2. The balls. Minced pork kneaded with cornflour, oyster sauce, seasoning sauce and powder; spooned into the simmering broth.
3. Vegetables. Carrot in, foam skimmed, five to ten minutes until the balls are cooked; taste and adjust the broth.
4. The seaweed trick. Toasted over a flame until fragrant, then in with the cabbage — the source's step that makes the pot smell like the sea.
5. The classic route. Garlic fried golden first, pork and soaked dried shrimp after, broth next, glass noodles and egg tofu last, celery to finish.
6. Serve. Coriander scattered over, hot. The calm course between the curries.

Where Thai Sources Disagree

How Western Versions Get It Wrong

• Adding chilli "for flavour". The dish's entire identity is its mildness. A chilli in the pot makes it a different soup.
• Powdered stock cubes as the broth. The real broth is coriander root and simmered pork — clean enough to see through. The cube's cloud and MSG shout over the whole point.
• Not skimming. The clear broth is the standard. Unskimmed scum makes it a murky western vegetable soup.
• Skipping the toast on the seaweed. The flame is what wakes it. Untoasted seaweed tastes of nothing and feels like paper.
• Boiling the pork balls hard. A gentle simmer keeps them tender; a hard boil turns them to rubber.

UK Ingredient Notes

• Dried seaweed: the Korean-style dried sheets at East Asian grocers — toasted over a flame for a few seconds each side. The soup only needs a little.
• Egg tofu: the soft cylindrical tubes at Thai grocers, sliced into coins. Silken tofu works as a stand-in.
• Glass noodles: mung-bean vermicelli, soaked in warm water and cut shorter for the bowl.
• Dried shrimp: Thai grocers' small pink dried shrimp — soaked until soft, they carry the classic version's depth.
• Coriander with roots: Thai grocers; the roots simmer in the broth and do quiet work.
• Pork seasoning powder: Ros Dee or similar — or leave it out and add a splash more seasoning sauce.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.