I’m sitting here with a blank screen trying to figure out if I can even accurately describe to you how good this Thai Red Curry Vegetable Soup is. Maybe I should tell you that I wanted to skip the bowl and just eat it straight out of the pot with the huge ladle as my spoon? Maybe I should admit that I almost wanted to tell my boyfriend that I didn’t cook anything today so I could hide the soup and eat it all myself (no, not really, that’s mean).
The point is, this Thai Curry Vegetable Soup is good. So, so, so good. That paired with its simplicity and ease of preparation means there’s a good chance I’ll want to make this about once per week. I probably shouldn’t be eating that much coconut milk, but I’m sure I’ll find some way to rationalize it.
What Is Thai Red Curry Paste?
Thai red curry paste is a mix of red peppers, chiles, ginger, garlic, and other spices. Not to be confused with Indian curry powder, which is a mix of different spices and is usually sold as a powder, rather than a paste. Thai red curry paste can be used in soups, stir fries, sauces, and more.
Is Thai Red Curry Hot?
The spiciness of Thai red curry soup depends on the brand of Thai red curry paste used. I used Thai Kitchen brand, which is common in U.S. grocery stores, and it is not very spicy. Green Thai curry paste, on the other hand, is quite a bit spicier.
Customize the Vegetables
I happened to go to an Asian market yesterday where I picked up the ingredients for this soup (at really amazing prices, I might add), but if you can’t get the same vegetables as me, you can still make this Thai Curry Vegetable Soup! The beauty of this Thai Curry Vegetable Soup is that you can use just about any vegetable you like, although I try to at least have some sort of leafy green. Other vegetables that would be great choices include: spinach, kale, collard greens, cabbage, mushrooms, bean sprouts, snow peas, carrots, or red bell peppers.
Make it Vegetarian
I made a vegetarian version (minus the fish sauce, anyway) today, but you could easily add meat to this soup. Toss in some shredded rotisserie chicken, or brown some chicken pieces in the beginning with the Thai curry paste. If you prefer shrimp, I suggest adding it at the end and simmering just a few minutes, or until the shrimp turn pink.
Noodle Options
And what about the noodles? That’s customizable, too! You can skip the noodles all together if you want, or use a brick of cheap-o ramen if that’s what you have. It’s still going to taste amazing.
Easy, flavorful, and customizable–This Thai Curry Vegetable Soup is EXACTLY Budget Bytes style.
Thai Red Curry Vegetable Soup
Servings 4 (about 2 cups each)Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp neutral cooking oil* ($0.04)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger ($0.05)
- 2 Tbsp Thai red curry paste ($0.62)
- 1 small sweet potato (about 1 lb.) ($1.61)
- 1 bunch baby bok choy ($0.55)
- 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth ($0.52)
- 1 13oz. can coconut milk ($1.29)
- 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce ($0.07)
- 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 3.5 oz. rice vermicelli noodles ($0.39)
GARNISHES (optional)
- 1/2 red onion ($0.29)
- 1 lime ($0.17)
- 1 handful fresh cilantro ($0.17)
- Sriracha to taste ($0.15)
Instructions
- Prepare the vegetables for the soup and garnishes first, so they’re ready to go when needed. Mince the garlic and grate the ginger using a small-holed cheese grater. Peel and dice the sweet potato into one-inch cubes. Wash the bok choy well, then chop into one-inch strips, separating the fibrous stalks from the delicate green ends. Thinly slice the red onion and roughly chop the cilantro.
- Add the cooking oil to a large soup pot along with the minced garlic, grated ginger, and Thai red curry paste. Sauté the garlic, ginger, and curry paste over medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the diced sweet potato and chopped bok choy stalks to the pot (save the leafy green ends for later) along with the chicken or vegetable broth. Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are tender.
- While the soup is simmering, bring a small pot of water to a boil for the vermicelli. Once boiling, add the vermicelli and boil for 2-3 minutes, or just until tender. Drain the rice noodles in a colander and set aside.
- Once the sweet potatoes are tender, add the coconut milk, fish sauce, and brown sugar to the soup. Stir, taste, and adjust the fish sauce or brown sugar if needed. Finally, add the bok choy greens and let them wilt in the hot soup.
- To serve, divide the rice vermicelli among four bowls. Ladle the soup and vegetables over the noodles, then top with red onion, cilantro, a wedge or two of lime, and a drizzle of sriracha.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Video
How gorgeous are those colors??
How to Make Thai Curry Soup – Step by Step Photos
Start by preparing your vegetables, so they’re ready to use when you need them. I just happened to go to an Asian market the day before, so I picked up this Japanese yam, baby bok choy, limes, cilantro, and a red onion. Read through the intro if you need ideas for alternate vegetables.
Peel and dice the yam (or sweet potato, either will work), thinly slice the red onion, cut the limes into wedges, and cut the bok choy into strips. Try to keep the stalk end and the leafy green ends separate, as you’ll add them to the Thai Curry Vegetable Soup at different times.
You’ll also want to mince two cloves of garlic and grate about 1 Tbsp fresh ginger. It’s important to note that Thai red curry paste is VERY different from the curry powder that is used in Indian cuisine. This one is basically a mix of red chiles, garlic, galangal (similar to ginger), lemongrass, and a few other spices. If you want to make this soup EXTRA easy, skip the garlic and ginger, and just add more of the Thai red curry paste. ;)
Add a couple of tablespoons of any neutral cooking oil (like canola, vegetable, peanut, sunflower, grapeseed), the minced garlic, grated ginger, and 2 Tbsp of the Thai red curry paste to a large pot. Sauté the garlic, ginger, and curry paste over medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
Next add the hard vegetables, in this case, the yam (or sweet potato) and stalks of the bok choy, so they can simmer in the soup and soften.
Add four cups of vegetable or chicken broth, place a lid on top, turn the heat up to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until the sweet potato is soft.
While the soup is simmering, I cooked the rice vermicelli separately (this package is 3.5oz). The reason I cooked the noodles separately is that they cook super fast and I didn’t want them to overcook in the soup. I might, at some point in the future, add them to the soup at the end and let them soften that way, but today I wanted to be extra sure, so I just cooked them separately. They only take about 2-3 minutes to soften in boiling water, then drain the noodles in a colander and set aside.
Back to the soup pot. Once the sweet potato cubes are soft, add a 13oz. can of coconut milk, which transforms the soup into this creamy goodness.
Also, add 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce and 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar. Now, if you’ve never used fish sauce let me just tell you that it is very potent and doesn’t smell good, but because it’s used in such small quantities, that doesn’t really transfer to the dish you’re adding it to. It just adds a subtle umami flavor and a bit of saltiness. If you can’t get fish sauce or want this dish to be vegetarian, you can leave it out. It still tastes good, but IMHO will be missing that je ne sais quoi or authentic flavor that fish sauce gives. Also, if you skip the fish sauce, you can probably also skip the brown sugar.
After adding the fish sauce and brown sugar, give the broth a taste and adjust the flavors if needed. Finally, add the leafy green ends of the bok choy and let them wilt in the hot soup (the pot should still be over low heat).
To serve the Thai Curry Vegetable Soup, place some of the rice vermicelli in the bottom of a bowl…
Ladle the soup and vegetables over the noodles…
Then add your garnishes: thinly sliced red onion, lime wedges, chopped cilantro, and a drizzle of sriracha.
And then dig in.
And try not to die of happiness from the tastiest Thai Vegetable Soup ever.
Hey beautiful. ;) ;) ;)
I made the soup last night and my husband and I both enjoyed it! However, it was extremely expensive, I spent close to $20 to make it. All nine pantry items cost much more here in north Florida. I do agree that it was bland at first but once I added little extras in, it ended up pretty tasty. Once the soup was made, I ended up adding the remainder of the bottle of red curry paste (brand shown in photos), lots of lime juice and sriracha sauce.
Should say: all non pantry items!
Would this hold up in the freezer? I’m guessing the noodles would have to be made day of- but would just the soup survive freezing+microwave reheating (thinking about work meal prep).
Hmm, I’m not sure because I haven’t tried freezing a coconut based soup before. I feel like it would work, but like you said, add the noodles after reheating, as well as the red onion, cilantro, and lime.
I’ve frozen soups with coconut milk and I find they hold up fine and taste just as good re-heated!
Awesome! Good to know! Thank you. :)
Absolutely wonderful as written. Don’t mess with perfection, people. Beth, you are an all star in my books!!!!! Never disappointed with your recipes. Thank you for that.
Could I substitute anything for the fish sauce? I am looking for a vegan option.
You may be able to find a vegetarian “fish sauce” at a specialty store, but otherwise I’d just leave it out. You may want to add a small splash of soy sauce to compensate for the salt in the fish sauce, but I don’t know of anything that really adds the same sort of umami flavor as fish sauce. The soup is still really delicious without it, though.
I love Curry Noodles! Growing up my mom would make it for potlucks, family dinners, etc., since its such an easy dish. We never put in the potatoes and bok choy as it gets mushy over time. We were taught to not add any vegetables but bay leaf, garlic and ginger.
When roasting the curry paste, we’d add the vegetables (bay leaf, ginger, and garlic) then if you’d like coconut, you’d add in however much coconut and it’d get thick. Then add water.
And use rice noodles if you want a thicker noodle or omit the noodles and put it over white rice!
And to garnish, add some more fish sauce and cabbage or even lettuce with a sprinkle of lime.
Everyone who said they followed the recipe to a “T” and it turned out bland and horrible…newsflash YOU most likely cannot cook or follow directions! Lol! This is seriously my go to soup! I make it SO much and my whole family loves it! Thank you for sharing! I have sent this recipe to many friends to try.
I made this soup last night and slightly strayed from the ingredients. I axed the sweet potatoes and bok choy and added peppers, onion, carrots, broccoli, spincach, and tomato. I still followed the recipe and got a pretty good soup. I did find myself adding basil and more ginger to bring more of a flavor from the broth. (Though I used powered ginger and not fresh ginger #lazy). I was hesitant to try this recipe at first from some comments saying it is bland, however for being a curry soup and not just curry I would say it is very tasty.
Followed the recipe to a T and it is PERFECTION. Don’t skip on the optional garnishes, they really make the soup! My VERY picky boyfriend cannot stop raving about it. Great recipe, thank you for sharing!!
Could you sub a white potato for the sweet?
Personally I don’t think that flavor would work quite right here. The subtle sweetness of the sweet potato is very nice against the spiciness of the curry paste.
Can you use Green Thai curry paste instead of red?
Yes, green curry paste also makes a really good soup. Different flavor, of course, but still quite delicious.
Wow that is delicious! I was making it to take somewhere. I liked it so well I made a second batch right then and there to eat at home.
I squeezed a lime into the pot, a hand full of cilantro and 2 Tblsp of oyster sauce. In the second pot I added a half tsp salt and pepper to the oil and curry sauce.
Thanks for a new favorite!
Deborah
I followed the recipe exactly and got an awful, bland soup that I had to throw out because I couldn’t stomach it. Could not salvage it. Don’t waste your time.
This recipe just did not work at all for me. I followed the recipe exactly, and the result was bland with a hint of fishy. The sweet potatoes were an odd addition as they continue to cook in the broth until they are mushy.
Do you think Marmite would work as a vegetarian alternative to fish sauce? I know it’s not at all with keeping with the Asian ingredients but it’s definitely got the umami salty thing going on!
Hmm, interesting idea!! It might!
This was amazing! So easy and delicious! Can light coconut milk be substituted to make the soup less caloric?
Yes, although the soup will be less rich and a bit more watery.