Thai Red Curry Soup
This quick and easy soup is the perfect kind of comfort food on a cold winter night!
When Jason and I first started dating over four years ago, he told me that his mom had just been diagnosed with a tumor around one of her intestines. Not knowing how to react or what to do, I simply told him that I would be there for him, but not in a creepy-stalker-overbearing way. After all, it was our very first date.
Because our relationship was so new and so fresh, I felt like Jason couldn’t really share much of his burden with me. But I knew that him and his two older sisters were definitely going through a hell of a time dealing with this. Fortunately, Jason’s mom’s chemo treatment had been a tremendous success and she’s never been healthier to date.
I feel like the word “cancer” is so incredibly terrifying that it becomes very hard to talk about. It’s always a sensitive issue between Jason and I, and most times, I’m not sure how to deal with it, or even talk about it. I’m just so incredibly grateful for all of the familial support that surrounds us.
That being said, I bring you this thai red curry soup today. It was incredibly hard to pick a dish for this event but I finally decided to bring a bowl of my favorite kind of comfort food. With vibrant flavors of red curry, vermicelli noodles and tons of veggies, this will surely become your favorite kind of comfort food too!
Thai Red Curry Soup
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 12-ounce package firm tofu, cubed
- 3 ounces shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
- ½ cup bean sprouts
- 1 red chili pepper, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
- 4 ounces vermicelli noodles
- 2 cups baby spinach
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves, plus more for garnish
- Juice of 1/2 lime
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Red kamaboko, steamed fish cake, thinly sliced, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add red curry paste and coconut milk, whisking to combine. Bring to a boil and stir in vegetable stock, fish sauce, tofu, mushrooms, bean sprouts, chili pepper and vermicelli.
- Reduce heat and simmer until noodles are cooked through, about 4-6 minutes. Stir in spinach until wilted, about 1 minute. Stir in cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice; season with salt, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with chili pepper, cilantro and fish cake, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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substituted shiitake for white mushrooms, doubled spinach & lime, and added red pepper & onion! deeelish and so easy to make! definitely a new favourite! thank you!
I tried this tonight and it was really good.
Also substituted regular brown mushrooms (thinly sliced). I loved the flavour. Even the teen girls in the house approved!
AMAZING! I just made this and it was one of the best soups I have ever made! I couldn’t find the sprouts so I used green peppers. I just brought some over to my boyfriend and he doesn’t like tofu and he loved this soup! If your considering this….DO IT!!!!
I will be trying this recipe very soon…..I know from the comments that it is delicious…….
This looks delicious and nutritious.
Thanks.
What is a good substitute for fish sauce?
Krista, you can read more about possible fish sauce substitutions here.
Can I make this without coconut milk?
You can certainly try omitting the coconut milk but without further recipe testing, I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish. Omitting an ingredient can also result in a mediocre outcome.
Do you happen to know the nutritional information for this soup?
Thanks! It’s delicious by the way.
Kaitlyn
Unfortunately, as I am not a registered dietician, I am not comfortable sharing nutritional information for any of my recipes. I recommend utilizing online calorie counters at your discretion to obtain such information.
Hi There,
I just wanted to let you know the icon for this recipe is the one from your miso soup. I had been searching for a red curry soup recipe and originally had skipped over this because the icon didn’t match what I had in mind. Then I google searched a recipe and yours came up straight to the link and when I scrolled through realized it was exactly what I was looking for! Thanks and just wanted to let you know.
Michelle
Hi Michelle. I just checked through all the photos and google, and the icon does match the photos within the post. But thank you for letting me know.
I agree with you, the main photo has egg and other ingredients but the recipe seems to be what i wanted!
This was delicious! I subbed a few things, as I am a student and thus can’t afford fancy imported things, but I loved it:
-Bell Pepper instead of tofu
-normal mushrooms
-no fish sauce, I don’t like it
but I used Asian Chilli noodles instead and added lemon grass.
Definitely making it again soon!
Are those rice noodles or vermicelli pasta noodles? Pinning this yummy recipe, thanks!
No, these are not exactly pasta noodles. These are very thin, Asian noodles that you can find either at the Asian aisle of your local grocery store or at an Asian supermarket. Hope that helps!
This was delicious and SOOO easy! I was impressed. I didn’t think it was flat at all. I do have a question though: did you use previously grilled or stir-fried tofu? Because I used the just the regular, firm tofu and I thought it was a little too mushy you know? I thought maybe I was missing something! I don’t know!
But yeah, definitely trying more recipes of yours after this!!! Thanks 🙂
No, I did not grill or stir-fry the tofu prior to adding to the soup. I actually really liked the softness of it in the soup, but you can certainly stir-fry beforehand for a more firm texture.
I had most of the ingredients except substituted vegie stock for chicken stock, thinly sliced crimini mushrooms for shitake mushrooms. I wasn’t able to add kamaboko though being Japanes I usually have some in the fridge. When I tasted the soup I thought it tasted a little flat even with all the spicy ingredients. I added 3 Tablespoons of brown sugar and it added the missing flavor. Thanks for your wonderful website and emails. I’m trying your recipes as fast as I can!
Thank one!!