Easy Thai Shrimp Soup
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Skip the take-out and try making this at home – it’s unbelievably easy and 10000x tastier and healthier!
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reasons to make easy thai shrimp soup
- Takeout favorite
- Budget-friendly
- Uses easy-to-find ingredients
- Cold weather comfort food
- Leftovers taste even better
- Super flexible recipe (and can be made vegetarian friendly)
what is red curry paste and where can i find it
Commonly used in Thai dishes, red curry paste is made from a blend of red chili pepper, garlic, lemongrass, Thai ginger and various spices.
Red curry paste is typically used for stir-fry, soups or mixed with coconut milk for curry. It is readily available in most grocery store chains, particularly the Thai Kitchen brand, and online, with some brands containing shellfish (shrimp paste).
tips and tricks for success
- Know your shrimp size. Shrimp size is calculated on number of shrimp per pound. The smaller the number, the larger your shrimp. There are about 40-50 medium shrimp per pound.
- Buy frozen shrimp. For superior quality and freshness, using frozen shrimp is ideal (but avoid the bags with freezer burn), opting for a quick thaw under cold running water.
- Use your favorite protein. This recipe will work well with chicken thighs, chicken breasts, shrimp or tofu.
- Use full fat coconut milk. Although lite coconut milk can certainly be used, full fat coconut milk will yield a much more rich and creamy broth.
- Mix it up. Swap the red curry paste for green, add in more veggies (cabbage, zucchini, mushrooms or bok choy) or use rice noodles in place of rice.
- Stir in more stock with leftovers. When reheating leftovers, stir in more stock as needed as the rice will continue to soak up the broth.
what to serve with thai shrimp soup
Easy Thai Shrimp Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
You can thaw frozen shrimp overnight, transferring it from the freezer to the fridge the day before. For a quick thaw, you can run them under cold water until completely thawed, about 5-10 minutes. Pat them dry as thoroughly as possible to remove any excess moisture.
Yes! Chicken is a great swap for the shrimp, and you can sub chicken stock for the vegetable stock as well.
We personally love Mae Ploy (contains shrimp paste). Thai Kitchen is also great with mild heat, and more readily available at most grocery stores.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days.
We do not recommend freezing this as coconut milk tends to separate when frozen.
Easy Thai Shrimp Soup
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Equipment
Instructions
- In a large saucepan of 1 1 /2 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; set aside.
- Season shrimp with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Melt butter in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add shrimp, and cook, stirring occasionally, until pink, about 2-3 minutes; set aside.
- Add onion and bell pepper to the Dutch oven. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in red curry paste, garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in coconut milk and vegetable stock; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 8-10 minutes.
- Stir in rice, shrimp, lime juice and cilantro.
- Serve immediately.
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Thanks for this recipe! This was perfect for some leftover shrimp stock I needed to use up. I only used one can of coconut milk and it was still fantastic. Left out the rice and added zucchini to make it low carb 🙂 Thanks again!
Can you used cooked shrimp or does it have to be raw?
Brent, you can certainly use cooked shrimp – I would just recommend skipping the first step to cook the shrimp since it’s already cooked to begin with. 🙂
I’m definitely going to make this tonight! I’ll make a few substitutions for Whole30 (clarified butter, no rice) but I bet it will be amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
I always read the comments on new recipes to see if everyone liked it, but typically its just a bunch of comments saying “I want to try this” which doesn’t help me at all. So I will say with confidence that I just made this recipe and it is incredible! I made a few small changes and will make more in the future which I think will help. I used a blender to help smooth out the diced onions and bell pepper once the broth was made. I also added a tad more curry paste. Maybe I missed it in the recipe but it definately needed salt before serving. Next time I’ll make it with half the amount of basmati rice. Even without these changes, the soup would still be amazing. That’s just how we prefer it.
Sure hope the shrimp is edible- did you notice you had in th recipe that the shrimp were being cooked the whole time?-In the last paragraph you said “add the shrimp, lime juice and cilantro” BUT the shrimp have been in the stockpot since cooking them in the butter!!!! I”ll let you know it it turned out!
Carole, the recipe actually indicates to set the shrimp aside to avoid overcooking:
Melt butter in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add shrimp, salt and pepper, to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pink, about 2-3 minutes; set aside.
Just had this for dinner tonight, and it was yum! Even my pickiest eater just didn’t eat all the shrimp but slurped up the rest. It’s a keeper and will be in regular rotation at our house. 🙂
I assume red curry paste is really hot/spicy? What should I use if I want a milder curry flavor? thanks!
Polly, you can try using less paste to suite your taste preferences.
Wow. Made this soup for supper tonight and it was awesome. I followed the fast metabolism diet and everything in the soup is FMD friendly. Definitely a keeper.
Wow, that looks yummy. If we have someone who can’t have shrimp, would you recommend chicken as an alternative?
Yes, absolutely.
Be careful though. Thai chili paste has shrimp in it.
Good point, Susan. For the record, though, certain brands–like Thai Kitchen, which is all my grocery store had–does not have shrimp in its ingredients list.
The only modification I would make to the recipe is more shrimp. Other than that it’s sooo good! I love it! I will be making this again!
This soup was perfect for freezing! I also added some diced chicken breasts and frozen peas for a little added color and flavor. LOVE IT.
I see that the nutrition facts say that this makes 6 servings. Do you know about how much soup each servings comes out to be?
One serving is roughly 1-2 cups.
Just made this,and omg soooo super easy and even more delicious! I used brown rice,and chicken (cheaper) and I loved it! Guilt free dinner for sure,thanks 😀
Visited my mom yesterday and she had made this recipe for dinner the night before. She packed a cup up of leftovers for me to take home and I just ate it for lunch today. It was incredible! Thank you! I can’t recommend this recipe enough.
I love this soup! I made it twice – once with a regular coconut milk and once with light coconut milk.
Although I enjoyed the creaminess of the regular coconut milk, the reduced fat version was delicious too! Thank you for this recipe, your blog is my favorite and no matter what recipe I tried it came out so so good!
Hi. I was wondering what you think about using shrimp stock instead of vegetable stock to boost up the shrimp flavor? Thanks!
Yes, that sounds like a great idea!
Can u elimate something or add something to it make it spicy I do not like something spicy hot but this looks so good wanna try , but can’t do spicy hot
The red curry paste is spicy so you can add as little or as much as you’d like to suit your taste preferences.
Is there any way to cut down on the fat in this recipe?
You can try substituting lite coconut milk.
Made this today – absolutely delicious and uncomplicated. Thank you, Chungah!
Wanted to add that in our two-person household, we had leftover soup as I made the recipe exactly as written. I refrigerated the liquid and added a freshly prepared batch of 1/2 lb. of shrimp, cooked in butter with a minced clove of garlic to the reheated soup for a great repeat meal. Next time, I’m going to add mushrooms and some red pepper flakes.
This was delicious! I added sweet potato to the mix of veggies and it was definitely a permanent addition to the recipe in my opinion! Thanks for another wonderful meal to add to my dinner recipe box!
I would love to make this hotter (in spice). I’m not familiar with thai spices, so I don’t know what I would add to heat it up. Some kind of chiles, you think? Would love your suggestion when you have a moment!
Becca, the red curry paste is already packed with plenty of spice, but if you feel that you need more, you can increase the paste as needed.