Thai Coconut Curry Soup
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This will be your go-to Thai curry soup! Serve with fresh Thai basil, cilantro and lime juice. So cozy, so good.
Hello, cozy-soup-weather-season.
When it’s 34 degrees F windchill in the middle of October and it’s too cold to go outside, we’re all staying home with this Thai coconut curry soup.
The freshly squeezed lime juice, Thai basil and cilantro adds such brightness to this soup, cutting through the heat to give it just enough of a spicy kick. For less heat, you can easily cut down on the red curry paste to your liking.
You can serve it as is, you can add rice, you can add rice noodles, you can sub out the shrimp for chicken, or you can keep it completely meatless.
It is all good, guys. There’s no going wrong here!
Thai Coconut Curry Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 large yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
- 1 ½ pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- ¼ cup chopped fresh Thai basil leaves
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat coconut oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat.
- Add bell peppers and onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in red curry paste, ginger and garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in chicken stock, tomato sauce, fish sauce and brown sugar. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until flavors have blended, about 10-15 minutes.
- Stir in coconut milk and simmer until reduced and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in shrimp, and cook, stirring occasionally, until pink and cooked through, about 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from heat; stir in basil, cilantro and lime juice; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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IS THIS THE OR RICIPE/
Thai basil even where I live is hard to find. Can you use Persian basil or Italian which is very strong. I don’t want Italian Thai. Suggestions on where to find or a substitute.
Thank you,
Amazing and delicious. Cooked this multiple times subbing the shrimp with chicken (skip the fish sauce) or with just more veggies (broccoli, carrots, mushrooms) and still wins. Served on a base of rice.
10 out of 10 my wife declared! Probably could have used a bit more heat. I made it 99% of the recipe and used reg basil and a yellow onion. Thanks again for a wonderful recipe from Damn Delicious!! 🙂
I LOVED this recipe, just as is!!!!
For me, that is the utmost compliment Chungah because I find so many recipes wanting to have bolder personalities!
For that reason, they call to me to add more flavour with extra ginger, garlic, or more fun like mushrooms, peas or broccoli. While you can do this to the above recipe, you don’t have to. Its wonderful, “as is”. Also, if you’re wondering if the spice allergic member of your family will like it, it passed the “David” test…. he can spot heat from the kitchen door, and he loved this soup (the coconut milk tempered the bit of chili in the thai chili paste (which I happen to really love using. Thank you Chungah. So refreshing to not have to figure out how to make a so-so recipe wonderful.
I first made this soup years ago. To me it is one of those few exciting recipes that one would typically only find in an authentic fine restaurant. Being able to make it!!!! Now there’s something to boast about.
It’s a recipe to impress. I never kept fish sauce in the fridge, now it’s a staple.
This dish was simple and very delicious! Will definitely make it again.
Fantastic! I make this just about every week. My hubby and I love it that much
Thank you.
I made this at a Thai cooking party with friends and it was such a hit! Flavors are perfect and everyone raved. I love that all of the ingredients are easy to find and that it comes together so quickly. The few leftovers remaining were just as good or better the next day. Thank you!
Sounds good
Yummy love Thai Food
Wow! This really is damn delicious. I made it with shrimp and poured over brown basmati rice. Hot the spot!
This was a great recipe with easy to find ingredients. The flavor was perfect. I don’t eat shrimp so I omitted it and had sautéed salmon on top of the curry. Thank you for such a great, user friendly recipe!
Husband approved!! Never made anything like this before and it was incredibly easy! He ended up adding a little cayenne so make it a little more spicy and it’s delicious! I didn’t add any and it’s very flavorful. Made my whole house smell amazing(:
Do you think I could freeze this to serve later?
Great dish with a ton of flavor!!
Wonderful! I had no shrimp or fish sauce, so I used chicken and soy sauce as one reviewer suggested. To answer one reviewer’s question—I sautéed the chicken (cut bite-size) in oil, set it aside, and added it to the recipe when it was called for. We served leftovers on top of grits with our eggs for breakfast brunch!
It did help to do all the chopping and measuring, before I began cooking.
My husband often orders this when we go to a Thai restaurant, so I thought why not try making it at home. It was amazingly good, the aroma and flavor really comes together just with the first few ingredients.
Can you tell me what you mean by a can of tomato sauce? I’m in Australia. Tomato sauce here is like ketchup in America. You serve it with pies or hot chips or sausages. I don’t think this is what you mean. Do you mean tinned tomato soup?
Great question! Canned tomato sauce is very different from tomato soup. Canned tomato sauce is also sometimes called spaghetti sauce. It’s essentially pureed tomatoes and a little water (sometimes herbs and spices are added), then cooked down until it has a “ketchup”-like consistency. I hope that helps!
I lived in Australia for 10 years. American tomato sauce is called TOMATO PURÉE in Australia.
I just made this yesterday. Let me tell you – I never knew I was capable of making an amazing Thai food. This was something that was so rich in flavor, perfect for cold weather and definitely something we will be adding to the meal rotations. Thank you so much! I didn’t use fish sauce but it was perfect without it. All my kids loved it!
Can I use regular basil if I can’t find the Thai basil?