This Thai Red Curry is the ultimate comfort food and the best way to use up left over veggies, making it both convenient and tasty. Added perk: kids love it too!
Thai Red Curry, heaven on earth
Yes, Thai red curry… At this point, I’m sure you guys are starting to notice how much I love Asian food. Can you blame me?
Curry is my favorite dish of all time. Well, it’s pretty hard to claim it’s just a dish when you can apply curry in so many different ways. Curry anything, and I’m in!
Basically, it’s a large variety of veggies, drenched in flavorful herbs and spices in a creamy coconut milk soup-sauce. (cause soup-sauce is totally a thing, right?)
There are so many different types of curries out there though.
Thai red curry can be very hot. It’s centered around flavors like lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, and (of course) Thai chilies. It has a very different flavor from, say, Indian curry dishes, which are centered around the flavors of cardamom, clove, bay leaves, turmeric, and cinnamon. (still, yummm!)
Fortunately for you, when you make this curry at home, you have complete control of the heat.
So don’t worry, I’m not going to knock your “hot socks” off with this one.
It’s super budget friendly
Curry is extremely filling, and a great way to use up the veggies in your fridge that would otherwise go bad.
No more wasting perfectly good produce you ambitiously bought and forgot about! Just put it in curry.
The only other ingredients you need are coconut milk, rice, and a few flavorful Asian yum ingredients. (which are pretty cheap compared to american staples) I love it!
My favorite ever Thai curry paste is by Thai Home. I can’t find them on Amazon, but I usually have no trouble spotting them at a local Whole Foods, or even Fred Meyers. Thai kitchen also makes a great red curry paste! I used to like the Mae Ploy brand, but beware, they are not vegan.
Yes, not all curry pastes are vegan, so be sure to check your labels.
It’s essential you have a good curry paste or two stocked in your kitchen at all times, because like I said, you can curry ANYTHING!
Don’t skimp on the “Asian yum” ingredients
Gochujang is actually not typically a curry thing, but I’m a firm believer it should be. It’s a complex korean sweet chili paste, and it works perfectly in this curry recipe. If you’ve ever had Bibimbap, it’s the primary flavor behind that dish.
It’s a blend of hot pepper paste, soy sauce, brown sugar, seasoning, and vinegar. It’s super tasty and it’s not super spicy. I love to put it on everything. It’s also more flavorful than typical hot sauce, and I found my favorite brand online for $2.70 a bottle.
You can’t beat that!
Better than bouillon will save you money and yield better broth
And last but not least: Better than Bouillon.
Ahh, they might as well sponsor me, because I will never stop raving about them. They make this vegan “no chicken” bouillon, (as well as a vegetable one), that are out of this world good.
If you’re a vegan, I’m sure you’ve heard of them by now. If you’ve been sitting on the fence as to whether or not to get yourself some, today is your day.
Do it. Your taste buds will seriously thank you, and so will your wallet!
Only 1.5 tbsp is required to make an entire quart of broth. So if you do the math, for $8.99, you get almost 10 quarts of high quality broth. Broth that you can use for so many dishes.
Just one quart of broth at the store would normally set you back anywhere from $2.00 – $5.00. We’re talking like $20.00+ dollars saved.
Yes, you will have tasty, wholesome food, and be financially savy. You’re amazing, brilliant, and you deserve this bouillon stuff.
I promise, it won’t let you down.
(P.S… I seriously just went into the kitchen to eat this stuff straight up because just writing about it made me want it that bad. And I will eat this on its own… It’s that good… Ugh.)
Pro tips for making rice I wish I was born knowing
For some of us, if not all of us, making perfect rice can be a challenge. Sometimes, it just wants to glob up on you. Other times, it will leave dry, uncooked grains for you to crunch on.
It’s not always fun. I hear you.
And let me say, it took me much trial and error (and a job making over 50bs of it a day) to get perfect rice.
And no, you don’t need a rice cooker to get perfect rice. I’ve never owned one, and I probably never will. Convenient as they are, they’re not necessary here.
I’ll probably wind up writing an entire post on how to make perfect rice, since a lot goes into it, but for now I will leave you with one tip:
Rinse your rice. It’s important.
Your rice is covered in a dusty starch that is just dieing to turn your rice sticky, clumpy, and gooey. You won’t get nice, individualized grains with texture if you don’t rinse your rice well.
You need to actually make a water bath, put your rice in a strainer, and swirl it with your hands to release all of the starch.
Not once, not twice, but probably three plus times.
It’s really not that much effort considering that just this one thing will make a huge difference. I go into better detail in the actual recipe below. Just don’t skip this step!
What’s your favorite way to have curry?
I hope you guys enjoy this post, and more importantly this dish. I want it to bring you comforty, happy, good feelings in a time filled with a lot of stress and uncertainty. Each day can feel like a battle right now, but I got you.
It’s called comfort food for a reason. Let’s allow it do its job and warm your soul.
Let me know in the comment section below what your favorite ways are to enjoy curry. Do you enjoy yellow or green curry?
Let me know if your loving the Asian recipes or want a change of pace.
Enjoy!
Thai Red Curry
Ingredients
Steamed Rice
- 4½ cups white or brown rice
- 6¾ cups water (or to package instructions)
Thai Red Curry
- 2 medium shallots
- 1 large red bell pepper
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp ginger, fresh minced
- 3 medium carrots
- 3 medium potatoes (I use Yukon gold)
- 1 large crown broccoli
- 1/2 cup mushrooms (I use cremini)
- 1 tbsp red curry paste (I use the "Thai Home" brand) (1 tbsp will bring a mild – medium heat, lower or raise as necessary)
- 1 tsp gochujang paste (I use "Annie Chun's" brand) (add more for more heat)
- 4 cups water
- 1½ tbsp vegan bouillon (I use "Better than Bouillon", no chicken flavor)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce, low sodium
- 1 13.66 fl oz can coconut milk
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp lime juice, fresh (about 1/2 of a lime)
- 1/2 cup basil, fresh (Thai basil is great if you can find it!)
Instructions
Steamed Rice
- Rinse your rice: Add the rice to a strainer basket over a proportionately sized bowl. Place under running water and allow the bowl to fill up while swirling the rice with your hand. Eventually the rice will be sitting in a pool of water inside the bowl. Continue to swirl the rice around, using a figure 8 motion with your hand, side to side. (think infinity symbol) Do this for about 15 seconds before dumping the water out of the bowl and repeating the process once or twice. You'll know its ready when the water runs mostly clear.
- Place the rinsed rice and measured out water in a large sauce pan and cook according to package instructions. If you don't have any: turn the heat up to high to bring the water to a boil. As soon as the water boils, cover and reduce the heat to low-med. Simmer covered for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit, still covered, for 10 more minutes. Remove the lid and fluff.
Thai Red Curry
- Prepare your vegetables by first mincing the garlic and ginger. Thinly slice the carrots, mushrooms, and shallots. Chop the potatoes and bell pepper down to a medium dice. Cut the broccoli crown down to bite sized pieces. Be sure to peel the carrots! (and the potatoes if you prefer them skinless) Pluck the basil leaves and cut down if large. Set aside.
- Whisk together the warm water and bouillon in a small bowl. Make sure bouillon completely dissolves. (sometimes it helps to use your hands to massage the bouillon into dissolving) Set aside.
- Heat 1/4 cup of water in a large sauce pan over high heat. Once simmering, add the shallots and bell pepper to the pan. Cook 3-5 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and cook an additional 1-2 minutes. Add the remaining vegetables (minus the basil) with the curry paste and gochujang. Stir to combine, and cook 2 minutes, or until fragrant. Season with a couple pinches of salt and pepper.
- Add the broth (water + bouillon), soy sauce, coconut milk, and maple syrup to the vegetables. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and cover. Cook for 25 minutes, checking to stir every 5 minutes.
- Add lime juice and fresh basil. Serve immediately over a bed a steamed rice. Enjoy!
Notes
- This recipe is perfect for experimenting. I basically call this my “leftover” soup. If you have a bunch of veggies going bad in the fridge that you don’t know how to use, put them in here. Curry seriously makes anything taste bomb.
- Try kale or spinach instead of basil if you aren’t a fan. These are also great.
- It is super important to rinse your rice. I learned my method from one of the Asian restaurants I worked at. I try to break it down in the first step as best I can. Don’t skip this crucial step to great rice!
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was curious what all is required to get setup? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I’m not very web savvy so I’m not 100 sure. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Hi there! It’s great that you want to start your own blog. There are lots of resources, tutorials, and guides out there on the web in regards to getting started. Youtube and Google were my best friends when I was starting this up. It definitely doesn’t have to cost a pretty penny. (this one certainly hasn’t) It does cost a LOT of time, effort, and learning though. I wasn’t web savvy at all when I started Alder Spirit, but I learned along the way built this entire website myself, no web designer needed. If you ever want to talk more about it you can email me at [email protected]. Good luck!