This Thai Red Curry recipe is packed full of flavor, veggies, and will become a new favorite. It’s easy to customize and is made in one pot for mess-free cooking.
Looking for more Thai recipes? Try Drunken Noodles, Yellow Curry, Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps, or my popular Pad Thai!
Why I love this recipe:
- Veggie Packed: I modeled this red curry after one I had in Oregon at a fantastic little restaurant called Buttercup Ice Creams and Chowders. It was packed with veggies, and I wanted the same here, using leeks, yam, cabbage, bell pepper and snap peas. It’s easy to serve as a Vegetarian red curry, or add shrimp or chicken for extra protein.
- Easy to Customize – Feel free to use your favorite veggies you already have on hand, and you can also use tofu for a vegetarian option.
- One Pot Meal: All made in just one pan for the easiest clean up. Anyone can make this chicken red curry recipe!
How to make Red Curry:
Sauté Vegetables: Heat oil in a pot over medium heat. Add leeks and sauté for a few minutes until softened. Toss in yams, cabbage, bell pepper and snap peas and sauté over medium-high heat.
Add Curry Paste: Reduce heat to medium and dump in ginger, garlic and curry paste and sauté for 3 minutes. Add chicken, if using. *Here’s a homemade red curry paste recipe.
Pour in Chicken Broth: Stir in chicken broth. Mix cornstarch with the coconut milk, and then add to the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through.
Fry Shallots: Add 3 Tablespoons oil and sliced shallots to a small skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring gently the entire time, for several minutes until they begin to get golden. Once they start to get barely golden brown, remove to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.
Finish Curry: Stir in fish sauce, brown sugar, lime juice (and shrimp, if using). Simmer 5 more minutes. Stir in Thai basil leaves.
Serve: Top red Thai curry with fresh cilantro leaves and fried shallots before serving. Serve as a soup, or serve over hot cooked jasmine rice, cauliflower rice, zoodles, or cooked spaghetti squash.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: Store red curry in the fridge for 3-4 days. Rewarm on the stove before serving.
To Freeze: Place in freezer safe bags or containers for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat on the stove or in the microwave. Serve as a soup, or serve over hot cooked jasmine rice, cauliflower rice, zoodles, or cooked spaghetti squash.
Recipe Variations:
- Veggie Substitution Ideas: broccolini, green beans, zucchini, mushrooms and carrots.
- Tofu: If you’d like to add tofu, I suggest air frying or baking it first, and then stir in towards the end.
- Curry Paste: Spice level of curry paste varies by brand, so start with less and add more, for more heat and bold flavor. I prefer Mae Ploy Brand and use 1-2 tablespoons. If using Thai Kitchen brand, I use the entire 4oz container for a mild/medium spice curry.
More Curry Recipes:
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Recipe
Thai Red Curry
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons oil , canola, vegetable or coconut oil
- 1 leek , chopped (the white and light green part only)
- 1 yam , small, peeled and chopped into ½ inch cubes
- 1 cup cabbage , chopped
- ½ green bell pepper , chopped
- 1 cup snap peas , halved
- 2 teaspoons fresh minced ginger
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1-6 Tablespoons red curry paste*
- 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 14 oz can unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 or 2 teaspoons cornstarch*
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 Tablespoon lime juice , about 1 small lime
- 1 Tablespoon light brown sugar
- 1 boneless skinless chicken breast , chopped or ½ lb uncooked shelled shrimp
- 1 cup Thai basil leaves , loosely packed
Fried Shallots:
- 2 shallots , sliced very thinly into rounds
- 3 Tablespoons oil , canola, vegetable or coconut oil
Garnishes
- fresh cilantro
- hot cooked rice , jasmine or white rice, optional
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pot over medium heat. Add leeks and sauté for a few minutes until softened. Add yams, cabbage, bell pepper and snap peas and sauté over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add ginger, garlic and curry paste and sauté for 3 minutes. Add chicken, if using.
- Stir in chicken broth. Mix cornstarch with the coconut milk, and then add to the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender (and chicken is cooked through).
- Meanwhile, add 3 Tablespoons oil and sliced shallots to a small skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring gently the entire time, for several minutes until they begin to get golden. Once they start to get golden brown, remove to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.
- To the curry, stir in fish sauce, brown sugar, lime juice (and shrimp, if using). Simmer 5 more minutes. Stir in Thai basil leaves.
- Top with fresh cilantro leaves and fried shallots before serving.
- Serve as a soup, or serve over hot cooked jasmine rice, cauliflower rice, zoodles, or cooked spaghetti squash.
Notes
Nutrition
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I am so excited to try this recipe! Do you think that it would work in the slow cooker?
This recipe is delicious! Curry has always intimidated me, but this recipe came together easily and was restaurant quality! I used 1.5T Maesri brand curry paste which gave just a bit of heat.
Absolutely delicious! We used shrimp 🍤 and it was so yummy 😋. Thank you for sharing your recipes & also creating a free platform to create meal plans with printable shopping list!! Your a life saver ❤
I made this Red Curry dish today and served it over rice and it was amazing! I’ve never made a curry before and couldn’t believe how easy it was! Definitely will be adding this to my meal planning! Yum! ❤️😋🌶️
Thai Red Curry recipe: Easy and Really Enjoyed the Blend of Ingredients!
I haven’t tried very manu curry recipies, but everything else from “Tastes Better From Scratch” has been so good I was emboldened to try it. I really liked it and my family did as well! I loved that it was all in one pot, (I made rice in a separate pot ) and I could substitute the veggies for my family’s taste. Thank you so much for another great recipe!
This was really good and packed with fresh delicious vegetables. This was my first time using leeks and I need to find some more uses for them because they were great. Easily makes it into the rotation. I had to use a simmer curry sauce because I couldn’t find paste at the local market, so this probably suffered in the heat department. I’ll have to search out some different paste or incorporate some Thai red pepper to bring the heat!
This recipe is a new favorite, though I have to admit I felt a little nervous about putting cabbage in curry.
I did have to make some substitutions- carrots (instead of sweet potatoes), zucchini, red pepper instead of green. Even though my husband doesn’t like cooked carrots or zucchini he loved this dish and really felt the curry itself covered the flavors he usually finds officious. I think this dish has potential to be a great “use up whatever vegetable is left in the fridge” kind of dish. Next time I want to use cauliflower.
I used 3 T. of Thai Kitchen red curry and it was mild enough for my kids to eat.
I was out of cilantro and could not find Thai basil, which was a real shame; however, the dish was still delicious! It will only be better when I have everything on hand!
I LOVED this curry! I made a few changes so I can’t totally speak for the original recipe, but for anyone else who’s in my boat as a poor college student and wants to simplify the recipe a little, here’s what I did:
1. I substituted the leek for regular yellow onion (probably not nearly as yummy, but apparently you can only buy two packs of leeks and they were expensive…)
2. I totally thought I had chicken in the freezer, but I didn’t, and the dish turned out great vegetarian! (So if you don’t want to spend extra money on chicken, you don’t have to)
3. I didn’t want to buy a whole bottle of fish sauce to use one teaspoon, so I used worcestershire sauce instead since I already had some.
4. I couldn’t find cilantro at the store for some reason, so I used some cilantro stir-in paste that I had in the fridge and that worked great.
Also, I added kosher salt at the end because I like salt and the recipe doesn’t call for any 🙂
I served it over brown rice and my husband and I both loved it! The fried shallots were my favorite part. They added great texture! I will definitely make it again!
Very flavorful curry with so many veggies! This was delicious! We had it with shrimp and I used regular basil because that’s what I had on hand.
Loved it! Never really cooked with sweet potato except during the holidays. A defo hit with the family. Thank you for sharing, Lauren.
Made this for dinner last night. Having everything chopped and ready before you start helps it come together smoothly. We both really enjoyed it.
What a great tip and we are thrilled you loved it!
Thai food is one of my husband’s favorites so I made this for him. He rated it a 4.4 out of 5 stars and loved it!!!
I made this yesterday, and it was fantastic. It is definitely a keeper. It took longer to prepare than prep time listed, but definitely worth the wait.
Our class of 18-21 year old Post High students made this recipe. All the chopping was challenging for them but the results were worth it. It was so tasty and they all loved it and gave it 5 stars. We plan to use up ingredients to make another batch to put in the freezer.
I made this tonight for dinner and it was really good! I’m usually not a fan of fish sauce or sweet potatoes, but I put them both in as called for in the recipe, and was surprised at how much I liked it. This was great for the rainy, cold weather we’ve been having today!
Loved this recipe! So many flavors! My kids loved it and went back for more!
Made this today! Colorful and tasty! I felt good serving a dish with so many healthy veggies. Added shrimp and served over rice.
I’ve been craving Thai food lately and this hit the spot! Having lived in Thailand for almost 3 years this dish brought back so many memories. It tastes pretty authentic and straightforward to make. Just get the ingredients and you’re good to go!
This recipe was so easy to follow and tasted amazing! I added bok choy as well for a little extra veggies!
DELICIOUS. Having all my mesenplace ready to go, my veggie choices were sweet potatoes, red and yellow sweet peppers, sugar snap peas, mushrooms. Only thing I did a little differently was the order of cooking. I like my veggies in dishes like this still crisp tender (al dente) so, I started by sauteing the sweet potatoes first to caramelize/tenderize a bit, then threw in the sugar snap peas, peppers and mushrooms, sauteed until bright and just tender, then removed to a plate and set aside. With cooking pot still hot, I then threw in the chicken, ginger and garlic, sauteing until chicken was cooked and then quickly stirred in the 2 T. red curry paste (I used Thai Kitchen brand, extremely mild in heat–green curry is your hot one!), it was so mild in heat, could have added more like Lauren suggests! Once that married a bit, I finished with the rest of the ingredients, then added back in my sauteed veggies, just before finishing up. Didn’t have any leeks to start, so chopped up scallions to add with the basil at the end. Also didn’t have any shallots to fry crispy so decided to use up French’s fried onions left over from the recent holidays as the garnish with the torn cilantro to finish…..entire dish was fantastic! It was fun coming up with ways to use up what I had in my kitchen, applying all goodies to this beautiful recipe!! Thank you Lauren, family LOVED!! I took a picture of the final dish served over brown rice, but I see no way to attach a photo, and I am not on any social media to instagram, etc. Question: would love to know the meal plan week number this recipe is in so I can menu it year round…?
Thank you Pamela!! Love hearing how you prepared it. Sounds wonderful!! This is in meal plan 109! Enjoy and thanks for the review!
I made this tonight and it was my first curry to make. It was surprisingly easier than what I thought it would be. I used zucchini and green beans and two chicken thighs instead and it was great! I just used a tablespoon of Thai kitchen curry but next time I’ll probably do two. Definitely making this again!
Having loved Thai curries for years and was a little hesitant to try this. Turns out this was excellent. Wife loved it too. i used the chicken option, with snow peas and cabbage. i did not include yams or potatoes and didn’t add fish sauce, so a little flavor loss there, but unnoticed. The next time i will add more shallots (my two wer very small), and extra leaks. Also served on steamed Jasmine rice… thanks for the recipe.
This curry recipe was fantastic! I have tried a few over the years and found none as satisfying. I added garam masala and chili powder for spices and omitted the snap peas for family preference. I also included both fried tofu and shrimp and found they were a good combination. The fried shallots were the perfect topping. This is a keeper!
For starters, I love curry dishes but usually yellow curry. This was an absolute hit though! I used extra veggies than what the recipe called for and got some authentic curry paste from the local Asian market in my town. Even my picky eater wanted to have more! I couldn’t believe it. Thank you for creating/sharing this recipe. It’ll definitely be in my recipe line up from now on.
This recipe has single-handedly cured me of my reluctance to try cooking curry! It was easy and relatively quick to put together, and turned out delicious! It was a vegetable-hearty dish (I added the mushrooms as suggested), and very flavorful. I used Maesri brand curry paste, 3T, and it was good with mild heat. Great recipe! Will definitely be making this again!
Loved all the vegetables. So much leftover (just hubby & me), thanks for the freezer tip – have meals ready for more nights.
This recipe is so easy and oh so Yummy! My husband told me it was Fantastic amd he could eat it every day. I didn’t add the brown sugar because we try to eat little to no sugar. I will definitely be adding this to our meal rotation
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Is fish sauce a needed ingredient as I don’t have it
It adds a nice umami flavor but you can leave it out!
So easy and flavorful that I’ll definitely be cooking it again. I make it with air-fried tofu and it was a success at home.
Made this last night. It was a hit with all the kids. There was plenty of leftovers for round 2 tonight. The bonus was that the kids were looking forward to having it again the next night as left overs. Prep was easy, and I was able to get all the ingredients I needed at our local Walmart! I prepared it with the chicken and the shrimp and only did 2 TBSP of curry paste. I will increase that next time I make it.
This was so easy to make and tasted great. Will make again.
What type of cabbage did you use or recommend?
We use plain green cabbage! Happy Cooking!
This was a smashing hit at my house. I love the fact that it is loaded with veggies. Because of a coconut allergy, I substituted evaporated milk. While I know this changes the flavor profile, it’s a change my family has lived with forever. This has been added into my rotation of weekly menus, and I have a feeling we’ll enjoy it for years to come!
Easy to recreate! Loved by all our family (kids too!).
So glad to hear this! We love a good family friendly dinner!
That dish was not that simple to make I’ll try again something else thank you
Thanks for giving it a try Sandra! Hope it was yummy for you!
One of the better curry I’ve found, even kids liked it!