Thai Green Curry with Spring Vegetables
This healthy, vegetarian Thai green curry recipe is full of asparagus, carrots and spinach! It's full of flavor and simple enough for weeknight dinners.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 5, 2024
I’ve been on a vegetable-packed coconut curry kick lately—they’re just the perfect transition food for this time of year. This vegetarian Thai green curry recipe features fresh asparagus, carrots and spinach in a delicious green coconut sauce. It’s full of flavor and simple enough for weeknight dinners.
I used store-bought Thai curry paste instead of raw ingredients, because some (like galangal) are difficult to find and time-consuming to prepare. I’ve watched a chef prepare curry paste in Thailand, and he really worked up a sweat! So while this recipe is not perfectly authentic, it’s a lot easier to make.
This curry is based on an older Thai green curry recipe, which I’ve since deleted. I loved the base recipe for that dish (I learned how to make it at a fun cooking class), but I was never quite satisfied by my choice of mix-ins.
So here we are, three years later, with an improved, extra-green version. This time, I opted for asparagus (snow peas would also work), carrots and wilted spinach. I love it, and I think you will, too!
How to Serve Thai Green Curry
I skipped the tofu altogether and found the dish to be plenty hearty without it. If you want to add tofu, though, I’d suggest baking it first and adding it with the coconut milk.
I served my curry over rice (again), but I bet quinoa would be an interesting alternative.
Please let me know how you like this recipe in the comments! If you want to change it up, don’t miss my Thai red curry recipe.
Watch How to Make Thai Green Curry
Thai Green Curry with Spring Vegetables
This healthy, vegetarian Thai green curry features fresh asparagus, carrots and spinach! It’s full of flavor and simple enough for weeknight dinners. Feel free to substitute sliced snow peas for the asparagus if it’s not in season where you live. Recipe yields two large servings (as shown) or four small servings.
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown basmati rice, rinsed
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil or olive oil
- 1 small white onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger (about a 1-inch nub of ginger, peeled and chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- Pinch of salt
- ½ bunch asparagus, tough ends removed and sliced into 2-inch long pieces (to yield about 2 cups prepared asparagus)
- 3 carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal into ¼-inch wide rounds (to yield about 1 cup sliced carrots)
- 2 tablespoons Thai green curry paste*
- 1 can (14 ounces) coconut milk (I used full-fat coconut milk for a richer curry)
- ½ cup water
- 1 ½ teaspoons coconut sugar or turbinado (raw) sugar or brown sugar
- 2 cups packed baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons rice vinegar or fresh lime juice
- 1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce** (I used reduced-sodium tamari)
- Garnishes: handful of chopped fresh cilantro and red pepper flakes, to taste
Instructions
- To cook the rice, bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the rinsed rice and continue boiling for 30 minutes, reducing heat as necessary to prevent overflow. Remove from heat, drain the rice and return the rice to pot. Cover and let the rice rest for 10 minutes or longer, until you’re ready to serve.
- Warm a large skillet with deep sides over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add a couple teaspoons of oil. Cook the onion, ginger and garlic with a sprinkle of salt for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the asparagus and carrots and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the curry paste and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes.
- Pour the coconut milk into the pan, along with ½ cup water and 1 ½ teaspoons sugar. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the carrots and asparagus are tender and cooked through, about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Once the vegetables are done cooking, stir the spinach into the mixture and cook until the spinach has wilted, about 30 seconds. Remove the curry from heat and season with rice vinegar and soy sauce. Add salt and red pepper flakes (optional), to taste. Divide rice and curry into bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, if you’d like.
Notes
*Green curry paste: Look for it in the Asian section of the grocery store. I like Thai Kitchen brand. Not all Thai curry pastes are vegetarian, but this one is.
**Make it gluten free: Be sure to use gluten-free tamari instead of regular soy sauce.
If you love this recipe: Be sure to check out my other Thai-inspired recipes here!
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This was so good!! Just made it recently and it tasted fab. I didn’t have asparagus on hand but it was still really good. I used the Thai Kitchen curry paste.
Thanks for such a great recipe!!
I know I’m late to the game here but I just have to say this recipe is outstanding! I’ve made a lot of pinterest curries and none can compare to how tasty this one turned out to be. The only changes I made was adding red bell pepper, more asparagus, a dash of cayenne pepper and fresh lime juice. So yummy! Thanks for sharing:)
We really enjoyed the flavors in this recipe along with the flexibility. I used carrots, red peppers, and yellow squash for the veggies and followed the package instructions on outbreaks long grain brown rice. I did add the baked tofu. Just stellar!
Thank you for sharing this! I felt mine turned out a bit watery – any tips for thickening the curry? I didn’t use light coconut milk. Thanks!
I put two big ¾” diced gold potatoes and they gave it a nice thick texture.
Hi! Thai food (Curry), is my boyfriend’s and also my favorite food! Everywhere we go, we search for Thai restaurants. Finally, I thought, what if I could MAKE it myself!? Massaman Curry is my favorite and that’s all I ever order at the Thai food restaurants. But I was having a difficult time finding a massaman curry paste and to make it, well….it’s a LOT of work! I finally decided to look on Amazon, and found Curry paste’s. I ordered all three! Red, Green and Massaman. I found your recipe after googling what oils to use. I went to the store quick and bought the ingredients I needed and Within an hour…..Wa-La! Your green Curry recipe was a great success! It was VERY spicy, which I like, but for my boyfriend, that was another story…..he loved it but I tried adding a little more sugar to cut the spice some. Thank you! I’m so glad I found your recipe and I got to try something other than Massaman Curry! Is there a trick to making the sauce a little thicker?
Hi Lorelei, so glad you enjoyed my curry recipe! For a thicker sauce, be sure to use regular (full-fat) canned coconut milk, not light milk. If you want it even thicker you could replace the water with additional coconut milk.
Thank you for sharing this recipe!! I made it for the second time last night. Absolutely divine. Admittedly I played around with the proportions and substituted a few things. Honestly I felt like I was in Thailand again!!!
That’s so nice of you, Heidi! Thank you.
I tried this recipe for the first time this evening and it was a BIG hit with my husband, two year old & our grandparents! I had cauliflower and green beans instead of asparagus and spinach and it worked wonderfully! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes! Thanks Kate!!! (PS I tried to give this a 5 star rating but it won’t let me!)
Belated thank you, Rebecca! I’m so glad you all enjoyed it!
I was a little underwhelmed. It was way too sweet–definitely does not need the sugar. A sprinkle of red pepper flakes helped cut the sweetness a little.
Feel free to adapt it to your tastes, Paula!
Made this for my dinner tonight and it was really good. We are a mixed omnivore and vegetarian family and my daughter, who is not vegetarian, went back for seconds – of this! I used the Thai Kitchen brand of curry paste and did not find it too spicy at all (and I am not a of too much hot). Thanks for a great, healthy, delicious recipe!
Oh, I’m so happy this worked out for everyone, Vivian! Thanks so much.
I love this recipe. We make it every week or so, its one of my boyfriends favorites. Thank you!
Oh, I’m so glad! Thanks, Dani!
I love coconut curries and this was delicious. Pretty sure this was my first time doing a green curry and it did not disappoint. Admittedly, I changed things up a bit (as my husband would tell you, that is standard in my kitchen). Still too wintry here for local asparagus, so I subbed in frozen green beans and edamame.
I also wanted to add that I love your website. I have really been using it a lot lately (at least once a week) for meal prep and I have found your recipes to be reliable, delicious and real food healthy – music to a mom’s ears. LOVE the monthly guides – those butternut squash tacos are on my menu for next week. Thanks for a great resource (and it’s beautiful too – great photos!)
Thanks, Cara! I’m glad you love the curry and that you found the blog helpful with meal prep! Such kind words.
Which Thai green curry paste do you use because I can’t find one that doesn’t have shrimp in?
Thai Kitchen brand is vegetarian
I’ve made this curry 5+ times and have played around with which vegetables to include – every time it is better than the last! It has come to the point where I have basically memorized the recipe but I just wanted to come back and thank you for creating such a superb dish.
So glad this is on regular rotation, Jenna! Thanks!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! I’m definitely going to make it again.
Great! Thanks, Jamie.
Made this last night, so delicious! Your recipes are the best.
Thanks, Halley! Too kind of you.
I made this for dinner tonight. Oh my gosh, so good! My family is not vegetarian so I started by browning 2 cut up boneless chicken breasts, removed from the pan and then added back with the coconut milk to let the flavor simmer in.
You have proved that healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring.
This is the first recipe I’ve made from your website, but it won’t be the last. I plan on making the black bean enchiladas tomorrow….no meat added. :o)
I’m so glad you found my blog, Kathy! Thank you so much for the kind comment.
We made this recipe last night and it was absolutely delicious. Throughly enjoyed it and planned to make it for friends in the near future.
I made this tonight with sliced radishes, cauliflower, fresh green beans and asparagus – delicious! I paired with a basmati rice. Perfect. thanks! :-)
Can these recipes be frozen?
Hey Nick, I think this recipe is an excellent candidate for freezing since it’s dairy free. Please let me know if you try!
I made this oils and coconut free — I used almond milk (sweetened) with a quarter package of silken tofu in the blender. Not as sweet. It much lower in fat and no oil I just used soy sauce and water to fry the veggies. Was excellent!
Thanks for the tips, Roger!
I made this twice now, and family says its as good as the restaurant version. So easy, don’t tell them! I used light coconut milk because that’s what I had and it tasted fine and creamy to us! You have been my summer go-to blog, plus of course the COOKBOOK!
Secret’s safe with me, Lori! ;)
Did it last night for dinner, so yummy!
I made this last night with snap peas instead of asparagus, added some yellow/orange bell pepper too. My vegetarian daughter, my meat eating husband and I all really enjoyed it and I will definitely make this again, yum!
Your version sounds amazing, Anne! I’m glad everyone enjoyed it so much.
I love this curry recipe! My husband and i’s favorite and he’s hard to please when it comes to curry. Thanks for the easy recipe!
Made the Thai Green Curry with Spring Vegetables and it was a big hit with my family. Very flavorful and hearty too! I had to substitute snow peas for the asparagus because that’s what we had on hand but the result was great. Thanks for posting this!
Perfect! I love that this recipe is variable for whatever you have on hand. Thanks, Ben!
Excellent recipe, bright, fresh flavors. A few tweaks I made: added chick peas, yellow squash, and red bell pepper. Also included as much lemongrass as ginger since I adore it. Definitely adding this to my rotation!
This was great! I added snow peas and bamboo shoots. Hmm, hmm! Yummy.
I just made this, following it exactly and I have to say that the flavor was really lacking. I normally don’t buy curry paste, but I love green curry and figured I’d give it a try. I bought the Thai Kitchen green curry paste and it just came out really flat. I had some curry on hand and added that plus some paprika and red pepper flakes and that helped
I’m very sorry to hear that, Rose. Sounds like the amounts of salt/sugar/vinegar weren’t doing it for you. Those are the ingredients I would play with to liven it up, if you want to give it another shot.
Kate, I made this recipe this evening and wanted to thank you for sharing it, it was wonderfully delicious. While I have been a vegetarian for ten years, it’s not always easy cooking vegetarian. Your website is an excellent resource and your recipes are always phenomenal. Thanks for doing all the hard work and making my life easier…Pat
I have made this recipe at least 3 times now – couldn’t find asparagus at the store this time, so use green beans. There is no way to mess up this recipe – always good! It is my go-to meal when I want Thai :)
Happy you found a good substitute and were still able to enjoy it! Thanks so much for your review, Sandi.
Really good! We’d make it again! We added ginger and garlic after frying onions first by themselves for 3-4 minutes. Left out rice vinegar, spinach, soy sauce, sugar and lime, and didn’t bother adding any water.
I am glad you liked it!
Just made tonight. My first green curry. YUM! Thanks for a great recipe!
You’re welcome, Nancy! I’m happy you liked it.
My husband made this last night. So delicious and creamy! And we were shocked by how filling it was!
That’s great! Thank you, Kyle for sharing.
I made this recipe using the exact ingredients but using just a bit more so I can make an extra plate. It was delicious and It’s so versatile, you can mix vegetables and easily increase the measurements to make more.
Having extra for leftovers is great! Thank you, Susana for sharing.
This was delicious! I added chickpeas.
You should probably make it less obvious that you write your own great reviews. All the punctuation (the 3 … ) and the ( ! ) in all the same places in both the reviews and the replies. Given that every other cooking review page online has people sharing their variations and giving tips for other readers, certainly puts me off using your recipes.
Mel, I’m so confused as to why you’re suggesting that I write my own reviews. Readers’ comments mean the world to me and I spend a lot of time responding to them, but I certainly never write my own reviews. You can see other readers’ variations above and below your comment if you’d like to check them out.
Mel, you must really have a lot of time on your hands to carefully read everyones punctuations. Please get a life. Great recipes Kate!
Yum. Thank you Kate and Cookie too. Enjoyed the Thai Green Curry. I tweaked it a bit with some broccoli that needed to be used. Added a little before the saute spinach step. I recommend your site to others venturing into vegetarian and vegan. You have opened a world of pleasure to my taste buds. Love and Gratitude, Jan.
We LOVED this recipe. I doubled it and added red bell pepper and mushrooms. Leftovers!!!
Leftovers are the best. Thanks for the comment and review, Jason! So happy you enjoyed it.
I have never made a curry! This looks beyond delicious, I might have to give it a try next week.
Love to hear what you think, Jack! It’s so good.
Can you freeze this recipe?
I don’t freeze all my recipes, and haven’t tried this one so I can’t speak to that. Sorry!
Liked this a lot and will use it again, thanks. I am “Thai-challenged” and this was relatively simple and had an authentic flavor.I followed the recipe but added an additional 1/2 TBSP of curry paste; would probably increase the paste to 3 TBSP for the whole recipe next time (I ran out). Thanks for sharing!
I like how you put that, Marsha! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the review.
Just made this for dinner tonight and it’s delicious, fresh tasting with a little kick! Great recipe
Thank you, Nicole!
This was absolutely delicious! It definitely rivals the curry at our favorite local Thai restaurant. This is going to become a regular dinner at my house!
Great to hear, Kristina!
Thanks you so much for your amazing recipes and inspiration. I’ve made many of them and never been disappointed. Your cookbook is a constant source of inspiration for me. I was inspired to start a food blog after reading all of your resources! I am so grateful to you for sharing your knowledge!
You’re so welcome, Tanya. Happy to provide inspiration. Also, thank you for your support!! Love hearing about you liking the cookbook.
I decided to live completely plant-based this month, which is also ramadan, so I only eat one meal a day due to my fast. I had bought a bunch of different vegetables, beans etc. without any specific recipes in mind. Yesterday I found this article while scrolling trough the web, and I just happened to have all the required ingredients, I made it today, and lett me tell you it turned out great! This was my first curry I’ve ever made, but you explained the steps so well, that it was all a walk on roses. Thank you for this recipe, I’m glad I found one w/ out tofu, because I’m still unsure of how to prepare it properly. I really enjoyed this and so did my sister :)
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing. I appreciate your star review.
Your food is amazing!!! I grew up surrounded by meat and thought of it as a necessity. However when I moved I decided to make the transition to vegetarianism, and the first book I bought without knowledge was “Love Real Food.” Best decision ever it makes the transition easy, and you learn so many various ways to make vegetables look and taste delicious. This curry recipe was amazing, I just made it for the first time today, and it resembles every restaurants curry I have tried. Thank you, your recipes are phenomenal.
Thank you! I’m glad the book and blog are a lot of help for you and that you have success. I appreciate the review!
Hi Kate,
This recipe was so lovely – definitely going to become a staple.
I have a question about the asparagus – it was delicious the first day we cooked it, but seems to have become tougher in our leftovers. Did we do something wrong here?
Thanks!
I’m glad you liked it! Where the stalks thicker? It could have gotten a little over cooked when you warmed it up, depending on the stalks and how long you reheated it for.
They were thinner stalks! Thanks, I’ll use thicker ones from now on!
Wish I could give more than 5 stars, its legit THAT GOOD. I’ve never added rice vinegar to a curry before and loved how it rounded everything out and added a certain je-ne-said-quoi complexity to this dish. I used broccoli and cabbage in place of asparagus, reduced curry paste to 1 Tbsp to start which ended up being the perfect amount for me, and actually tried this in the slow cooker cuz I’m lazy lol, 6 hours on low was perfect. Thank you for another great recipe Kate, I’ll be making this again soon for sure :D
Well thank you, Rebecca! I’m so happy you liked it that much. I really do appreciate your comment and review.
Thai Green Curry! YUMMY. No time to take a picture – it was devoured! I used peapods, carrots, red peppers, thinly sliced jalapeño and spinach. We have loved all recipes we’ve tried. Keep ‘em coming!
Lovely, Kristin! Thanks for sharing, I appreciate the review.
Thanks for the recipe. I lived in Thailand for 14 years and I’m always looking for a new twist on Thai cooking. The asparagus is not traditional but a good suggestion that I will try tonight. The most traditional vegetable is Thai eggplants. It stands up to stewing quite well and should be readily available in most Asian markets. I also prefer Thai Jasmine rice over Basmati for Thai cooking. I would also suggest adding a stem of green peppercorn and Kaffir lime leaves while cooking for added depth and complexity (please remove before eating).
Thanks for sharing, Bill!
For a more flavorful store bought curry paste, I suggest the Maesri brand. It comes in small 4 oz. cans and small buckets if you’re looking for larger quantities. Mae Ploy is also good but I lean towards Maesri for bolder flavors. (Mae means mother in Thai) Thai Kitchen (IMHO) has been tweaked for an American pallet and is not nearly as flavorful). There are no fish byproducts in these brands.
Thanks for sharing, Bill!
Loved this recipe – many thanks! Only change I made was serving it with black rice which was great.