Thai Red Curry with Vegetables
This Thai red curry recipe is so easy to make at home! It's much tastier than takeout and healthier, too. This recipe is vegetarian, vegan and gluten free!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 5, 2024
You know dinner was good when you want to eat it for breakfast. Speaking of, it’s 10 am and I’m writing with a happy belly.
This Thai red curry made a fantastic meal last night and perhaps an even better breakfast this morning. It’s warm, comforting, and perfect for cool days. It’s a little rich, too, but so full of vegetables that it doesn’t feel too indulgent.
I’ve been meaning to try a red Thai curry based on my green curry for a while now, and I’m so glad I finally did. It’s the best curry I’ve ever had, restaurant versions included! Yeah, I said it.
Bonus? You should be able to find everything you need for this simple curry at a well-stocked grocery store.
Watch How to Make Thai Red Curry
Thai Red Curry Tips
- The secret to making amazing Thai curries is to use plenty of aromatics, like onion, ginger and garlic.
- Choose full-fat coconut milk for its richness (you won’t regret it!).
- Stirring in just a little bit of rice vinegar and sugar adds tons of complexity.
- Readily available store-bought Thai red curry paste adds characteristic Thai flavor and, bonus, the Thai Kitchen brand is vegetarian. You can make your own if you’re so inclined, though.
- Feel free to change up the vegetables, as long as you slice them so they’re all pretty small and about the same size. You could try broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, diced butternut or sweet potato (which will probably require a longer cooking time), sliced zucchini and/or yellow squash.
Please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments. I love to hear from you.
If you enjoy this hearty dinner recipe, be sure to check out my cookbook for more!
Thai Red Curry with Vegetables
This Thai red curry recipe is so easy to make at home! It’s much tastier than takeout and healthier, too. Feel free to change up the vegetables (you’ll need about 3 cups total) and skip the kale if you want a more traditional Thai curry. This recipe is vegetarian, vegan and gluten free for all to enjoy. Recipe yields 4 servings.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups brown jasmine rice or long-grain brown rice, rinsed
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil
- 1 small white onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
- Pinch of salt, more to taste
- 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger (about a 1-inch nub of ginger)
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin 2-inch long strips
- 1 yellow, orange or green bell pepper, sliced into thin 2-inch long strips
- 3 carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal into ¼-inch thick rounds (about 1 cup)
- 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste*
- 1 can (14 ounces) regular coconut milk**
- ½ cup water
- 1 ½ cups packed thinly sliced kale (tough ribs removed first), preferably the Tuscan/lacinato/dinosaur variety
- 1 ½ teaspoons coconut sugar or turbinado (raw) sugar or brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce***
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar or fresh lime juice
- Garnishes/sides: handful of chopped fresh basil or cilantro, optional red pepper flakes, optional sriracha or chili garlic sauce
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. Just before serving, season the rice to taste with salt and fluff it with a fork.
- To make the curry, warm a large skillet with deep sides over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add the oil. Add the onion and a sprinkle of salt and cook, stirring often, until the onion has softened and is turning translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds, while stirring continuously.
- Add the bell peppers and carrots. Cook until the bell peppers are fork-tender, 3 to 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the curry paste and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk, water, kale and sugar, and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the peppers, carrots and kale have softened to your liking, about 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the pot from the heat and season with tamari and rice vinegar. Add salt (I added ¼ teaspoon for optimal flavor), to taste. If the curry needs a little more punch, add ½ teaspoon more tamari, or for more acidity, add ½ teaspoon more rice vinegar. Divide rice and curry into bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, if you’d like. If you love spicy curries, serve with sriracha or chili garlic sauce on the side.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my Thai green curry recipe.
*Red Thai curry paste: Look for it in the Asian section of the grocery store. I like Thai Kitchen brand, which is vegetarian. Not all brands are (they can contain fish sauce and/or shrimp paste).
**Coconut milk: For rich and creamy curry, you need to use regular (not light/reduced fat) coconut milk that contains guar gum. My favorite is Native Forest Classic. The varieties without guar gum (which are becoming more widely available) aren’t nearly as creamy, even though their fat content is the same.
***Make it gluten free: Be sure to use gluten-free tamari instead of regular soy sauce.
If you want to add tofu: I’d suggest baking it first and adding it with the coconut milk in step 4. If you add raw tofu, it will soak up too much of the liquid, and baking it greatly improves the texture, anyway.
Update 8/10/2016: I tweaked this recipe a tiny bit to make it richer and more flavorful (decreased water from ¾ cup to ½ cup, and increased tamari to 1 tablespoon and vinegar to 2 teaspoons). I also updated the post with better photos!
If you love this recipe: Be sure to check out my other Thai-inspired recipes here! Don’t miss the Thai pineapple fried rice.
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. IS. FABULOUS!!
I absolutely loved this, thank you so much. Substituted rice for noodles, I followed your recipe for a homemade red Thai curry paste, chopping everything up finely as I didnt have a blender but it was still delicious.
Fantastic! We ate the whole thing!! I didn’t have fresh cilantro so I stirred in a frozen cube. Was a good sub. With the current situation, I believe I’ve over served my family rice, so I warmed thin vermicelli style rice noodles and stirred those in. No complaints from anyone. I have a notebook with ‘keeper’ recipes, and this one went in!
I’ve used this recipe as a base for years! I modified a bit as I add chicken thighs and cook it all in my slow cooker ☺️
This was so good! All the work is in the prep but it is so worth it!
this curry is SO GOOD! Had to omit the kale as we didn’t have any. I can’t wait to heat it up for lunch leftovers! Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe.
This was really tasty, thanks! I made my second round and already started experimenting with adding different veggies. This will be fun.
My husband and I love this curry. We are yet to try it with tofu, as we enjoy it so much as it is. It’s quick and easy to make, which makes it a great midweek dinner.
This sounds delicious! I don’t have fresh ginger on hand. Would ground ginger be an ok sub?
Hi Holly! Fresh works best here, but you could try it. Check out this post on how to substitute dried for fresh: https://capital-fly.pro/food-storage-tips%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hey Katie! Great recipe. Simple and really yummy. And also damn good for health. The curry came out really well. Your pictures really helped :)
Look forward to seeing more veggie recipes!
Tried this the other night and it is so much like something that the Chefs in one of the D.C. restaurant I worked in would have made for family meal. Love it!
Outstanding. I added some diced jalepeno with the onions, some green beans with the carrots and peppers, and about a pound of thinly sliced skirt steak (seasoned in advance with salt, pepper, a little olive oil and a dollop of red curry sauce… cooked in an iron skillet and drained)… the curry has such wonderful flavor, it really can work with just about anything. I’ve made it with shrimp too.
Oh my gosh Kate, another amazing recipe. You make me feel like an amazing chef when I follow your recipes, I haven’t had a failure yet. This was such a great meal, I added mushrooms and zucchini . Thank You!
I love Thai red curries, and this recipe is the best one I have ever cooked!! It is as good as the red curry recipe from my absolute favorite Thai restaurant, and that’s saying something!
I added chopped chicken breasts and zucchini to the recipe too, and it turned exceptional. I will definitely be cooking this recipe again!
We made this today and I had to comment. This was such an easy, flexible though foolproof recipe and such a great way to get veggies to our kids. Our children loved it too! Thank you!
This has been my go-to Thai curry for about a year now! It is SO delicious…like restaurant-level delicious. Thanks for this awesome recipe :)
Love this red curry. Very similar to my favourite pineapple red curry at a local Thai restaurant. Do you think I could add pineapple to it?
Thanks, Debbie! I haven’t tried adding pineapple to this one, but if it’s similar to one you like with pineapple, go for it! You might also like my pineapple fried rice recipe.
This was absolutely delicious and fragrant. So easy to make. I omitted the kale and added grilled tofu. Thank you very much.
So good! I simmered for longer as I used sweet potato
Another amazing recipe! Followed it down to the letter (except I used a bag of frozen oriental veggies). It was super easy and delicious, thank you for sharing this!
Thank you, Sadhana! I’m happy you loved it.
Love this recipe. My daughter brought me red curry paste from Thailand and I needed a good recipe to put it to good use. Turned out perfect! Thank you
I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything more delicious
I thought it was a good recipe, although l didn’t have Thai red curry paste (dried spice only) or the rice vinegar. My son (an adult – meat eater) thought it was great. I am trying to eat and move toward a vegetarian way. Thank you for your good details and tips. I always want to read tips for short cuts or more flavor.
I LOVE this curry. Was trying to find the best recipe. Tried several others and THIS ONE IS IT. I make this once a week sometimes doubling the recipe to share with friends who have had it.
I have tweaked a few things based upon personal preference: instead of 2 cups of carrots I use 1 cup rainbow carrots and 1 cup of diced sweet potato, a little fish sauce because I’m not vegan, I roast raw cashews and sprinkle on top at the end along with cilantro.
Also, in addition to the lacinto kale, I add baby bok choy & snow peas (reduce the amount of kale to keep at 3 cups per recipe).
I don’t know how anyone could give this anything less than 5-stars. Sincerely.
Absolutely loved this recipe!! Added some broccoli and cauliflower too. Added 1 cup water in total and some sriracha towards the end. Such a warm and comforting meal, thank you so much!
The recipe serves a great base for quick curry! It allows you to add whatever your heart desires :) I added a few more spices – Harissa, Tumeric, and Curry Powder. For more protein, I added a can of rinsed chickpeas. Thanks for sharing!!!
Hi! Love your recipes! Made this tonight and it was so good! Didn’t have kale but added white sweet potatoes and cauliflower… turned out really great. Thank you!
Alicia from Portland
I love this dish and mistakenly bought red chili paste instead of curry paste. Is there anyway to substitute? Ideas for how to use the red chili paste. Not running out to the grocery for another 2 weeks now. Thank you!
Hey Shelley! What kind of chili paste are you referencing? The curry paste is the principle flavoring here, but if you like the taste of the chili paste (diluted), then you could sure try it here. I love to make spicy mayo dip by whisking together mayo and pretty much any hot sauce/paste, to taste.
This is by far my favorite curry recipe! Thank you so much! I added about 1 TBS of dried basil while sautéing the veg and 2 tsp of fish sauce at the end. Delicious!
Just amazing, as all the recipes I tried from your website :-)
This recipe was really yummy & easy. I added broccoli & green beans & some dried Thai peppers to the carrots & red papers. I also coated some shrimp in the paste. When I make it next time I’m going to leave out the water
really good!! I used what veggies I had and we used bob chow, shtiake mushrooms and red pepper. Also added shrimp. It was very good, we added a good amount of Sirracha as we love spice. Thank you for a great meal
I made this dish last week. it was soo tasty going to make it again tonight. can not wait. perfect comforting food. I agree using full fat Coconut milk gave this a rich velvety feel. I felt it give me a big hug with every slurp.
Great and easy to follow! I ended up adding an extra 1.5 tbs of the Thai red curry paste and the result was delicious
Didn’t taste like any red curry I’ve ever had. Not a huge fan, it was edible but not very good.
We made this dish last night for the second time in 10 days. It is so yummy! Thank you! We will have this often! Added sweet potatoes the second time!
Thank you Kate, Cookie too!
This recipe both worked and didn’t work for me. First, the good parts. And they were really very good. Soup texture: Excellent. Availability of ingredients: Excellent. Recipe directions: Excellent. But then came the taste. I don’t know why I was expecting this incredible blast of flavor. It tasted just fine, yet I had high hopes for incredible flavor. The recipe captured the nuances of the red curry paste, but something was missing. I tried adding salt, tamari, and vinegar. Something, just something, is missing. Gonna give you 5 stars because you provided a very good recipe. Although I found it lacking something, it’s probably my problem. (Tastebuds deadened by smoking would contribute.)
We hit bullseye on this yesterday for dinner. My boys loved it.
The only change I made was added 2 extra spoons of red curry sauce as we need it extra spicy. The rich coconut milk compensated for it.
The baking/roasting Tofu tip was phenomenal.
Thank you for you sharing! I’m happy you loved it.
Love this recipe, it turned out great – I doubled the vegetables and we got two full dinners from it. I especially like the rice instructions – my brown rice was perfect! I will always do it this way from now on. Do you cook short brown the same way? Thanks again!!!
Hi Trisha, so glad to hear it! Yes, I cook all varieties of brown rice this way (as long as they’re not a quick-cooking option). Here’s a full post on the method, if you’re curious.
Another great recipe!
Thank you, Molly!
Thank you for this recipe. I made it tonight exactly as written and my husband and I thought it was delicious and a keeper. Definitely will add this one to our rotation. It was super easy and quick to put together and I think it would make a good dinner party dish too since it’s pretty to look at as well as good. I appreciate that it wasn’t too spicy so one could add more heat if they wanted but it doesn’t exclude anyone as written. Thanks again!
Hello! I can’t wait to try this in a day or two. I LOVE pineapple curry and was wondering what you thought about adding pineapple chunks to it? Also, I was wondering if you knew how much sodium was in this recipe. Thanks!
Kathy :)
Hi Kathy! That does sound interesting. If you like it, I say try adding some in there. Let me know how it turns out!
Hi,
I’m going to make this tonight; however I wanted to ask is instead of Coconut Milk, would it be ok to use Cashew and Coconut half and half.
Hi! I prefer this as written, but that should also work ok. I hope you like it!
I want to make this! Does it freeze well?
Hi Lisa! Yes, it should freeze well.
Really great recipe — thank you! I made a few little tweaks, as I’m not a fan of bell pepper, so used broccoli instead. Also pretty much skipped the sugar, and added a bit more curry paste than it called for. Wonderful!
LOVE this and currently make it 2-3x a month. I went Whole Food Plant-Based Nov.2019 and so I eliminate the oil (except for a smidge to make your Crispy Baked Tofu). And, I use Spinach (orgnic/frozen) instead of Kale. It’s so rich and luscious and tasty and literally one of my favorite meals EVAH!
Hi Kate,
I would like to do this recipe but I only have dry curry powder. Do you know if I could use that instead? I wish I could, since I cooked other recipes from you and they turned out great!
Thank you!
Alina
Hi Alina! You’re referencing curry powder made with turmeric and other spices associated with Indian cooking, correct? Those flavors would be nice with the other ingredients, but the end result won’t taste like a “Thai” curry at all. Let me know if you try it!
Can I use green paste instead of red for this dish mine got subbed
Me and my husband loved it. Made it for the first time. I am an Indian and love Asian curries. It came out perfect and so much delicious.. wanting it again and again.. thank you so much for the recipe! Lovexx
I have tried so many times to make a decent Thai curry, and this is the first time it went well! This recipe was amazing. Tasted like takeout but with the benefit of being able to throw in whatever veggies we get from our csa!