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 was delicious! I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of ingredients, but everything came together beautifully. We added shrimp since we’re trying to use up everything we have in our freezer before going completely vegan but we both agreed that this dish would be just as tasty with only vegetables. I can’t wait to look through the other recipes on your site.
Can you make this in instant pot?
Hi Olga! You could try, but I don’t think this recipe is well-suited. It’s best made in stages and each step takes just a few minutes (if it were a long-simmered stew, it would be a better candidate). It comes together pretty quickly on the stove! Hope that helps.
This recipe was overall pretty good but not nearly flavorful enough and was watery. I had to add double the curry paste listed and shouldn’t have added water. I guess this is what happens when you get a Thai recipe from a white girl. Not too bad generally, but needed a lot of alterations.
I’m sure the author appreciates your honest feed back. But you can do that without being rude.
To Kate: I will be trying this recipe tonight. I love so many of your recipes. My kids got me your last cook book as a birthday present and I love that your meals are healthy and delicious. Thank you for all the hard work you put into your website.
Made as written and added broiled salmon in the side. Next time want to try w cauliflower or broccoli- this is a keeper!
I don’t try many new recipes but this one sounded so yummy. It is my 12 y/o daughters new favorite meal. We use broccoli instead of kale and added a few shrimp for the meat eaters in the family. Thank you! Delicious! And such a nice base sauce with so many possibilities.
I loved it thank you,
Hey there..Made this last night..followed recipe exactly..absolutely terrific..Next time will definitely add a few more veggies or chicken.. Sauce was creamy and delicious..just like the Thai restaurant I have been missing !!!!
This recipe is a big hit with my family, we all love it! I was wondering if this recipe would be safe to make ahead and freeze for later use?
Hi Mary! Yes, I think this recipe is a great candidate for freezing since it’s dairy free and stew-like.
Wonderful recipe, very authentic! No need to visit the Thai restaurant when you can make this so easily at home! I did use thai fish sauce instead of soy, I love the flavor it lends.
Hi Kate,
Awesome recipe. Just curious if the nutrition facts include the serving of rice?
Hi! Yes, it includes all the ingredients listed. I hope this helps.
Made this for the first time – I used instead small chopped pre cooked new potatoes, small whole sweetcorn, pepper, onion, carrots and some cashews with all the other ingredients though I used non fish red paste (being veggie). Looked amazing, though for me it lacked something but wasn’t sure what (maybe fish paste is better, but I can’t use that). I will play with the ingredients to experiment. Hubby loved it! Thanks so much for this ❤️
Great, except the 30 minute boil on the rice was WAY too long! Rice was extremely overdone. Other than that, very tasty! We added mushrooms and tofu and a little samba oelek for spice.
Hi Kate, can rice noodle be use rather than rice?
Hi! Sure, just follow the cooking instructions with the noodles. I hope you like it!
Loved this veggie- rich recipe. I made it with spinach instead of kale and added cooked chicken. Terrific!
Oh, and I topped it with chopped peanuts and cilantro!
One of my favorite recipes …ever! Amazing! I could drink it
I first sauté cut up bite size pieces of chicken seasoned lightly with salt and pepper in coconut oil and set aside. I add this to the onions, peppers etc. after the peppers are fork tender. Delicious!! You can also serve over cauliflower rice if you don’t want rice.
This is one of my favorite recipes. I’ve made it over and over again, using all kinds of veggies. The rice vinegar adds a perfect zip to the flavors.
Hi, I followed the recipe to the letter and added Savoy cabbage as we love it and tofu to increase the protein contents, absolutely loved it, will be making it again sooner rather than later, thank you
Made this tonight , so very good. Thank u once again for a delicious recipe. You never fail. Thanks again.
This recipe looks great. Are the sugar and soy sauce necessary or can they be opted out?
Hi Laura! You really need them to make this dish come together.
This is my favorite curry recipe. I’ve made it so many times now. One pot lasts my spouse and I all week for dinners or lunches. It takes me about 25 mins to get everything prepped, and then I just let it simmer while the rice cooks in the instapot. I love the way the kale tastes!
This was a great recipe and so simple. I changed it by including thinly sliced pork, which was marinaded with minced garlic and minced ginger, for 30 minutes. Step 1- stir fried the pork in hot oil, remove from wok. Step 2- added more oil to wok, then stir fried the veggies (1/2 each red and yellow bell pepper, long eggplant, brocolli, onions) till tender crisp. Added the Thai red curry paste, sugar and sautéed for about 3 minutes. Step 3- Mixed in the coconut milk, water and pork then let it simmer for 5-10 minutes to let the flavors blend. Turned out delicious and tasted almost like my favorite Thai restaurant.
Thank you so much for this! I added potatoes and spinach in the mix which was a nice touch. Left out the sugar for health sake. Still tasted great!
Thank you for sharing, Olivia! I’m happy to hear that.
This is an awesome recipe, we made it last night and loved it. My husband said it was some of the better curry we have made or had! I think next time I might even double the veggies. Have you made it without adding the 1/5 tsp of raw sugar? We used just under a tsp and I was thinking it might be just as good and rich just with the coconut milk. Just curious! Awesome recipe, love your stuff!
Hi Audi! I’m glad you loved it. I like the little bit of sugar to get the flavor just right, but you could omit and see if you still like it.
This is the first recipe I am ever leaving a review for because it was THAT good. The only thing id do different next time is add another tablespoon of curry paste. For garnishes I added basil and green onions.
Best. Thai curry. Recipe. Ever!!!
I love to hear that, Kelsey! Thank you for sharing.
I made this with red peppers, butternut pumpkin, green beans and carrots – amazing! Kate, your recipes are amazing and are getting us through lockdown! Love your vegetarian chili too! A big hello and thank you all the way from Sydney, Australia x
Your absolutely right about using full fat coconut milk. I tried it first with reduced fat, landed up straining the vegetables, in order to use full fat coconut milk. Great dish
I love this recipe! I am making it for the third time tonight, minus the peppers and serving the curry sauce with vegan meatballs made with tofu, lentils and quinoa.
Hi Kate, my grocery store didn’t have the red curry paste, so they substituted green curry paste. Will that work? Should I tweak anything?
Hi Mati! You can try my green curry one that’s similar with green curry. Let me know what you think!
Delicious! And customizable as well, I added pumpkin puree to thicken up the sauce.
This is a great easy go-to. I made it tonight – the lazy version with only frozen mixed Asian vegetables. I also used organic coconut milk. sautéed some ginger in garlic infused olive oil. Skipped adding garlic and onions my son is sensitive. Added the frozen vegetables and paste. Then added the coconut milk…then the sugar (brown)/lime juice/soy sauce to taste. So so good. I didn’t think it would be as good as I’ve made in the past but it was. Served in a bowl with some rice.
Just wanted something easy and this is it. I always keep frozen veggies/curry paste/coconut milk/lime juice on hand to make this on days like today when I’m exhausted and need something quick
Wow!!!! This is a fantastic recipe!!! So much flavor without fish sauce.
I added onion, shredded green & red cabbage, carrot, red pepper, jalapeno pepper. So good. This is in my recipe arsenal Thank you, Kate (& Cookie)
You’re welcome, Andrea! Thank you for taking the time to review.
This was so delicious! I added broccoli and removed kale but otherwise made no changes and my carnivore husband even loved it. My kids kept asking what smelled so good. Will be adding to my regular rotation :)
Hooray! Thanks for sharing. I’m glad this one will become a regular, Ashley.
One of my favorite recipes when I want to get more veggies in or if there are veggies about to go bad.
A small question, if I make my own red curry paste as per the recipe you’ve linked, should I use till use 2 tablespoons in the recipe or increase?
Hi! It depends on the potency of your curry paste. I would go by taste and then adjust!
We love this recipe, it’s one of our family’s favorites and in our weekly rotation. We prefer it exactly as written and also appreciate that it’s easy and versatile to make substitutions if we’re out of something, need to vary the level of spice for someone or feel like adding tofu or chicken. We love your green curry recipe too. Thank you!
is this supposed to be coconut milk with sugar? Mine had no sugar.
Hi Elisa, just canned coconut milk and you add the sugar per the recipe. Does that make sense?
yes thanks.
I’ve made this a few times, but never taken the time to comment. It’s now one of go-to curries! I also love that you provide the nutrition facts (I track my calories/carbs/fat/protein etc so this is super handy!).
I really enjoyed this Kate, thank you! I used the ingredients recommended with the exception of Thai Red curry paste as I didn’t have any. I substituted 1 tsp chilli flakes, 1 tsp of curry powder and 1 tbspn tomato paste. I’ll definitely be making this again.
Excellent recipe. I tried vegan oyster sauce and soy sauce and lime juice instead of tamarind and rice vinegar. Used regular sugar instead of coconut sugar. Still turned out very tasty! Thank you!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was fantastic! I added thai chicken meatballs, served it all over the rice and my husband and I both loved it. Thank you for another winner!
I am obsessed with this recipe!! I love adding chickpeas in with the veggies for some extra protein!! Thanks for another great recipe!
I tried making it last night. Instead of the kale I used broccoli and instead of the carrots I used green beans. I liked it but will try again as it seemed to miss something….maybe lemongrass?
But it is vastly better than other Red Curry recipes I have tried.
I like you additions! Thank you for sharing, Harold. I appreciate you taking the time to review!
DElicious ecen without store bought curry paste! Doesn’t need the sugar either, I chose some frozen corn to balance out the flavors with a dash of seet. Solid recipe. thanks.
You’re welcome, Erica!
I have made this 3 times in 3 weeks!!!! I LOVE IT!!!
Doknow if nt
Dont know if I commmented on this recipe but its how I always made it only with sweet potato and string bean. Very nice
Made this several times and love it. I’ve added tofu and tender stem broccoli in too.
I made this recipe using veggies I had on hand — carrots, onion, peppers, cauliflower & yellow squash. And, I made sure I used Tamang curry paste. It was fabulous!