Thai Coconut Curry Soup In 30 Minutes Or Less

Happy Monday everybody! Yes, it is Monday and we all know what that means. It's 30 Minutes or Less! Today we are going to be taking a look at how to make Thai Coconut Curry Soup. This soup is sweet. This soup is spicy. It is loaded with vegetables, and even a bit of chicken. Better still, it can be made in under 30 minutes. What's not to love?

To get that Thai curry flavour we are going to use the same Thai Red Curry Paste that we used for the Thai Red Curry Salmon a few weeks ago. You can find that post here. Along with the curry paste, we will be using ginger, garlic, fish sauce, lime and coconut and really bring the flavour together.

As always the fully written/printable recipe is at the bottom of the post. You can skip the walkthrough and get right down to it if you'd like but I do recommend giving the walkthrough a read as it will have some information not found in the recipe.

Jump to Recipe

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7:00 pm - Getting Started

I started cooking at 7 pm and the first step was to get a pot heating up. I put a large pot on the stove over medium-high. While the pot was heating up I started in on my vegetables. First, I peeled and sliced an onion. Next up, I washed and sliced a celery stalk. Then, I peeled and sliced a carrot.

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7:04 pm - Chicken

By the time I was done with the onion, celery and carrot my pot was nice and hot. I add in about 1 tablespoon of canola oil along with 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. The sesame oil is there mostly for flavour. With the oil in the pot, in went about 2 cups of diced chicken thighs. I cooked them until they were brown on all sides.

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7:06 pm - Garlic & Green Onions

While the chicken was cooking I got back to my vegetables. First thing, I peeled and sliced 2 cloves of garlic. Next, I cut 1 bunch of green onions in half setting the top bit aside for later. The bottom half of the green onions, I sliced and added to the rest of the vegetables. Of course, I discarded the very end of the green onion bottoms where the root is.

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7:08 pm - Vegetable in the pot

By the time I was done with the garlic and the green onions, the chicken was nice and browned (I stirred it once or twice). It was now time to add the vegetables to the pot. I added everything in at once and cooked it for a few minutes. The key is that you want the onions to soften a bit before moving on to the curry paste.

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7:10 pm - Ginger

With the vegetables cooking away it was time to add in the ginger. I used my Microplane to grate the ginger, which was frozen, right into the pot. In total, I used about 1 tablespoon of grated ginger. I cooked the vegetables for about 2 more minutes at which point the onions were softening and I could add in the curry paste.

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7:12 pm - Curry Paste

This is a Thai Red Curry Paste that I buy at the grocery store in the international food section. It is good, but not great, but it does the job. The reason I use this brand is that it is both gluten-free and shellfish-free. Most Thai Curry Paste has shrimp paste in it to add flavour. I am allergic to shellfish. So, generally, I can't eat Thai Curry. Luckily, this brand exists, and it is fairly cheap, under $4 for the bottle. I used about ¼ cup of this paste in the soup.

I added the paste into the vegetables and cooked it for 2 minutes. This opens up the flavours in the paste. That is just a fancy way of saying it makes it taste better. Don't skip this step. If you do, your soup will be missing some of the key flavours.

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7:14 pm - Seasoning

Once the curry paste had "opened up," I added the rest of the seasoning to the soup. This was 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon fish sauce, and 1 teaspoon salt. I stirred this into the mixture, then added 1 L of hot water. As I poured the water into the pot, I made sure to scrape the bottom with my spoon. This lifts any stuck bits off the bottom of the pot, which helps to flavour the soup and prevents anything from burning to the bottom. Then I brought the soup to a boil, turned the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes.

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7:16 pm - Coconut Milk

While I was waiting for the soup to come to a boil I opened my can of coconut milk and set it aside.

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7:18 pm - Prepare the garnish

I was going to add beansprouts to the soup, but they were out of stock at the grocery store. Luckily, I had a bit of Nappa cabbage in my fridge, so I used that instead. You, of course, can use beansprouts or cabbage. Either one will work well. I also cut up the tops of the green onions, about ¼ cup of cilantro and 1 jalapeno. I was going to and would have preferred to use Thai Red Chilis, but the grocery store was out of stock on those too. It was not a great day at the grocery store.

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7:22 pm - Adding the garnish

The soup has been simmering for about 5 minutes at this point. Now, it is time to add in the coconut milk, cabbage (or beansprouts), cilantro, green onion tops, and jalapeno. Bring the soup back to a simmer and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

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7:25 pm - Lime

Finally, add 1 lime juice. To finish the soup, taste it and adjust the seasoning as needed. Mine needed just a touch of salt.

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Conclusion

Prior to this post, I had never had Thai Coconut Curry Soup before. To make this, I did a bunch a research online, wrote a recipe based on that research and made what you've seen in this post. It was delicious. There was a slight sweetness, mild acidity, and just a touch of heat (not quite enough for my taste so I added some sriracha to my bowl). I recommend giving this a shot especially if you are in the mood for something a little different.

Some of the other versions of this soup I saw online have shrimp or tofu instead of chicken. I think both of those would be great options. I think scallops would be good too. Some of the other versions also had rice noodles which would be a great way to bulk the soup up a little for a very little extra cost.