Tasty Thai curry Bowls are filled with delicious slurping rice noodles in a delicious broth of creamy red curry aromatic coconut milk, vegetables, sweet pumpkin and shrimp.
Do you have 15 minutes to make Tasty Thai Curry Bowls?
Really! Just 15 minutes and you could have a bowl of steamy tasty Thai Curry bowls in front of you.
There are a couple of staple items we always have in our pantry. We always make sure we have rice noodles, coconut milk and red curry paste. Do you know how many different dishes you can make with just these 3 items??? Check out our Roasted Kabocha Squash with Curried Sauce and our Gluten-free Coconut Curry Laksa just to name a couple.
We really like the thin pad Thai rice noodles as all you have to do is add boiling water and soak your noodles for about 5 minutes and they are ready to go into any dish you desire. When you are on your way home from work without a plan for dinner this little dish is going to solve a lot of your problems to the age-old question, “What can I make for dinner in less than 20 minutes”
Do you know what makes Thai dishes so special?
It is the combination of the spicy, sour, sweet and salty that makes these dishes irresistible. You just can’t help but slurp those noodles as it is just THAT good. In the perfect world, we would be making our red curry paste in a mortar and pestle after fetching all of our aromatics, freshly made homemade coconut milk and vegetables at the wet market. I said in the PERFECT WORLD. Mine is not perfect, how about yours?
It does not mean however, that you can’t make yourself a bowl of delicious tasty Thai curry bowls without living in Southeast Asia. Personally, we love the BLUE ELEPHANT Curry Pastes and Spices and we used the red curry paste to make our tasty Thai curry bowls. However, you can use whatever kind you like best or have access to.
What utensil do Thai’s generally eat with?
Well it is Southeast Asia so they must eat with chopsticks, right? Well, you are wrong. Thai’s generally eat with spoon and forks. They use the fork in their less dominate hand and the spoon in their dominate hand and shovel the food from the fork to the spoon and then eat with the spoon. However, an exception to this is chopsticks for eating noodles in a bowl. How could you possibly ever stab your fork to eat noodles anyways? Now the one item you will never see on a Thai table is a knife, as that is seen as a weapon.
What types of recipe exchanges are possible if I am not living in Southeast Asia?
Galangal is a member of the ginger family. It is more aromatic and firmer than ginger but in a pinch, fresh ginger root will work. You could also use ginger paste, as that is very convenient. If you must use ground dried ginger remember to only use ⅓ the amount of fresh ginger as it is very concentrated in flavor and you cannot add until you add the coconut milk. Ginger or galangal is an important ingredient in making tasty Thai Curry Bowls.
If you are vegan or can’t get your hands on quality fish sauce then you could increase the amount of salt or add vegan bouillon and swap tofu for the shrimp.
Kaffir lime leaves are not replaceable in our opinion by any other ingredient. That is why it was specifically left out of this recipe. However, if you can get your hands on fresh kaffir lime leaves make sure you remove the stem to release the essential oils and add to the tasty Thai curry bowl broth.
Asian Shallots, the very itsy bitsy teeny tiny ones, are usually the ones used in Thai cuisine. You can exchange the Asian shallot with a western shallot or onion if that is what you have on hand.
Limes are a great substitute for sour tamarind in Thai dishes and are the important sour component of this recipe. We used just a regular Western lime but the little Asian Key limes are also very delicious.
Now for the little bit of sweet… traditionally a little palm sugar may be used to sweeten the dish but we try to reduce the total amount of anything sweet as it is simply not good for you. You can also use a sugar alternative as required.
Vegetables are exchangeable with any ones you have on hand in your crisper. We love having something a little naturally sweet in our bowls so we used a little kabocha squash or can use other sweet squash like acorn or butternut or even a little sweet potato. We also used baby bok choy and if we had some fresh baby corn that is fantastic as well. Use your imagination here and do a little clean out of your refrigerator crisper or even your freezer as frozen veggies also work well too.
Be sure to check out our post on Essential Thai Herbs and Spices for more details.
Shrimp for an easy Meal
Keeping frozen shrimp on hand in your freezer can also be a solution to many frantic have no time work nights when everything else has gone haywire. Frozen shrimp unthaw in just a few short moments under cold water, in a colander. If you have those unthawing while you have your rice noodles soaking, dinner is well on its way. Take a look at these other quick shrimp dishes for recipe ideas… Lucky Shrimp and Lotus Seeds, Thai Shrimp Mango Salad, Firecracker Shrimp and Shrimp Bundles with Thai Basil dipping Sauce or Gluten-free Thai Shrimp Pancakes
Tasty Thai Curry Bowls are gluten-free, if you use gluten-free fish sauce or skip the fish sauce and use gluten free vegetable bouillon. You can make this dish vegan by removing the shrimp and adding tofu and using vegetable bouillon for the fish sauce. Of course Tasty Thai Curry Bowls are dairy-free, egg free and most importantly be on your dinner table in 15 minutes so lets get cooking.
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Tasty Thai Curry Bowls
Ingredients
- 6-8 Shrimp
large deveined , peeled but leave the tail on - 4 oz Rice noodles
dried pad Thai thin noodles) - 1 tablespoon Coconut oil
(or cooking oil of choice) - 1 inch Ginger
knob grated (1 tablespoon ginger paste or 1 teaspoon dried ground ginger) note: if using the dried ginger do not add until you add the coconut milk. - 2 tablespoon shallot
or onion freshly peeled and chopped - 2 cloves Garlic
peeled and minced - 1-2 tablespoon Red curry paste
depending on your desired heat level - 12 oz Coconut milk light
- 1 tablespoon Sugar or sugar alternative (can use palm sugar, brown sugar or sugar alternative of choice)
- 1.5 tablespoon Fish sauce
- 1 cup Vegetable broth
or can use chicken broth - 1.5 cup Vegetables of choice chopped (We used cooked frozen kabocha squash and fresh baby bok choy)
- 1 tablespoon Lime juice
- Cilantro (Coriander)- to garnish
Instructions
- Thaw frozen shrimp under a colander. Peel and devein but leave tail on. Set aside
- Pour boiling water over your rice pad Thai noodles and soak for about 3-5 minutes or until just al dente. Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside. Do NOT over cook your rice noodles as no one like mushy noodles.
- In a wok or medium pot, add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil of choice we used coconut oil
- Add fresh ginger, onions and garlic and fry until just translucent not until brown. Add the red curry paste and stir quickly to get the chili oils activated. Add the coconut oil and cook on medium high heat and stir briskly just until the coconut milk breaks and then add sugar or sugar alternative, fish sauce, vegetable or chicken broth. Taste and check for seasoning. Adjust and add more fish sauce if you need it more savory, sugar if you want it more sweet and more red curry paste is you want it more spicy.
- Next add your most firm vegetables and make sure your vegetables are cut up just small bite sized so they cook up quickly. We added our cooked frozen cubed kabocha squash and let the cook for about 7 minutes until tender then added the harder greener portion of the baby bok choy for a minute and then finally the leaves of the baby bok choy. The harder vegetables that take longer to cook put in first then followed by the softer quick to cook vegetables. If you are using cooked frozen vegetables you can just dump them all in at the same time. Add the shrimp at the very end and cook until pink and no longer translucent.
- Add fresh lime juice to the tasty Thai curry.
- Place one half portion of the cooked and drained rice noodles in each bowl
- Ladle ½ of the noodles in each bowl, ladle a couple of scoops of delicious tasty Thai curry into each of your bowls. Garnish with cilantro and extra lime and enjoy!
Kevin says
Looks just like Take-out
Danielle Wolter says
Thai food is the best. And it's cold this morning, so a nice steaming bowl of spicy noodles would really hit the spot! I really do like using fresh curry paste, but you're right, life doesn't always allow for that! Someday I'm going to make batches of all different curry pastes and freeze them. We'll see how that works. I do always have a jar of red curry curry paste around somewhere 🙂
HWC Magazine says
We could not agree more. Fresh Thai curry paste from scratch is the best but sometimes depending on where you live it is difficult to get your hands on the ingredients needed and that is when you have to rely on the store version. Love your idea of freezing them too... maybe in little icecube trays...
YiReservation says
I am drooling looking at that bowl of curry goodness! I love Thai food and go to Thai restaurants and cook Thai dishes frequently. I always have some curry paste in my fridge so I can cook something like this delicious noodle bowl on a weeknight. Will definitely be feeding myself some homemade Thai food soon after seeing this post. Thanks for sharing!
HWC Magazine says
Thank you very much Yi! We also love the spicy, sweet, savory and sour flavor combination of Thai food with all of the aromatics. 15 minute dinners are our kind of week night dinners. Wishing you a super weekend
cheri says
This bowls looks amazing, love that you used kabocha squash in it, all my favorite flavors combined into one dish.
HWC Magazine says
We are so glad you like this simple and easy dish Cheri. Wishing you a super week.
Juliana says
OMG, these bowls of rice noodles look so tasty...I am loving all the flavors in it...coconut milk and curry...and I like the idea of adding kabocha squash in it,
Thanks for the recipe...have a wonderful week ahead 🙂
HWC Magazine says
Thank you Juliana. They Tasty Thai curry Bowls really hit the spot when you are hungry and low on time. We can get pre-cooked cubed frozen kabocha squash and that is super convenient for getting dinner on the table in a flash. Take Care
kitchenriffs says
Mmmm, curry! Love the stuff! Love Thai, too -- such rich flavors. This looks superb -- thanks!
HWC Magazine says
Thank you John. The weather is changing, in between seasons and very damp. A nice Thai curry really hits the spot.