This Khao Soi recipe is rich, fragrant and delicious! It’s a Coconut Curry Noodle Soup that hails from Northern Thailand and can be made with chicken, shrimp, tofu, or our crispy tofu. Vegan-adaptable, GF. Watch the Video!
No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again. ~Buddha
This Thai Coconut Curry Noodle Soup recipe (called Khao Soi) hails from Northern Thailand (Chiang Mai) where the weather stays a bit cooler. It’s a godsend when time is short or you are feeling a bit lazy, yet you crave something warm, rich, and spicy.
The coconut broth is fragrant and rich, coating the noodles well. And once the flavorful coconut soup base is made, what you put in the soup is up to you!
Why this recipe works!
- It is fast and easy! This simple recipe comes together in under 30 minutes!
- Adaptable. Use chicken, shrimp or tofu, or a a combo. Vegan adaptable!
- Cozy and warming! A rich soup, perfect for chilly nights.
Ingredients in Khao Soi
This simple version of Khao Soi is made even easier with store-bought red curry paste.
- Rice noodles, or Chinese egg noodles, or ramen noodles
- Protein: chicken, tofu, shrimp or prawns (or sub our crispy tofu)
- Coconut oil, peanut oil or olive oil
- Shallot, garlic cloves and lemon grass
- Thai Red Curry Paste (store-bought, I like this brand), more for spicier
- Spices: Ground turmeric or fresh turmeric root, yellow curry powder, ground cardamom
- Coconut milk– full-fat
- Chicken stock or veggie broth
- kaffir lime leaves
- Optional Veggies: red bell pepper, snow peas, or other quick-cooking veggies
- fish sauce– or make our vegan fish sauce
- soy sauce (perhaps reduce if using vegan fish sauce, or use to taste) or shrimp paste
- Brown sugar, palm sugar or an alternative substitute
- Chili garlic sauce (Sambal Olek)
- Fresh limes
- Optional Garnishes: fresh basil (Thai basil is best!) or cilantro, pickled mustard Greens (traditional), crispy noodles, bean sprouts, lime wedge, thinly sliced red onions or scallions.
How to make Khao Soi
- Place rice noodles in a large baking dish, pour boiling water over the noodles and let them sit until they are softened, drain. Toss with a little oil to prevent sticking.
- In a large dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat, saute shallot, garlic and lemongrass. until golden, about 3-4 minutes, then add the red curry paste, turmeric, curry powder, and cardamom, stirring for one minute.
- Add the coconut milk, chicken broth and kaffir lime leaves and bring to a simmer, stirring. Once gently simmering add the bell pepper, fish sauce, sugar, soy sauce and chili garlic paste.
- Add the prawns (or chicken or crispy tofu) and gently simmer until cooked.
- Give a generous squeeze of lime. Taste, adding more lime/salt/ red curry paste if necessary. Find the balance between salty, sweet, acid and heat.
- Divide the rice noodles into the bowls and ladle the flavorful soup over top- a bit easier to handle. Garnish with fresh basil, pickled mustard greens, crispy noodles, bean sprouts, thinly sliced red onion, lime wedges, or chopped scallions.
Variations of Khao Soi
- You can make this Thai Coconut Curry Noodle Soup vegan by using crispy tofu and vegan fish sauce, and swap in veggie stock for the chicken stock. You can add more veggies to the broth.
- You can make this with chicken breast, chicken thighs or with shrimp.
- Traditional Khao Soi is often topped with crispy noodles and pickled mustard greens, a garnish, which you can pick up at Asian Markets. The pickled mustard greens are especially nice here.
Serve Khao Soi with These Toppings!
- pickled mustard greens or stems (traditional)
- crispy ramen noodles (traditional)
- cilantro or Thai basil
- Lime wedges
- Bean sprouts
- Chili garlic sauce
More Thai recipes you may like:
- 33+Easy Thai Recipes!
- Thai Green Curry Noodle Soup
- Easy to Make Pad Thai with Chicken Shrimp or Tofu
- Authentic Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)
- Thai Green Curry with Vegetables
- Instant Pot Thai Curry Chicken
- Thai Burrito with Peanut Sauce
- Thai Fried Rice
How to Make Khao Soi! | 30-sec video
Khao Soi (Thai Coconut Noodle Soup)
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 3-4
- Category: Main, soup, seafood
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: Thai
Description
A flavorful and very addicting Northern Style Thai Coconut Curry Noodle Soup, called Khao Soi. Easy and fast, and so yummy. This simplified version uses store-bought red chili paste. Watch the video.
Ingredients
- 4–6 ounces dry rice noodles
- 1 tablespoon coconut, peanut or olive oil
- 1 large shallot finely diced ( or sub half an onion)
- 2 tablespoons chopped lemongrass
- 4 garlic cloves, rough chopped
- 2 tablespoons Thai Red Curry Paste (store-bought, I like this brand), more for spicier
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric (or use grated turmeric)
- 1/2 teaspoon yellow curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 14-ounce can coconut milk, full-fat
- 1 cup chicken broth (or veggie broth, or use water and one chicken bouillon cube)
- 4–6 kaffir lime leaves (optional, but delicious!)
- 1 thinly sliced red bell pepper (optional- sub other veggies)
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce- or vegan fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce ( perhaps reduce if using vegan fish sauce, or use to taste)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar, palm sugar or an alternative substitute
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce (Sambal Olek)
- 8–12 ounces protein: raw, peeled prawns, or crispy tofu, or raw, thinly sliced chicken breast- or leftover baked chicken or rotisserie chicken)
- salt and pepper to taste,
- 1 lime
Garnish with fresh basil (Thai basil is best!), pickled mustard greens (traditional), cilantro, bean sprouts, lime wedge, crispy noodles, thinly sliced red onions or scallions.
Instructions
- Place noodles in a large baking dish, pour boiling water over the noodles and let them sit, stirring occasionally until they are al dente. Drain. Toss with little oil to coat to prevent sticking.
- While the water is boiling, prep the protein, shallot, garlic, lemongrass, and red bell pepper, then get all other ingredients ready by the stove.
- In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add shallot, garlic and lemongrass. Saute until fragrant and golden, about 3-4 minutes. Add red curry paste, turmeric, yellow curry powder and cardamom. Saute for 1 minute.
- Add the coconut milk, chicken broth and kaffir lime leaves and bring to a simmer, stirring. Once gently simmering add the bell pepper, fish sauce, sugar, soy sauce and chili garlic paste.
- Add the prawns (or chicken or crispy tofu) and gently simmer until cooked. Give a generous squeeze of lime. Taste, adding more lime/salt/pepper/ red curry paste if necessary. Find the balance between salty, sweet, acid and heat.
- Divide noodles into the bowls and ladle the flavorful soup over top- a bit easier to handle.
- Garnish with fresh basil, pickled mustard greens, crispy noodles, bean sprouts, thinly sliced red onion, lime wedges, or chopped scallions.
Notes
The quality of the red chili paste makes all the difference here. I like Mae ploy or Masseri! “Thai kitchen” brand will be lacking in flavor!
To bump up the flavorful coconut broth even more, add few slices of galangal!
Feel free to make the soup broth the day before and keep in the fridge, keeping the noodles separate ( they will swell in the soup) and simply reheat.
To bump up the heat, add more red chili paste or chili sauce, or a few thinly sliced fresh chilies ( as a garnish)
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 bowls
- Calories: 348
- Sugar: 10.3 g
- Sodium: 1345 mg
- Fat: 16.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 13.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 39.4 g
- Fiber: 1.9 g
- Protein: 12.5 g
- Cholesterol: 71.4 mg
This was fantastic!! I cleaned out my fridge, adding sliced mushrooms, shredded carrots, cabbage & zucchini, snap peas and leeks. I also used half red curry and half massaman curry paste. Loved it!!
Love it Karen, yummy clean out meals are the best! Thanks for leaving a review.
I’m curious if you’ve ever tried freezing the broth (without the noodles of course!) and if so how it holds up?
I have not tried this particular recipe, but find that in general coconut based soups or broths do generally well being frozen. I think it would freeze great.
I want to try this, but I can’t find fresh kaffir lime leaves. Would the substitute be dried kaffir leaves? Love your recipes, and I just bought the add free subscription- worth the price!
Awesome Geri! I use dried makrut (kaffir) lime leaves all the time- they work great!
My grocer carries it in the international produce section. You could also find it at an Asian or Indian specialty store.
Yes, easily found at a local Asian market.
Also: Amazon
This is a great recipe. We loved the flavor–it was incredibly tasty and satisfying. I would be over the moon if I got this in a restaurant. I cooked it almost exactly as written, but added a little bit of cilantro to the finished dish, plus I added extra broth that I had on hand. I only had coconut cream, not milk, so the broth was rich, but I like it that way so it was fine. When I make this again, I will cut the garlic chile sauce by half. A full tablespoon pushes my spicy tolerance a bit (it could also be the brand or type of sauce I used, though). For those who might be sensitive to spice maybe add a teaspoon at a time. I think this would also be good with rice, if you run out of noodles or do not have them on hand.
Glad you gave it a try Lynn! Really appreciate hearing your process.
amazing!! Wanted to use up some old egg noodles, and did a mix of chicken and tofu sheets. Next time I might add some more broth for a higher soup to stuff ratio. Going on the rotation:D
Great! Glad you gave it a try. Really appreciate you taking the time to review!
This was my third and best attempt at khao soi. A wonderful recipe! My local Asian grocer didn’t have lemongrass or kaffir lime today but lime juice, crispy onions and Thai basil really made it come together in the end. Added Orange bell pepper instead of red and leftover chicken breast, sliced thin, along with crispy tofu. Sooooooo yummy!!!! A great balance. Didn’t change your spices or sauces.
Love this Amy, glad you gave it a go again! Sounds great.
I followed the recipe and added frozen mustard greens in with the noodles towards the end of cooking. Truly fantastic.
Awesome Lex!
This recipe is a family favourite – a wonderful blend of spices that give you a hug
Love that description! Thanks so much for the rating and review.
As usual, your recipe did not disappoint. This one however, is truly fantastic! My son asked for this on his last night home for the holidays. It’s a favorite at a local restaurant. This was amazing! I followed the recipe exactly and wouldn’t change a thing. It was a huge hit! Thank you so much for helping me take care of the people I love through healthy, delicious food!
So glad to hear this Heather! Cooking truly is an act of love.
Made this tonight for the first time and it was SO GOOD! I had never worked with some of these ingredients before, so was sure to follow the recipe exactly and it turned out amazing! A new favourite for sure. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Great to hear this Kendra! Glad you enjoyed. Thanks for circling back and rating it!
I added mushrooms and spinach. Absolutely delicious! Fantastic recipe!
Great to hear Anne!
Dear Sylvia, sorry for mixing it up in my last comment. You never wrote to mix in the veggies while prepping the sauce, totally my mistake. So again, that dish is so wonderful and the “delution” of taste by mixing in veggies was totally my bad. Sorry for any confusion and surely you can delete my comment, will be happy to write a new one .. all best Christoph
Hi Christoph, I am not seeing your previous comment. I am so happy you are enjoying this!