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
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
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
Surprised that this recipe uses red curry paste instead of yellow, but I followed the seasonings as written and it was spot on! Going to add it to my noodle soup rotation.
Hi Victoria, so happy you liked this! I’ve use yellow curry too with great results too but I opted for red curry here because it is what most people have on hand!
Making it now, can’t wait! I’m bummed I only have light coconut milk…hope it’s still as delicious as the comments say!
Curious how it turned out with the lite coconut milk?
I ended up making a slurry and thickening the coconut milk first.
This was FANTASTIC! What a delicious recipe and my husband preferred it over one of our fave Thai restaurants in Toronto.
Will definitely make this again and again!
Oh great idea Amy! So happy you enjoyed. 🙂
I made it vegan with crispy baked tofu. I think I’ll omit the vegan fish sauce next time bc I think it made the broth a little funky.
This was quite spicy due to the lemongrass, curry powder, and Sriracha that I used. Will be a great warning soup for winter.
Glad you gave this a go Barbarba!
Oh shoot, glad you were able to make it work? And know what to adjust next time.
So much flavor, but still light and fresh! I followed exactly – except I did not include a protein, just doubled up on vegetables. Thank you for this recipe, absolutely perfect.
Glad you enjoyed Beth! Thanks for letting us know. 🙂
I have a huge lemongrass plant in my garden. I haven’t harvested any yet! I’m not sure how to harvest it or how to prepare it. Do you use the bulby part or the leafy part or both? I wonder if you have to dig it up to harvest it. I would love to learn how to do it, especially for this recipe. It sounds delicious!
Thats awesome Anita! You use the bulby part and I am pretty sure you can dig out a few stalks at a time, cutting off at the roots so the rest of the plant stays intact. Hope you give this soup a try!
I made it a few days ago and followed the recipe to the T. Taste was just like the Khao Soi we eat on the streets or night markets when in Chiang Mai.
All other recipes I looked at were much more complicated and tedious. This was easy.
Thanks!
Neelima
Awesome to hear this Neelima! Thanks so much for the review!
I had almost everything for the soup and it was absolutely delish! I used spaghetti with black squid ink which was very fun – since I didn’t have any other noodles you mentioned. So so good! Love your recipes!!
That sounds so pretty!
This curry is fantastic! A big hit at my dinner party. Just the right amount of “kick”!
Wonderful Karen! Thanks for reviewing!
Quantities would be useful!
The recipe card is at the bottom of the post. You can also click “jump to post” at the top of the blog. All the details are there!
Absolutely Fantastic. Perfect recipe. Our lemongrass wasn’t as fresh as it should be, so it was a little tough, but honestly, I wouldn’t change anything about this recipe. I didn’t use the peppers though – personal taste. It tastes just like a very authentic thai restaurant where we’ve had it before. SO great.
Thanks Monica! So glad to hear this!
It happens [with the lemongrass] but grab a “Y” peeler and a fresh lemon and pull a 2 1/2- to 3 inch peel and toss it into the mix and works great as the lemon oil mimics the lemongrass enough to make it acceptable in a pinch. Done it many times making a curry.
Could be me but I am in need of the measurements per ingredient
Hi Lisa- scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom!
I was confused too, but all the measurements are at the bottom part of the recipe.
What a great recipe! I upped the amount of curry paste and lime and added some powdered coconut for more coconut flavour. Added a thinly sliced Thai chili pepper for more heat and topped off with crispy noodles for some crunch and texture. Fabulous! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Sounds delicious Kay!
Delicious. Had to pack it away to stop myself from eating it. One of the most addictive dishes I’ve ever made.
I hear you Rylea! So glad you liked it.:)
Fabulous recipe and super easy to follow. Thank you so much!!!
Glad to hear Meg!
Love this recipe! After having khao soi in Thailand I have been searching for a restaurant or recipe that comes close, and this one is incredible! Do make sure you get a good curry paste it makes all the difference. We also added Thai red chilis for some extra heat and loved it.
Thanks Kaitlyn! Really appreciate the review.
Amazing flavors! Left out the cardamom and added entire package of 8oz rice noodles. Otherwise followed the recipe to the T and so happy with results!
Glad you enjoyed!
I love this recipe! So easy and sooo delicious!!
Thanks Jenna! Really appreciate the review.:)
Just absolutely delicious. I had half of a red bell pepper so I thinly sliced some broccoli to increase the veggies. Definitely going in the regular rotation.
Wonderful Gina!
Winner-Winner Khao Soi Dinner! Quick, easy and off the charts flavor!!
Great Carolyn, so happy you enjoyed!
This is my favorite Thai Soup recipe now! I made it just as written but added some extra veggies! I have been so happy with so many of your recipes Sylvia! So happy I found you!!!!
Thanks Darlene, so nice to hear!