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) and hails from the Northern part of 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 1x
- 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
Super delicious recipe! Love the burst of flavors. I substituted vegan worcestershire for the fish sauce. We’ve made this a couple times now and barely had leftovers it was so good!
Thanks so much for your rating and comment – and love the tip for using vegan Worcestershire! Brilliant!
Delish. I created a basic recipe with but used yours to add some richness I thought mine Was lacking !
So easy and so good. Your photography is beautiful Sylvia!
Awwwww, thanks Tamara, I appreciate this so much. Happy New year to you!
This recipe is amazing, thank you so much!! Though bit of user error – I’ve made it twice and both times I’ve managed to overcook the prawns. I tried to avoid it the second time by only adding them in for 1-2 mins before taking the pan off the heat but they still overcooked in the broth (ended up tightly curled and tasted a bit rubbery). Any idea what I’m doing wrong?
Are your prawns frozen or fresh? Also small prawns cook much faster than large ones.
Fresh ones, though the only ones I can find come already de-veined and de-shelled.. They are pretty small too so I’ll try reduce the cooking time further.
So I usually use 16-21 size ( 16-21 prawns per pound) which are pretty large. Yes, if smaller, reduce cooking time. As soon as they turn pink, they are done. If tightly curled, overdone.
This recipe was really good and so flavorful! Loved the light kick of chili and the lime. I had most of the ingredients in my pantry already so this made a nice quick week night dinner. Thank you!
Great to hear- thanks!
Made this tonight with veggie broth and baked tofu. It was as quick to prepare as stated and non-veg hubby enjoyed and said its a keeper. Spring rolls would be a great side. Very yummy
Great to hear- thanks!
This recipe was awesome, even with the substitutions I had to make because I didn’t want to drive to the store. I used 1 tsp yellow curry powder instead of red curry paste, oyster sauce instead of fish sauce, 1/4 of a white onion in lieu of shallot, and sriracha in place of chili oil and it was still amazing.
I’m so happy you liked it! Thanks for sharing your adaptations! Helpful!
Sylvia, your recipes are so well written that every one I tried so far came out perfect unlike most blogs! This is especially important to me when I’m cooking Mexican or Asian dishes since I’m not that familiar with spices and flavors.
This one is a keeper that I will stick into my Pinterest board as a fave! I have made it now three different times, once as vegan option and twice with chicken. I just put all the ingredients into my stove top Lagostina pressure cooker and 15 min later I have a perfect chicken soup! (I wouldn’t recommend cooking shrimp that long). Some of the veggies we’ve put into it are: turnips, bell peppers, shiitake mushrooms, sweet potatoes or carrots, regular potatoes (then I skip the noodles).
Glad to hear and thanks so much, appreciate it!
Hi! I need help! I want to cook this for dinner for 4 pax tom night. Do I double or triple the portion? Is 4oz noodles equal to 115gm? Thanks
Yes, 115 grams = 4 ounces.Normally I would say double, but if they are big eaters, or you want leftovers perhaps I would triple? Good luck and let me know how it goes! 🙂
How do you crank up the heat but maintain a great tasting dish like in good thai restaurants? I like my food spicy-extra hot.
Try adding more red chili paste!
Delicious, fragrant, spicy.
Awesome recipe that can be changed a little! I’m a poor student but I was able to make this with the vegies and spices I had at home! Very yummy and will be used for luncn as well!
I made this soup for dinner tonight, I added dried mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, and bok choy, my husband said “this is the best soup, you can make this one again.”
Thank you for this fantastic recipe! My hubby and I now live in Mexico, a tiny fishing village on the Sea of Cortez where Asian food isn’t available. We are in the midst of shrimp season so this was a perfect match☺️ I hope you’ll take a look at your soup on my Instagram page
Lilnippersfoodadventures
Hi Debra! thanks so much and I am glad you liked it!
This is definitely a keeper! Delicious and comes together so quickly. Highly recommend adding Thai basil at the end. I doubled the recipe so we can have lunch leftovers. I used both shrimp and tofu in our soup. I also had an extra jalapeno pepper and added that. As always, Sylvia created another tasty, quick recipe that the whole family enjoyed!
Thanks so much Teresa, glad you liked it!
This was delicious and very popular in my house, I added all extra ingredients you suggested – think I’ll make my own thai red curry paste next time! thanks for such incredible recipes. It’s great to try new recipes and for the result to be so delicious every time !
Amazing recipe !!! My whole family loved it specially my little 5 year old boy !!!
I added lime leaves , and lemon grass . I used only 1 tbsp of fish sauce .
I used fresh veggies on the side , so we can just add some baby corn , coriander , sugar snaps and bean sprouts . I didn’t use cardamon and turmeric ! My husband is adding it to his list of favorites ❤️
Hi Sylvia, I can not believe how tasty this soup is and that I made it at home. AMAZING! And I have been to Thailand and able to taste the food over there. I was lucky enough to find some Kafir lime leaves at the grocery store and they really added even more flavour. My shrimps could have been a bit less cooked but the entire meal was divine. You are a master! I am so glad that I have found your website. I look forward to trying all your other recipes. Thanks a lot! Caroline
Thanks Caroline, I very much appreciate your comment and feedback! Very helpful. Yes the kefir lime is divine!
Super delicious, quick and easy! I used veggie broth, cut back on the red curry paste and Sambel Olek to appease those among us who can’t handle the heat and served it with baked tofu for some and leftover chicken for others. The whole family loved it!!!
Made this for lunch, hubby and I both loved it!! Great recipe.
Wow. Incredible. Thank you for sharing this. Simple, healthy, and fun.
Glad you enjoyed it Nick!
Putting this recipe together now. Can I use soba noodles?
The taste thus far is amazing. Can’t wait to tuck into this and to make it again.
Yes, of course!
This is amazing. I live in Louisiana and had some leftover boiled shrimp, Cajun style. The seasoning in the shrimp added a spiced touch. Quick and easy,
Excellent. I made it with shrimp. Everybody loved it
Thank you Sylvia
Any nutrition / calorie information ?
Thanks
Sylvia’s site is now becoming a fast favorite in our household with unique dishes that we adore. This one is the first one I made without any help from the chef in the house and found it so fast and easy to make. We didn’t have a couple of the ingredients on hand but had everything else and I encourage everyone and anyone who loves Thai recipes to try this one. We ate it up so quickly. I loved the spicy kick to it without it being overwhelming so. Sylvia your site is a welcome quick diversion in our home as to what we are cooking next.
Thank you for such amazing recipes! m.
Ooops, this is a 5 star recipe for sure!
Awww, you are so sweet, Im so happy you are enjoying the recipes and website! This is a particularly easy and tasty one, glad you tried it out! Have a great weekend Monique!