I’m so excited to share my recipe for red coconut curry with you! It’s been one of my favorite easy at home Thai-inspired dinners for many, many years. When I did my first Whole30 last year, I was so pleasantly surprised to find that my favorite red and green curry pastes were Whole30-compliant. If you’ve never tried coconut curry or haven’t made it at home, it’s time to dive in and do it!
One of the things I love most about Thai curries is how versatile they are. You can literally throw whatever you like into the pan when it comes to protein and veggies. My favorite proteins are chicken, shrimp or tofu and when it comes to veggies…anything goes!
On this occasion I used a big pre-chopped Asian stir-fry mix from Trader Joe’s. It included broccoli, carrots, peppers, snow peas, onions, bamboo shoots, bok choy, baby corn, mushrooms, carrots and water chestnuts. I’m not usually one to buy prepared chopped veggies but at $3.99 for one pound of mixed veggies, I thought it was totally worth it for the variety it provided. I’ve also used a frozen Asian veggie mix. This recipe is so forgiving.
I also like to add an eggplant. I think it adds so much to the dish. I find that eggplant really soaks up the curry and provides a nice heartiness to the curry. So if you like eggplant, dice one up and add it!
This is one of those dinners where you definitely want to make enough to have leftovers. It heats over extremely well and tastes even better the next day.
I served my red coconut curry over broccoli rice to make it Whole30-friendly but if given the choice, I’d normally go with jasmine rice. It’s delicious either way. You could even skip the rice or rice alternate and eat it like a soup/stew.
I’d love to hear your feedback if you try this recipe out!
Thai Red Coconut Curry with Chicken and Veggies
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Thai Red Coconut Curry with Chicken and Veggies {Whole30 & Paleo}
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 Servings 1x
Description
A recipe for Thai Red Coconut Curry with Chicken and Veggies that is Whole30-compliant and Paleo-friendly.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil
- 1 lb mixed veggies, diced/chopped (Asian-style recommended)
- 1 medium eggplant, diced
- 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 lb protein of choice, diced (chicken, shrimp, tofu, etc…tofu not Whole30 or Paleo)
- 2–3 tablespoons (to taste…I go more towards 3 because I like my curry with a kick) Thai red curry paste (I
- prefer the Thai Kitchen brand)
- 1 can (14 ounces) full-fat coconut milk (for Whole30 make sure there are no sulfates)
- 1/2 cup chicken broth or veggie broth
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce or coconut aminos for Whole30 (or more, add seasoning to taste)
- Juice of 1 lime
Instructions
- Melt coconut oil over medium-high heat in a large saute pan.
Add veggies and eggplant and cook for 5-7 minutes or until they start to cook down. - Add ginger, garlic and protein and cook for another 2-3 minutes (note…if you are using shrimp, I would wait and add it to the curry mixture 3-4 minutes before serving so that it’s not overcooked).
- Add curry paste and stir to coat chicken and veggies. 1-2 minutes.
Add coconut milk, broth and soy or aminos. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. - Remove cover and add lime juice and season to taste with additional soy or coconut aminos.
Serve over rice or rice alternative.
Yum! Curry has been my favorite dinner so far on Whole 30. Tonight was stir fry!
I love red curry! I will need to try it with eggplant. My favorite brand of red curry paste is Mae Ploy, but it is quite spicy, so even as someone who loves spicy thing, 1-1.5tbsp per can of coconut milk is more than enough. I also love to add a lot of fish sauce, Trader Joe’s sells Red Boat which has no added sugar.
Thai kitchen’s green curry paste is my fav! I also like adding fish sauce in my curry stir fries, so that’s worth a try if you haven’t done it and can find a whole 30 compliant one 🙂
This is VERY similar to my recipe (and I use the term “recipe” loosely because i never measure) and I also love the Thai Kitchen curry paste! Like Danielle said, I add fish sauce instead of lime juice, and about a tablespoon of sugar so it’s sweet and spicy.
I’ve never tried it with fresh ginger – I’ll have to give it a go. Curry just happens to be on the menu tonight! Thanks for sharing, Jen. Love your recipes.
Yum! So excited to make this. Question — do you do anything to the eggplant prior to cooking it? Do you need to soak it? Also, isn’t corn non compliant on Whole 30? I’d love to use the Trader Joe’s again stir fry medley but all of them have corn! So frustrating!!
Just made this for the first time with tofu. So yummy! Thanks for sharing!
Just made this tonight and it was delicious! Thank you! We used chicken breasts for the protein and served over cauliflower rice – TJ has great frozen organic riced cauliflower.
Wow! Made this tonight and it was delicious!
Added carrots, broccoli, green bean, mushroom and onion with the garlic, added light canned coconut milk because I didn’t notice until after :).. but had full fat in the fridge so I added a little of the full fat as well. I had more than a 1lb of veggie in my pan so I added 1 cup of the homemade beef broth I made.
I added extra coconut milk and broth to mine so there was plenty of sauce or liquid.
I’m on whole30 so added some baby potatoes to my bowl, mashed it up with a little ghee and put this on top and wow!!! So good. The potato also absorbs the liquid which gives it a great consistency.
This is a keeper 🙂
Thank you for sharing!
So happy to hear that it turned out well for you Cat! Thanks for sharing your modifications!
I made this recipe with chicken in the instapot. I cooked the chicken in a little broth in the instapot first and then shredded it. I then added the veggies and all the other ingredients and cooked it again. It was easy and turned out really well.