Spicy Vegetarian Thai Red Curry Soup

This easy Spicy Vegetarian Thai Red Curry Soup recipe is incredibly versatile—use any vegetables you like, tofu or other proteins, and even rice noodles!

Soup Week

It’s Soup Week on Oh My Veggies!

Now, before you get all impressed, you should know that the reason this week is Soup Week is because I’ve spent the past two weeks sick and I haven’t wanted to eat much other than soup. So this is less about me being an amazing, creative food blogger and more about me being having a raging cold. But anyway, Soup Week! Yay!

Thai Curry Soup

My favorite local Thai restaurant serves the most delicious Thai Red Curry Soup with their lunch specials. Like most lunch special soups, there’s not much to it—broth and usually 4–5 cubes of tofu, about the same number of sliced mushrooms, and a scant teaspoon of thinly sliced scallions. But that’s okay, because the best part is the broth anyway. It’s a little bit spicy, a tiny bit sweet, and incredibly fragrant from the combination of coconut milk and red curry paste.

I’ve made a soup similar to this with summer veggies and green curry paste in the past, and I thought I could switch out the green curry with red and I’d get something pretty close to the Thai restaurant Red Curry Soup. It was really close, but the missing piece of the puzzle was a little bit of brown sugar. If you choose not to use the brown sugar, this recipe is still good, don’t get me wrong! But the sugar adds just a touch of sweetness that mimics the red curry broth in restaurant soups.

About the Recipe

After going through all the work of making this, I realized that, other than the red curry, this is pretty similar to the Coconut Lime Tofu Soup I posted last year. (And I even mentioned the Thai restaurant in that post too.) I blame this on the fact that after staying up three nights in a row with coughing fits, I was operating in a sleep-deprived state. A sleep-deprived state that culminated in me sitting in the dark watching Ice Loves Coco with Miso while waiting for my husband to bring me a Blizzard for dinner. (What?! Miso loves Ice Loves Coco!)

Oh, and that magical touch of brown sugar that I was so proud of coming up with? Yeah, that was from the other recipe too.

But let’s not dwell on that. Let’s dwell instead on the awesomeness that is Thai Red Curry Soup.

Spicy Vegetarian Thai Red Curry Soup

A sweet, slightly spicy Thai-inspired soup made with mushrooms and cubed tofu.

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1-inch ginger, peeled and cut into slices
• 8 oz white mushrooms, sliced
• 14 oz firm tofu, cut into bite-sized cubes
• 1 (13.5 oz) can lite coconut milk
• 3 tbsp red curry paste
• 2–3 tsp brown sugar (optional)
• sliced green onions, cilantro, basil leaves, and lime wedges for serving

Instructions

1. Bring broth and ginger to a boil over high heat.
2. Once broth has come to a boil, use a slotted spoon to remove ginger.
3. Add mushrooms and tofu and reduce heat to medium-low; cook about 5 minutes, or until mushrooms are softened.
4. Stir in coconut milk, curry paste, and brown sugar.
5. Remove from heat and ladle into bowls; serve with green onions, cilantro, basil, and lime wedges.

Notes

You can use just about any vegetables in this soup—sweet potatoes, winter or summer squash, green beans, etc. Whatever is in season! Just adjust the cooking time accordingly. Winter squash and potatoes take a longer time to cook, while greens need less time. Rice noodles are a great addition to this soup too.