Red Curry Noodles! Lots of fresh veggies, seared tofu, slurpable noodles, and a saucy coconut red curry sauce. Stovetop to table in 30 minutes flat!
Red Curry Noodles
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Made this tonight! It was delicious. I was amazed at how much flavor there was with not too many ingredients! Thank you for the recipe, I am so full!
Lee
Okay, here’s the bottom line: THIS IS DELICIOUS.
It’s got so many vegetables that it’s kind of like a salad – you know, in that noodles-stiry-fry salad type way? (How I prefer all my salads, TBH. Exhibit A: this Spicy Peanut Soba Noodle Salad.)
But instead of a crispy fresh vibe, it’s slurpy, saucy, just the right amount of sticky, with stir fried noodles and fork-tender vegetables and happy little cubes of tofu (if you want) all bathed in a borderline aggressive amount of coconut curry flavor.
Oh, hey. Did I mention this jumps from stovetop to table in less than 30 minutes? Because easy is how I roll right now.
Here’s what we’re working with.
I almost always have all these ingredients in my pantry. I’m guessing you do, too. And if you don’t, it’s time to stockpile, Y2K style.
- rice noodles
- red curry paste
- ginger and garlic
- coconut milk
- fresh vegetables – although I pinky swear you can use a big ol’ bag of frozen stir fry vegetables if the chopping feels like a lot right now (I FEEL YOU) and it will still taste completely delicious
- tofu – optional
- soy sauce
Will you need to make a double batch? Will you need XL chopsticks for all the heavy noodle pulls? Will you need to memorize this recipe for those heat-of-the-moment noodle cravings?
Not to be bossy, but COME ON ALREADY! YES!
Also, fun fact, this recipe is very similar to the super popular Bangkok Noodles of 2015! Differences: this one is slightly thicker, creamier, more noodley, and easier. Which is telling for how my life has progressed since then.
Check Our Our Video For How To Make Red Curry Noodles:
Red Curry Noodles
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Red Curry Noodles! Lots of fresh veggies, seared tofu, slurpable noodles, and a saucy coconut red curry sauce. Stovetop to table in 30 minutes flat!
Ingredients
Scale
- 8 ounces stir fry rice noodles
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 thumb-size piece of ginger, peeled and grated
- 14 ounces extra firm tofu, cubed
- 3 tablespoons red curry paste
- 4 cups stir fry vegetables (see notes)
- 1 (14-oz) can coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoons sriracha or chili paste
- a handful of cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- Noodles: Boil for 3-5 minutes (depending on thickness). Drain and set aside.
- Garlic and Ginger: Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger. Saute until soft and fragrant.
- Tofu and Vegetables: Give your tofu a quick press with paper towels to get extra water out. Add the curry paste, tofu, and the vegetables to the pan. Stir gently, and saute until the everything is almost starting to caramelize a little bit – about 10 minutes.
- Sauce: Add the coconut milk, soy sauce, sugar, and chili paste. Throw in your cilantro.
- Finish: Add the cooked noodles and toss to combine. YUM!
Notes
Vegetables: You can kind of use anything here. Fresh, frozen, whatever. I usually like mushrooms, spinach, bell peppers, broccoli, and carrots. I have used both fresh and frozen – but frozen is especially handy if you’re short on time because there’s zero chopping!
Sugar: Sugar is optional. I do find that the whole thing tastes better with a little sweetness, but I’ve also made it without sugar during Sugar Free January, and that was good, too! I just add a little more hot sauce and soy sauce to get a little more bang.
Noodles: I like to use Pad Thai-shaped noodles. I use brown rice noodles during Sugar Free January. I usually buy the Thai Kitchen or Lotus brands. For more al dente noodles and a less sticky dish overall, soak them in warm water for 30 minutes instead of boiling! I prefer boiling them because I like the sticky, saucy texture.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stir-Fry
- Cuisine: Thai-Inspired
Keywords: red curry noodles, thai curry noodles, noodles with tofu
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our easy weeknight dinners page. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Dairy-Free Dinner Fall Gluten-Free Healthy Main Dishes Pasta Quick and Easy Recipes Spring Sugar Free January Sugar-Free Tofu Vegetarian Winter
January 28, 2019
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
Happy Monday Lindsay,
This looks like the perfect vegetarian meal or at least a low-calorie vegan meal for someone looking to lose weight quickly. I always loved noodles back in the day when I lived in Brooklyn. I would sometimes take the 2 IRT train from Flatbush Avenue to Canal Street Chinatown in Manhattan, just to have good quality Chinese food and lots of noodles. I’ve never thought of curry noodles before. But now that you’ve got me thinking, next time I’m in New York City, I just might have to stop by the or health food store Perelandra natural foods On Remsen St., Brooklyn for old times sake and see if I can stock up on some healthy goodies and hopefully some organic noodles. Keep up the good work with your healthy dishes! 🙂
Hi Lindsay, could you please tell me the size of the can of coconut milk used for this recipe? Sounds so yummy! Thank you.
Thanks for catching that, Rose! 14 ounces. 🙂
This recipe is delicious! It’s the first dish I’ve ever made with tofu, but we’ve already made it twice in the past couple of weeks. The second time we marinated with tofu beforehand which brought a lot more flavor to the tofu IMO. Heats up great for lunch the next day, too.
This is definitely going to be a staple for us going forward 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Frank! 😊
Can I bury my face in these curry noodles please? It looks so aromatically beautiful and delicious! Thai-oriented dishes that have a serious spice zing to them are my favorite for a lazy evening where all I want to do is wear my black sugar face mask and watch How to Get Away With Murder on Netflix. It’s so much better than ordering takeout–you can make it yourself and have as much of it as you’d like!
does anyone have recommendations for stopping rice noodles sticking to each other? i swear every time i make rice noodles these days i end up with one gigantic clump of noodles. not gonna stop me making them, but it would be nice to eliminate the frustration!
Yeah, I have the same problem, Annie. What I have done in the past is add more sauce, but then the dish is often drowning in too much sauce. And as for having the leftovers the next day, well, it’s just a block o’ noodles. I’d appreciate any ideas as well!
To keep regular pasta noodles from sticking you can put some oil on them after cooking or in the pot while cooking. Oftentimes this prevents some of the sauce from being picked up from the noodle but maybe something like this could work?
Also, I just sent a photo of this dish to my husband and we’re defintely making this soon!
After you are done cooking the noodles, immediately drain them and run cold water over them. After that, I sometimes splash a bit of oil on them but not always. I have switched to eat only rice pasta and noodles and have found this the best way to keep noodles separate.
Yes! Instead of cooking them I soak them in cool water for quite a while…maybe thirty minutes? Then I throw them in when the recipe says to and let them cook for a bit. The don’t need long because they should have softened significantly while soaking. They are much less likely to stick together if you do this!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing. A keeper of a recipe for a fast, warm dish. I actually used fettucine noodles on hand with broccoli and julienned carrots.
What a lovely throw-together dish. I love tofu, and I prefer red curry paste, so this is perfect for me!
This looks so delicious! I’d love to make it, but I’m soy free. Do you think it would turn out ok substituting coconut amnios for soy sauce?
I made this tonight with coconut aminos! It was great. I left out the sugar because I find coconut aminos much sweeter than soy sauce.
YAAAYYY! The Bangkok noodles are one of my all time favorite recipes, but I too have had a baby since discovering that recipe. So a quicker version speaks to my time crunched soul!
This looks like a winner, especially in this frozen tundra we’re living in this week (hello from Carver MN 🙂 )
Thank you!
Yay Lindsay ! Absolutely delish ! Cruelty- free, bright & beautiful, especially w/ my favorite vegie friend, broccoli added.
Thank you !
I just made this – SO GOOD! Ridiculously excited that I have leftovers for tomorrow night 🙂 Replaced the tofu with spicy baked salmon from last night and this one will be on repeat! Thank you for another delicious and amazing recipe, particularly because I really did have most of this in my pantry!
Glad you enjoyed it, Lisa!
Thank You! I made this the other day and it’s pretty darned delicious. I followed Lindsay’s suggestion to let the rice noodles sit it hot water for 1/2 an hour and it worked a treat! No gloggy stick together mass of noodles! I used white rice noodles and I added about a tablespoon of peanut butter at the end for a little added oompf. Will definitely make again!!
Hi Lindsay, really like your blog and follow you.I’d like to try this recipe but is there an alternative to the tofu, as I have hashimotos hypothyroidism and do not take soy beans or anything pertaining to that in my diet,as it restricts the absorbion of the thyroxine vitamins and nutrients
thanks
I didn’t use tofu. You could add cooked chicken or toss in some raw shrimp.
I just added spinach, chic peas and broccoli for my protein. You could also add sweet potato.
This recipe was amazing!!
I also added mushrooms, spinach and carrots!
OMG this is OMG delicious! I did just as the recipe said. I used spinach, mushrooms , broccoli, carrots,3 fresh tomatoes, but did put shrimp in it and did what the directions said and this is just fantastic/delicious . Over the top delicious I should say !!! I did add a little more sriracha to mine and a little splash of soy sauce extra . Love this recipe will make it again.
Made this recipe tonight and it was delicious! Used mushrooms, spinach, red capsicum and carrots. Only change to the recipe was that I pan-fried the tofu separately first for 10 minutes.
I made this tonight and threw in shredded chicken instead of tofu- it was delicious!! Just the right amount of spice and sweetness. We’ll be keeping this in rotation for sure! Everything I’ve made of yours has been amazing, thanks for all your hard work!
Made this and eating the leftovers on REPEAT! Dare I say it’s my fav of your noodle dishes to date?! Made a few tweaks to lessen the sugar + up the spice level, then served it over a bed of spinach. PERFECTION. Thank you!
This was tasty! I used half a red onion, a yellow bell pepper, and lots of carrots for the veggies. I also used some shredded chicken instead of tofu and just added it at the end. Squeeze a good helping of lime on top when you serve it and it’s delicious! My 1-year old and 4-year old slurped this up!
Made this tonight! It was delicious. I was amazed at how much flavor there was with not too many ingredients! Thank you for the recipe, I am so full!
Made this last night with shrimp and it was so delicious and easy! Will definitely be adding it to the lineup 🙂
I’ve never tried thai red curry before, and I have been kinda iffy about the curry and coconut milk combination (though i know that’s a popular thing). I made this tonight just to try something new, and it was amazing!! The flavors worked really well together and the sriracha added a nice kick. Very warm and comforting, and you can’t go wrong with slurpable noodles! Glad I have most of the ingredients left over to make this again soon!
I made this for dinner tonight, and it was delicious! I didn’t add protein, but I used about 6 cups of vegetables (broccoli, carrots, and purple cabbage). This will definitely become a regular part of our meal rotation!
Usually I don’t comment on a recipe unless I’ve made it, but Lindsay–I just wanted to say thank you so much for everything that you do. I’ve been following your blog for years now. Right now I’m going back to school and it’s all I can do to feed myself normally. I found this recipe today and actually started crying: I am so happy to try it and emotional from the week. You just get me (and my taste in food). I love how your blog ranges from fancy recipes to these easy basic staples that I can make over and over again. Thank you.
This is so sweet, Katie! Thanks so much for the comment.
Made this tonight with asparagus, mushrooms, shredded carrots and a some shredded cabbage. It was, as expected, amazing! Full of veggies, flavorful, and came together in less than 30 minutes. Can’t ask for more than that. Thanks again guys.
I’ve been a big fan of your blog for a long time, thank you. While the picture is beautiful, and I had high hopes for this dish, it fell a little flat for me.
A few things I learned along the way:
1) soak noodles in warm water, but test them for doneness along the way, and don’t use the range/burner. Just start with warm water don’t try to keep it warm – I left the noodles soaking for 30 min, but to keep them warm I had the burner on low, they fell apart.
2) I used lite coconut milk, which was a bit too watery for this dish (my fault, the original recipe calls for regular coconut milk, but I wanted to reduce the fat content).
The disappointing part for me though, was the lack of flavor. The heat was also just too mild for me. I ended up doctoring it with lime juice, chili paste, cilantro, and sliced fresh jalapenos which helped.
Next time I’ll use the full fat coconut milk, more curry paste, lime juice, and chili paste.
Thanks for the inspo!
So good! Thank you for this quick method to get my Thai curry noodle fix! My onechange was that i did 1T soy sauce and 1T fish sauce. Gives it that authentic umami kick! Yum!!! I also followed another commenter and threw in 1T of peanut butter at the end. Loved it!
Do you use unsweet or sweetened coconut milk?
Unsweetened!