15 Min Shrimp Coconut Curry Soup with Noodles

TL;DR

I love bold and fresh Asian flavors, and Thai curry pastes can be used as a shortcut to make soup that does not compromise on all those aspects.

My all-time Pinterest famous Thai spicy curry noodle soup is prepared similarly, and over the years I made several variations that were inspired by Thai tom yum and Singapore Laksa soups.

You will want to make this soup if you like Thai or Asian food, flavorful one pot soups and effortless 15 minute meals.

At the same time, the recipe doesn't cut corners on freshness and simplicity!

Ingredients

To cook the Soup

A few ingredients are heated for a few minutes and these form your soup. Your noodles are cooked in this soup.

• Oil — Peanut or Sesame Oil preferred, but you can use vegetable, canola, or sunflower oil too.
• Thai Yellow Curry Paste — store bought or homemade curry paste.
• Coconut Milk — Lite or Regular.
• Broth — Veg or Meat Broth. You can use seafood stock too. Lobster stock is a great choice.
• Shrimp — Fresh or frozen. For extra flavor, pick shrimp caught in the wild. Those are harder to come by but taste so much more intense than farmed shrimp.
• Asian Noodles — Any type of Asian noodle. I used straight Japanese ramen in the video. You can use lo mein noodles, angel hair noodles, instant ramen, soba noodles or udon noodles.

To assemble the Soup

To keep this soup fresh and quick, you will add cabbage, with the soup, noodles and toppings to a bowl when you are ready to serve your soup.

• Cabbage — regular green cabbage or napa cabbage, either is fine. If you want to add a pop of color, use purple cabbage.
• Green Onion Stalks — aka fresh Spring Onions. You just need the stalks, as they are milder in flavor and add a fresh green look to your soup topping.
• Thai Basil or Cilantro fresh — Add some green herbs for freshness and flavor. I used Indian holy basil, but you can use Thai basil too or cilantro. Garden cress would be another great topping idea.
• Sesame Seeds — Black or white to top off. I like to use both mixed.
• Red Chili Flakes — Adds color, heat, flavor. I like it mainly for aesthetics.
• Lime Juice — A few drops of fresh lime juice adds vibrancy to your soup as a topping.

How to make it?

Step 1

Stir cook curry paste and shrimp in oil quickly.

Step 2

Pour in the broth and coconut milk, bring to a simmer.

Step 3

Stir in and cook noodles in the soup.

Step 4

Place cut cabbage into a serving bowl and top with noodles, soup, and shrimp.

Step 5

Top it all with sesame seeds, chili flakes, cut green onion stalks, Thai basil or cilantro and a drizzle of lime.

Serving

This is a soup that I put together when the nights are getting colder.

Vibrant yellow and orange colors, with full bodies aromas, make for a great start to the fall and winter period.

It's a bright pick me up but also a comforting bowl of goodness, and I think it does satiate your stomach and nourishes the soul.

The soup is great on its own, thanks to the addition of noodles in the recipe, but you can definitely add an Asian side salad to your lunch or dinner.

If you need more heat, drizzle some hot sauce or red chili oil over your soup.

Occasionally, I like to boil an egg to go with this curried soup, so that's another option.

Storing

This soup can be meal prepped in advance, but keep in mind that the noodles will suck up all the soup the longer it sits around. You can add more broth in that case or reduce the quantity of noodles added.

Another idea is to prep the broth with coconut milk, shrimp curry paste and to freeze that in batches.

Then you just need to add your noodles to it, which you can do by heating your soup and adding a pack of ramen noodles to your hot soup in the bowl.

If you meal prep or take the soup to work, keep the fresh toppings and cabbage separate and add that to your soup right before you are about to gobble up in your Asian coconut milk soup.