Spicy Thai Noodle Soup Recipe with red curry paste is stuffed with fresh ingredients.
This soup is bright, filling, a one-pot wonder, and full of amazing flavors.
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TL;DR
This spicy soup is for you if you enjoy spicy, flavorful coconut soups such as the Thai Tom Kha Gai soup or if you are into deep, complex Asian food flavors.
The soup is not a traditional dish but rather a Thai-influenced soup that includes typical Thai flavors. Basically, the soup flavor profile resembles Thai curries prepared with Thai red curry paste.
It's a quick and easy one pot soup. That is because the base of the soup cooks quickly with the red curry paste and noodles.
The veggies are added raw into a soup bowl, which saves cooking time. That way you can add as much cut spring onion and cabbage as you like, and because the fresh ingredients are raw, you are bound to have a nutrient-rich soup for dinner.
Ingredient Notes
This spicy Thai noodle soup comes together really fast and includes fresh raw ingredients.
Besides you can adjust the ingredients you add when it's time to enjoy the soup.
Vegetarian or with meat/seafood
The soup is meatless, vegetarian, gluten-free, and lactose-free and can be turned vegan if you use non-egg noodles and vegan fish sauce.
You can also prepare this spicy Thai noodle soup with chicken or shrimp/prawns too.
In that case, add the cut meat /seafood to the pot after having stir-fried the red curry paste, and cook it through.
Stir-Fry Pastes
The Thai red curry paste is a major ingredient in this soup, as well as ginger and garlic, finely chopped or in paste form.
Liquids and Seasoning
The coconut milk and broth make up the soup, while the fish sauce and brown sugar add more flavor depth and a Thai touch to the soup.
Noodles
Use Asian chow/low mein noodles in this soup, not Italian spaghetti, because they taste differently.
I prefer the soup with egg noodles, but you are free to try this soup with rice noodles too.
Fresh Vegetables
Fresh spring onions and cabbage are added fresh and raw to the bowl with the soup and noodles.
You can also add sprouted mung beans, avocado, or some chopped banana flowers if you feel adventurous.
Garnish
For the garnish, you can choose to add a combination of red chili flakes, cut green chilis, cilantro, crushed peanuts, cut green spring onion stalks, and a drizzle of Lime Juice.
All these ingredients turn the Thai noodle soup spicy with a touch of sweet, salty, and sour.
Process Overview
Step 1
Heat up the oil in a large deep pan or wok and stir cook the ginger and garlic with the red curry paste for a minute.
Pour the coconut milk and broth into the pan and mix.
Step 2
Season your cooking soup with fish sauce and brown sugar and combine.vBring to a boil and place the uncooked noodles into the soup.
Cook your noodles soft as per packet instructions.
Step 3
Keep your choice of fresh ingredients chopped and ready.
Place fresh ingredients with noodles into your bowl and top with soup and garnish. Serve hot.
📖 Recipe
Spicy Thai Noodle Soup Recipe
Ingredients
For the Thai Noodle Soup:
- 1 Tablespoon Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Ginger + Garlic chopped or paste homemade recipe or store bought
- 4 Tablespoon Thai Red Curry Paste
- 1 can Coconut Milk
- 4 cups Broth your favorite broth or stock
- 2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce *see Notes
- 1 Teaspoon Brown Sugar
- 5 ounces Lo Mein Noodles
To Serve:
- Cabbage chopped
- Green Onions Spring Onions, sliced
Garnish:
- Lime Juice
- Red Chili Pepper Flakes
- Green Chili Pepper sliced
- Peanuts crushed
- Cilantro Fresh aka Coriander grees
Instructions
- Heat up a pan and add the oil. Add in the ginger and garlic and stir-fry a little on a higher flame.1 Tablespoon Oil, 1 Tablespoon Ginger + Garlic
- Next, add the red curry paste and stir-fry for 2 minutes on high heat.4 Tablespoon Thai Red Curry Paste
- Reduce heat, then pour in the coconut milk and follow suit with the broth.1 can Coconut Milk, 4 cups Broth
- Season with fish sauce and the brown sugar. Mix the contents.2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce, 1 Teaspoon Brown Sugar
- Add the Noodles to the soup. Cook the noodles soft on medium heat.5 ounces Lo Mein Noodles
- Keep your serving bowl ready and add as much cabbage and white sliced spring onion bulb as you like. *see NoteCabbage, Green Onions
- Then add the cooked noodles over the raw veggies and pour the soup over everything.
- Garnish with the lime juice, red chili flakes, fresh green chilis, crushed peanuts, and fresh cilantro to your liking.Lime Juice, Red Chili Pepper Flakes, Green Chili Pepper, Peanuts, Cilantro Fresh
- Serve and enjoy hot.
Notes
- You can also add fresh-cut avocado, sprouted lentils, or even banana blossoms cut to the soup with the cabbage and spring onion.
- Adjust the garnish to your liking. If you don't like heat, reduce or omit the chili flakes and green chili.
- To make this dish vegan, use a vegan fish sauce or omit fish sauce. Also use eggless noodles.
Equipment
- Serving Bowl
Nutrition
Serving
I enjoy this soup as is with no extra side dishes or other meals as a weeknight quick-fix dinner solution.
It's great when the temperatures start to dip outside in fall and winter, but I have made it occasionally for us too in the hotter months of the year.
You could prepare a small Asian side salad with this Thai noodle soup.
Storing
This soup is so easily prepared within minutes, that you don't really need to prepare a bunch ahead.
If you do have leftovers, keep them in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to 7 days.
In case you need to meal prep and freeze, cook the soup as per my instructions and store it in an airtight container in your fridge. Prepare the fresh ingredients, the green onions and cabbage, just before serving or on the day when you intend to enjoy this soup.
If you are taking this soup to work and reheating it in a microwave, make sure to keep the fresh veggies separate from the soup so that you can just add them to the reheated soup before you start to enjoy your meal.
More Thai Recipe Ideas:
Do you have suggestion to substitute coconut milk?
You could just use a simple vegetable soup broth instead of coconut milk to make this soup. I don't think this would taste any god with other alternative nut milks such as almond milk, hence why I recommend using broth instead. Since there is already some broth in the recipe, switch the coconut mil quantity with broth and add that to the rest of the broth.
Hi there, glad to see this recipe online, this one’s a hard find for most people I think. One of my all-time favorite Thai soups. Actually, this soup comes from the Isan, Lao and southern China region. It’s very spicy in its traditional form and super delicious.
it always blows me away when folks complain about Thai food being too spicy. It’s unfortunate for those that don’t have the palate to withstand the spice and heat. This region of Asia is bursting with foods that are amazingly flavorful, sweet, tangy, hot, sour and HOT all in one dish. I’m spoiled. My wife is from Isan,. I get to eat this about once a week.
Thanks for putting this recipe online for folks to try. Remember, it’s Thai food it gets HOT!
Is that a typo on the Sodium? Can't figure out which ingredient would make it so high...
delicious recipe!
Please excuse the super late reply Chris, I had the flu. It's the fish sauce in the recipe, it's high in sodium in this nutrition database. You could skip this ingredient or decrease the quantity of fish sauce used, or you can also use a low sodium fish sauce if you can find one in stores. Furthermore, broth/stock is rich in sodium, but that I had already set as a low sodium ingredient in the nutrition calculation. When you use homemade broth, the sodium is less than the quantity of sodium in regular store-bought stock/broth. It's also relative easy to get low sodium broth in stores these days.
This is a terrific tasting soup and not too Spivey. Very fast to make so will make it again
Glad you liked it, thanks for the feedback!
Kan je deze soep ook bewaren en als dat zo is hoe lang ongeveer?
Ik wil het maken en meenemen namelijk voor 3 dagen.
Mvg
Hi Tanja, yes, you can make the soup in advance and store it for up to 5 days in a closed container. But keep it in a cool place, such as a fridge. Add the fresh veggies ingredients just before serving, as directed in the recipe.
Hello... just wondering if you recommend regular or will low fat coconut milk work.
Thank you.
Hi Nick, you can use either one. I use regular coconut milk, but low fat coconut milk will work great too.
You should have a disclaimer for how hot this is! I couldn’t eat more than one bite,
Hi Linnea, the dish is called spicy Thai noodle soup, so yes it's spicy due to the Thai red paste used. If you use a homemade Thai red curry paste, you get to choose the chili variety added to the paste. Some chilies are less spicy hot. Yet, somebody who has been eating Asian food or spicy food, will say that this dish isn't spicy hot. So, it depends on each and every person's heat tolerance.
Can you share the recipe for quick and easy Thai curry paste.. i am a strict Vegetarian.
Hi Amie, here is the Thai red curry paste recipe. Just skip the shrimp paste (it's anyway optional) to make it vegetarian.
Is it 1 tablespoon of ginger and 1 tablespoon of garlic? Or is it half and half to make 1 tablespoon?
It's 1 tbsp of both, ginger and garlic. Normally we follow a 2:1 ratio, 2 garlic and 1 ginger. Now you can still do it with a half half ratio.
Delicious, awesome and easy to make. I added seafood to my pot. Great recipe
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Yvette, much appreciated!
honestly not bad, a little spicy ngl, u can prob cut down on the fish sauce so that it’s not too salty. i also added chicken and peas.👍🏼
cool thanks for sharing 🙂
Very yummy! I only used half of the fish sauce it called for and I didn’t have a curry paste so I just added some sriracha for spice and it turned out great! I also added sweet corn which was a request from my husband to balance some of the spice!
Thanks for sharing Madi 🙂
Beautiful soup, so warming on a cold night. I also added some fresh chicken and star anise to the broth!!
Thanks for sharing John 🙂
This recipe is so easy and yummy! I prefer it over some I had prior in some restaurants. I added some ground spicy meat and bok choy instead of cabbage, wanted it more like a tan tan mien and that is what it tasted like. REALLY good!! I will be making again!!
Hi Robin, Thanks for your feedback. You just inspired me to try that with ground meat and bok choy. Great idea!
Hello. For the 4 cups of water mixed with concentrated stock, does this mean 4 cups of water mixed with 1 bouillon cube?
yes a bouillon cube for 4 cups of water OR liquid concentrated stock mixed with water so that you have 4 cups at the end.
Hi! I made this soup and loved it. I just wanted to say that under the vegetarian/vegan section you may want to specify leaving out or finding an alternative to the fish sauce. The soup is delicious though! We added tofu to ours and shirataki noodles.
Hi Tina, thanks for your feedback and for pointing out the missing veg option for fish sauce. I fixed that in the recipe post.
This recipe is so easy and I love the flavoring! Will definitely be making it again!
Thank you for your feedback Nellie! 🙂
Love this recipe! So fresh, bright, and full of flavor!
I absolutely love Thai food and even more, I love Thai recipes I can easily make at home and this one was so tasty!
As the weather begins to turn cold, I'm always on the lookout for delicious soup recipes! This might just become a new favorite!