Yellow Thai Curry Noodle Soup

Yellow Thai noodle soup – is a meal in itself. I love these filling satisfying soups – very nourishing and satisfying in winter or summer – with so many options. This is a Thai yellow curry – so think of the colours. Don’t use anything that will turn it brown or turgid. So flat or field mushrooms are out, as are tomatoes: they will spoil the yellow colour. However green as in broccoli is good as is yellow or green courgette, red or green pepper etc.

I also like to add a few waxy potatoes, carrots, & some tofu &/or plant based chunks or seitan pieces. The best brand of yellow curry I’ve come across is Maesri – which is an authentic high quality Thai produced version. It’s not available everywhere, but you can buy it online or in good oriental shops.

This recipe uses an actifry, but you can just add the veggies to the wok & sautee them as you go. Using the actifry just makes the end result and timing easier to control. Noodles are tricky, Blue Dragon used to be good until they changed the recipe – now I prefer Sainsbury’s wholewheat noodles.

Sauteeing the onions, celery, garlic & ginger first in the wok is a must though – however you do the rest of the veggies.  I often use a Cuisinart spice grinder to chop up the garlic & ginger finely – it’s so quick and easy! The broccoli can go in 3 minutes before the noodles & as the noodles take 5 minutes it will all be ready together.

A nice large white or patterned bowl for serving is essential to make the most of the visual appeal of this dish. I forgot to add the corriander in the pictures – but it’s in the recipe. You can enjoy this colourful yellow Thai noodle soup any time & it works well with some spring rolls or gyoza as a starter.

If you like the look of this soup – these dishes will also likely appeal. Try Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup, Vegan Thai Red Curry, Yellow Thai Curry or Thai Green Curry with Tofu & Mock Chicken Thai Green Curry Soup with Noodles

Yellow Curry Style Thai Noodle Soup

A Thai style soup made in a wok with yellow curry paste, noodles, veggies & tofu

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Prep Time 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Servings: 6 bowls

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Thai

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

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• 300 g onion 2 good medium sized ones
• 25 g garlic around 8 cloves
• 40 g ginger a good thumb sized pieces
• 150 g Celery 2 or 3 stickts depending on size
• 250 g potatoes optional
• 300 gm red or green peppers
• 250 g carrots optional
• 250 g chestnut or oyster mushrooms optional
• 300 g broccoli florets optional
• 400 g firm tofu cubed (or skip the following & use 600g)
• 300 g plant based chunks or can use seitan or jack-fruit
• 3 whole low salt veg stock cubes
• 2 teasps low salt veg stock powder (flat) optional
• 3 whole finger chillies or any chillies you have to hand
• 125 g Thai Yellow Curry paste I like Maesri - but there are others.
• 400 g coconut milk 1 ½ cans - freeze the other half-can
• 50 g creamed coconut
• 2 whole sticks of lemon grass get from any Thai shop - freeze what you don't use.
• 50 g coriander. 1 bunch - can use 30g
• 1 Teasp onion powder Optional - but helps to thicken the sauce and adds flavour.
• 1 teaso garlic powder Optional - but helps to thicken the sauce and adds flavour.
• 1 tbsp vegan fish sauce Thai taste do a very good one
• 1 tbsp palm sugar (flat) This is a good level use less if you wish though. You can use brown sugar if you don't have palm sugar.
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1.8 litres boiling water up to the rivets on my pan
• 250 g wholewheat noodles Use Blue Dragon – or the Sainsbury’s ones

Equipment

• 1 large wok

Method

 

1. Slice the onion top to bottom
   
2. peel and chop the ginger fairly finely
   
3. peel and slice the garlic
   
4. Sautee the onion and garlic (roughly sliced) plus the ginger (finely chopped)
   
5. While they’re sautéing chop and add the celery.
   
6. Slice and de-seed the chillies with a spoon end. Then chop finely and add to the wok.
   
7. Then add in the yellow curry paste (150g) and continue to sauté on low heat for a few minutes to develop the flavours.
8. Then add in 2 sticks of lemon grass cut in half and then into 3 lengthwise, and the coconut milk, , plus around a litre of the boiling water and bring to a gentle simmer
   
9. Add in 2 low salt veg stock cubes – plus the stock powder.
10. Meanwhile in the Actifry (or a separate wok) - cook the other veg – carrot, pepper, courgette, mushrooms, potatoes, green tomatoes, whatever you have to hand. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes depending on the vegetable – they don’t want to be overcooked – just getting them going.
    
11. Sautee some peppers and tofu - in an acti-fry maybe - if you have one
    
12. this is the tofu and peppers after cooking in the actifry air fryer.
    
13. Add in the partly sauteed veg and top the water level up to fairly near the top – that's around 1.8 litres in total. Use boiling water from a kettle to speed this up.
14. Bring to a gentle simmer. Add in the broccoli florets cut into small pieces.
15. 3 minutes or so after that add in the wholewheat noodles – I use 250g of nests for 5 - 6 medium bowls – but you can use one more nest if you like more noodles. (I use Blue Dragon or Sainsbury’s improved noodles!
16. As soon as they’ve softened, give them a good jiggling to separate and distribute them or they will clump together and not cook properly – a chop stick is good for this!
17. At this point you could also add in Pak Choy/spinach/Chinese leave and coriander – the green leaves work especially well for yellow curry!
18. You can also add 2 cubes of coconut cream (1 cube = 25g) for a deeper flavour.
19. Cover and simmer for around 5 to 8 minutes until the noodles are soft – this is the tricky part. Important not to overcook the veg – but they want to be cooked. Also the noodles mustn’t be overcooked or they will break apart as you try to eat them. The best way is to take out a noodle after 5 mins and see if it’s cooked. Should be tender, but still have a little bit of “bite” Noodles take longer in this thick soup (as opposed to boiling water) as the temperature is lower.
    

Notes

• you can sub pak choy for the broccoli
• You can add in some baby corn
• Mange tout is another possibility

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