Last updated on March 31st, 2023

Thai Red Curry Shrimp

Thai Red Curry Shrimp transports me to the Far East, to places like Thailand, without travelling anywhere. It’s fragrant, flavourful and full of Thai-inspired vibes that are easy to achieve at home with a few shortcuts.

This is when I dig into the pantry and pull out a small bottle of red curry paste and a can of coconut milk, two staples I always like to have on hand.

The fresh ingredients in this recipe cook fast in an aromatic red coconut curry sauce, making this meal quick and effortless, with dinner served in no time.

What is Red Curry?

Red curry is an aromatic Thai curry base with a flavourful gravy made with a thick and spicy red curry paste to flavour curries, soup and noodles in Thai cuisine. The red colour in the paste comes from either fresh, dried red chilli peppers or chilli powder which is the main ingredient in authentic red curry paste.

Some ingredients to make the red curry paste, like galangal (a type of ginger) and shrimp paste, is hard to find sometimes, so I take the quicker route and buy ready-made red curry paste instead. The remaining ingredients, i.e. garlic, lemongrass, kaffir lime peel, cilantro, cumin and red chillies, are easy to find or substitute, so you can see it’s quite easy to make from scratch once you have all the ingredients.

How authentic is store-bought Red Curry Paste?

If you want to prepare authentic red curry paste from scratch, most likely all the ingredients for it will be accessible from a single trip to an Asian market because galangal, which is not a common ingredient in Western cuisine, will be hard to find elsewhere.

Luckily, local supermarkets sell imported and readily made red curry paste in jars or cans. In this recipe for Thai Red Curry Shrimp, I buy a few jars of Thai Kitchen’s gluten-free and vegan Red Curry paste when they are on sale. The pots are small and convenient to store in the fridge, and the red curry paste is custom-made for classic dishes like Red Curry Shrimp.

Alternative Red curry pastes to try are:

• Mae Ploy Red Curry Paste is made with dried red chilis and comes in a tub with a resealable lid.
• Maesri Red Curry Paste also comes in a jar but is very spicy and more orange. It tastes authentic and has no preservatives or MSG.
• Blue Dragon Thai Red Curry Paste is a blend of Thai flavours in a jar without artificial flavours and is NON-GMO certified.

Is Red Curry Paste Low Carb?

Red curry paste is low-carb and doesn’t contain sugar, as most ingredients are very low in carbs making one tablespoon of Red curry paste 2g net carbs. Typically only 1 or 2 tablespoons is needed to make an entire curry sauce.

Ingredients for Thai Red Curry Shrimp

This Red Curry Shrimp recipe makes five servings; each serving is 7g net carbs, and most of the carbs come from the vegetables in this red curry. Here’s what you’ll need:-

Coconut oil – brings out the coconut flavour.

Garlic – gives the sauce a wonderful aroma.

Onion – sliced thinly to flavour the gravy and make it thicker.

Red curry paste – I use Thai Kitchen Brand.

Unsweetened coconut milk – I use Thai Kitchen.

Red pepper – Sliced into strips.

Carrots – Thinly sliced.

Shanghai bok choy – wash and chop into 1-inch chunks.

Sweetener – I use Monk Fruit or Erythritol.

Fish Sauce – Brings out an authentic flavour.

Lime juice – Freshly squeezed into the curry at the end enhances the sweet and coconut flavour.

Raw shrimp – thawed, peeled, deveined and tails on (or off). I prefer the tails off.

Cilantro/coriander – for garnish.

Kojac Rice – This is a super alternative to jasmine rice. Cauli-rice, broccoli rice, and low-carb bread work well too.

How to Make Thai Red Curry Shrimp

Saute Garlic and Onions

Bring a large shallow pan to medium heat and add coconut oil. Add garlic and onions, and cook until soft and translucent. 

Saute the Vegetables

Add red peppers and carrots and cook for 3-4 mins until the carrots are tender. At this point, you can add other vegetables; more on this later.

Make the Red Curry Sauce

Add red curry paste and coconut milk to the pan, and stir to form a red sauce. Simmer on medium heat for 5 mins, then add fish sauce, sweetener and lime juice.

Stir in Bok Choy and Shrimp

Stir the red curry a few times while on medium heat. Add the bok choy and the shrimp and cook for 5 mins or until the shrimp turns pink and has curled. The shrimp will cook quickly in the hot curry. 

Garnish 

Switch off the heat, garnish the curry with chopped cilantro, and serve with low-carb rice.

Make Thai Red Curry with Chicken or Tofu

The wonderful thing about this recipe is that red curry sauce tastes good with chicken, but you can leave out the meat and fish entirely and add tofu to make it completely vegan. The instructions for making red curry with chicken or tofu are slightly different, and here are the details:

Chicken–  Saute chicken breast or thigh pieces (without the bone) at the beginning when you saute the garlic and onions. Cook until the meat has turned white, add the rest of the ingredients, and cook until the chicken has cooked thoroughly and is tender. 

Tofu– You must drain the water from the tofu before cutting it into cubes. To do this, lay a paper towel on a plate and place the tofu over it. Place a small plate over the tofu, place a heavy can on top of it to add weight, and let it sit for about half an hour. Water will collect at the bottom around the tofu, which you can remove to let more water drain from the weight. The tofu will be ready to cube when most of the water has been removed.

Once cubed, you can toss the tofu in the pan with the garlic and onions to give it some flavour, then remove the tofu from the pan. Follow the rest of the instructions for the red curry shrimp but add the tofu to the pan with the bok choy.

Alternative Vegetables for Thai Red Curry Shrimp

There’s always room for vegetables, even on a low-carb lifestyle, so go ahead and pick your favourite veggies to add to this Thai meal. However, being mindful of carbs can restrict your intake, so I suggest adding three vegetables to any recipe, as vegetables alone constitute most of the carbs in this recipe. I like to pick vegetables mainly for their colour in red curry shrimp, so the dish looks vibrant.

Besides Red Peppers, Carrots and Bok Choy, here are the alternatives:

• Green Beans. Slice diagonally into1 inch pieces for a green, healthy appeal.
• Green onions. Add them while cooking or at the end as a garnish.
• Broccoli. Cook florets with the onions to soften or toss them into the pan halfway, cooking for a little crunch.
• Green, yellow or orange peppers. Mixed or just one kind, peppers will make your Thai meal pop.
• Eggplant. Add cubed eggplant with the onions for an earthy flavour.
• Chestnuts. Available canned chestnuts add a little crunch to the curry.
• Red chillis. Add extra heat or not!
• Snow Peas/mangetout. Sliced diagonally adds visual interest and sweetness to the sauce.
• Zucchini. Toss small chunks towards the end with the shrimp, so they don’t get soggy.

What to Serve with Thai Red Curry Shrimp

From a low-carb perspective, the ultimate question is, “what can I eat with this Thai Red Curry Shrimp or any curry?” When we think of curry, we immediately know it will go well with rice, but what if rice is a big no-no for many of us?

Although this Thai Red Curry Shrimp has aromatic and flavourful coconut gravy and is delicious to eat on its own as a soup, there are a few options to have with it instead of rice; Konjac rice is one of them. 

Konjac Rice

Konjac is a root vegetable plant made up of water-soluble dietary fibre. It is commonly grown in Asia and made in various shapes. Konjac rice is becoming widely accessible as more and more grocery stores have started to carry it. But it does have a rubber/pasta-like texture and does take some getting used to.

Konjac rice is pre-packaged in a water solution to keep it fresh, so you must prepare it well for consumption. The best way to prepare it is by pouring it into a strainer to let the water drain away and running it under tap water to remove the floral-like smell from the water solution. I spread it out onto a paper towel to let it dry while cooking.

There’s no need to warm it up, but I add a bit of the red curry shrimp sauce and warm it in the microwave for about 20 seconds to absorb some of the flavours. It doesn’t taste, so you can use it with any recipe that calls for rice.

Cauli-rice

If you haven’t tried cauli-rice, it’s time to have it with Red Curry Shrimp. Trim a head of cauliflower into florets, then grate or blitz them in a food processor to achieve a grain-like texture. Cauli-rice is very easy to flavour when you saute it in a shallow pan without steaming or boiling it.

Broccoli Rice

Broccoli rice is another substitute for rice and is prepared the same way as Cauli-rice. . Trim and wash broccoli florets and either grate or chop them in a food processor. Saute the priced broccoli in the same way as cauliflower rice.

Zucchini Noodles

Zucchini, or Courgette as it’s also known, is an excellent choice to replace rice noodles and works well as an accompaniment to curries. The best tool for making zucchini noodles is a spiralizer; it creates even long strands like noodles or spaghetti. Spiralizers are perfect for turning carrots, cucumbers and potatoes into a string-like texture.

How to Store Leftover Thai Red Curry Shrimp

Store leftover Thai Red Curry Shrimp in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for three days. Reheat the curry in a saucepan on medium heat or transfer it into a microwaveable bowl to reheat in the microwave. You can add a little water to bring some of the gravy back.

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