This Thai Green Curry Shrimp with asparagus is loaded with flavour and made in one pan. It’s also ready in about 15 minutes, so it’s a perfect weeknight meal!
This Thai Green Curry Shrimp is one of my favourite meals – quick, easy and full of flavour! This delicious Thai curry with shrimp and asparagus is the perfect weeknight meal – ready in about 15 minutes.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Shrimp – you can use either cooked or raw frozen shrimp. Add the shrimp to the skillet from frozen, so no need to thaw.
I generally will remove the tails, but for the photos, I left a couple of shrimp with the tails on. You can go either way, as you prefer.
Asparagus – you’ll need about 10 spears of asparagus, give or take. You’ll need to blanch it slightly before adding to the pan, as it won’t cook to tender unless you do.
Thai Green Curry Paste – Thai green curry paste is lovely with the asparagus, but you could substitute either yellow or red Thai curry paste, if you don’t have green on hand.
Recipe Tips
- This dish cooks quickly in a hot wok or skillet, so have everything prepared, measured and at the ready to add to the pan as needed.
- This curry is lovely served with rice or rice noodles.
Get the Recipe: Thai Green Curry Shrimp
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced or ginger paste
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 Tablespoons Thai green curry paste, (can also use red or yellow Thai curry paste)
- 13.5 oz. coconut milk, full-fat or lite
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
- 2 Tablespoons Asian fish sauce
- 10-12 spears asparagus, blanched and cut into 2 to 3-inch pieces
- 8 oz. frozen cooked or raw shrimp, peeled, deveined and trimmed of tails
- Thai or regular basil leaves
- 1 lime, cut in to wedges
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Blanch asparagus: Place asparagus flat on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave for 60-90 seconds. Allow to cool slightly, then cut into 2 – 3-inch pieces. Alternately, you can boil a bit of water over high heat in your wok and blanch asparagus for a minute or two in the water. Remove to cool, then cut. Discard water and continue with rest of recipe.
- This recipe cooks quickly, so it's best to have all the ingredients prepared and/or measure out and at the ready to add as needed.
- Heat oil in wok or deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper. *If using raw shrimp, add now as well. For cooked shrimp, add later, when instructed. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables soften. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for another 30-45 seconds. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring for 30-45 seconds. Add a few tablespoons of the cream from the top of the coconut milk and cook, stirring another 30 seconds. Add the remainder of can of coconut milk, chicken broth and fish sauce. Add blanched and chopped asparagus and allow mixture to bubble away, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes or so. if using cooked shrimp, add now and cook another few minutes to warm shrimp. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. (You can also add additional curry paste, if you like). Note! The sauce will be on the thinner side, as is typical of Thai curries.
- Serve, garnished with basil leaves and with a lime wedge for drizzling. Lovely serve with rice or over rice noodles.
Notes
More Shrimp Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
This was actually delicious, pretty good flavour, and easy to follow. I wasn’t sure if the sauce was supposed to be thick so I boiled it longer than needed which unfortunately overcooked my veggies a bit. I guess it’s supposed to be a bit runny (maybe a note stating so would be nice). I used snow peas instead of asparagus and it turned out well. I served this over coconut rice. This is definitely a keeper.
So glad you enjoyed it, Vida and good point, I will note that in the recipe. Thanks so much!
Didn’t change a thing and this came out awesome! I will definitely make this again, and again…….
So glad you enjoyed it, Sally :) Thanks so much!
hI,
Can you kindly confirm how much shrimp to be used in the recipe
i have Green curry powder instead of paste (from TJX)
what qty can i substitute?
thanks
Hi Sangita, you can just use as many shrimp as you like, depending on the size. I would use 14-16 generally. You can substitute 1 Tbsp of green curry powder for the green curry paste. Enjoy :)
I make this often. It comes together quickly and tastes great. The leftovers are even better for lunch!
So glad you are enjoying it Kelly. And don’t you love when you get bonus, delicious leftovers for lunch! Thanks so much :)
Hi Jennifer – the flavour was excellent, but I struggled to get it to thicken a bit? Maybe the type of coconut milk I used?
Hi Nick, Unless you used light coconut milk, it’s probably just that you expected it to be thicker than it is. Generally, Thai curries are not thick. They are more soupy really, as they are usually served spooned over rice or noodles. That said, if you prefer a thicker sauce, simply reduce the amount of added chicken stock (by half maybe?).
So easy – so delicious! Thanks – you saved dinner!
Glad to hear, Cathy! Thanks :)
Beautiful pictures and flavorful seasonal recipes. So glad to stumble upon your blog:)
Thanks so much, Maria :)
We enjoyed this dish.
I thought I had fish sauce, but ran out making a Vietnamese recipe. I used soy sauce mixed with rice vinegar … didn’t ruin the recipe, but REALLY needed the fish sauce. Whatever you do, put raw shrimp (I had 16 shrimp … 21-25 lb) in at the END, as they take only a minute to cook. If you think that robs the dish of shrimp flavor, I suppose you could add the shells when you add the garlic and ginger, then remove them with tongs sometime after you add the chicken stock and milk. I think I might use less stock next time. Curry had right amount of heat and I did not add any extra paste at the end. Thanks … will make again.
So glad you enjoyed it, Karen :) Thanks!
Oh my goodness. This has all of my favourite things in it! Yummy :)
Thanks so much, Cathleen :)
I have now made it twice with thin asian noodles and naan bread…… yum
So glad you are enjoying it! One of my favourite quick and delicious meals :)
Wow, it looks way fancier than a typical quick dinner! I can practically taste it – such delicious photos!
Thanks so much :)
Cannot wait to try this recipe! Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks Candice. Enjoy!
This looks absolutely amazing!
Thanks so much, Jennifer. It’s a super easy dish, too!
Thank you for once again pushing me to go beyond my comfort zone. Finally tried this after saving it for months. It was simply amazing and I kind of can’t believe I just cooked something so flavorful.
I’m so glad you tried it and even happier that you enjoyed it! It’s always wonderful to discover great things when we move out of our comfort zone, isn’t it :)
I just love the look of this! Vibrant colors and I bet it tastes amazing. 15 minutes and one pan… too easy! Pinning!
Thanks so much, Natasha :)
This looks great and I’m waiting to try it this week! Just one question – what quantity of shrimp do you use for this recipe? Is 1 lb. too much?
Hi Debbie, I intentionally left out an amount for the shrimp, because it is so “to taste”. You can put in just a few or you can put in a lot. I usually adjust also according to how many veg I have going (does it need more “bulk”). When you make it, you’ll find it’s really easy to judge how much to put in based on the amount of sauce/veg. If it helps, I generally use 1/3 of a standard bag of frozen shrimp.
I usually don’t like soupy meals… but this just knocked it out of the park! Quick, easy and delicious. And you are considerate enough to provide instructions for those who only had cooked shrimp (or uncooked shrimp) when it’s time to cook. Thank you Jennifer. Gorgeous and very appetizing pictures too. Please keep posting delicious, quick and easy recipes!
So glad you enjoyed it! I love Thai dishes for delivering fast, fresh flavours :)
I love Thai curry! This looks so appealing with the spring asparagus and sweet shrimp!
Thanks Laura :)
Yummm! Thai curries are my favorite! I just posted one last week except with tofu instead of shrimp, but the shrimp sounds delicious. Also love your pictures – gorgeous!
Thanks so much, Beverley :)
SUCH lovely photos, curry is just the best :)
Thanks so much, Medha :)
We just adore Thai, and curry, and shrimp, and asparagus – I have to make this one! The colors are gorgeous as are the photos :)
Thanks Tricia. It was a great combination, especially while asparagus is still nice :)
This is my kind of dinner and it almost shouts “spring”. I could eat curry every day but if it had shrimp and asparagus, I could probably eat it three times a day!
I could too, Chris (my husband might object, though ;)
You never fail to wow me, the colors of this are glorious! And your presentation is perfect :)
Thanks Sue. Thai curry is one of my favourite dishes :)
This looks delicious Jennifer – I absolutely love curry! I’ve never made it at home, but I should start – you make it sounds so easy!
Thanks Jessica. It is so easy! They’re sort of like stir-fry really – a basic base and then add whatever you want to it :)
What a beauty of a recipe, Jennifer! I just can’t beat a meal that is ready in 15 minutes!
Thanks so much, Julia :)