This vegan Thai lemongrass coconut curry soup is a light and fresh soup with spiralized sweet potato, zucchini, and celery root vegetable "noodles".
Despite all the ingredients we have in here, this Thai-inspired vegan coconut soup is actually really easy to make. Cooking with Thai flavors is a fairly recent discovery of mine, but I can't seem to get enough. I'm often late to the party, but it's better late than never!
I just love the creamy magic that coconut milk adds to dishes (especially vegan ones!).
If this recipe appeals to you, you may also like my vegan Thai sweet potato curry recipe (it's quite similar) or my 15 minute Thai green curry soup.
Ever since I got my spiralizer last Christmas, I've been cooking up a storm with it. I hadn't yet tried making a Thai soup with spiralized noodles, so here we are! Noodles in soup are wonderful in general, and you can feel good about having low-carb veggie "noodles".
I chose sweet potatoes, zucchini, and celery root. Sweet potatoes and Thai-inspired flavors just go so well together, and sweet potatoes are a popular spiralizer choice, so it was a no-brainer to go with those.
Celery root (celeriac) is often overlooked in cooking, but it adds a nice and fresh if slightly earthy flavor that's (surprise!) similar to celery. Don't be intimidated by its "hairy" outside. You can simply use a knife to cut away the outer layer to reveal its smooth inside. It then spiralizes easily.
I really liked this Thai-inspired red curry soup and would have happily eaten more of it, but my husband actually called dibs on the leftovers and texted me from work about how much he was enjoying them. I'd say that makes a recipe a winner. 😛
I know it's warm outside, but this soup really hits the spot. It's light enough that it works for the summer weather. It's also a perfect way to warm up if you spend a lot of time in an air-conditioned office like I do. Or save it for winter!
In case you were wondering, this is the spiralizer I used to make this soup.
Want even more spiralizer recipes? Try my vegan cashew lime zoodles, my grilled chili lime shrimp zoodles, or my spiralized Thai salad recipe.
Will you make this vegan Thai curry soup? Let me know in the comments below!
Vegan Thai Lemongrass Coconut Curry Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemongrass finely chopped
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced
- 3.5 cups vegetable broth or water (see note)
- 3 heaping tablespoons Thai red curry paste
- Juice of 1/2 lime + lime wedges for serving
- 1 medium sweet potato peeled & spiralized on medium setting
- 1 medium zucchini spiralized on medium setting
- 1 small celery root (celeriac) peeled & spiralized on medium setting
- 1 (13.5 ounce) can full fat coconut milk
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Handful fresh basil torn
- Fresh cilantro chopped, to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Chop the lemongrass and onion. Spiralize the sweet potato, zucchini, and celery root.
- Add the olive oil to a pot on medium-high heat. Sauté the lemongrass, onion, and ginger for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Add the vegetable broth, curry paste, and lime juice. Stir until combined.
- Add the spiralized sweet potato, zucchini, and celery root. Cover the pot with the lid slightly ajar and cook for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the coconut milk and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Season with salt & pepper and add the fresh basil and cilantro (if using).
- Serve soup with an extra wedge of lime on the side.
Notes
- You can do a combination of vegetable broth and water or a stock cube and water if needed. If you're not vegetarian, you could instead use chicken broth.
- How to prep the lemongrass: Cut the dry ends off the stalk, then use your hands to peel the tough outer "shell" of the stalk. Discard that outer shell. Use a knife to slice the newly revealed inner stalk. You can then easily chop those slices up finely.
- I keep my ginger in the freezer. It's very easy to grate when frozen. I grate it straight into the pan.
- I use Thai Kitchen red curry paste in this recipe. It's vegan. Some others contain fish ingredients so just make sure to read the label if that's an issue.
- I use the Paderno 4-Blade Spiralizer.
- Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only and should be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. Ingredients can vary and Salt & Lavender makes no guarantees to the accuracy of this information.
Liz says
Do you think this would be similarly good with chopped (instead of spiralized) veggies? Any idea on variation in cooking time? I want to try it but don't have a spiralizer. Thanks!
Natasha says
I think the flavors would still be good. I would just say to cook it until the veggies are tender... it's impossible for me to speculate because I don't know how thick/thin you're slicing them and so on. Let me know if you do try it, Liz!
becky says
I finally purchased all the ingredients for this (celery root was hard to find) and now realize just how expensive this soup is to make. I spent $10 on the celery root plus lemon grass alone. I now realize I used the sweet potato for something else so still can't make it. I don't have a spiralizer -was going to borrow my daughter's because she says she used it for a couple months and then stopped so will try one before I buy one. I think there are so many delicious and easy soup recipes, I'll probably try this recipe once to use up the celery root (if it's still good once I get the sweet potato) but will leave this kind of thing for Thai take out in the future.
Cori Wheaton says
So amazing! I added red pepper flakes for a little more spice, and only used zucchini noddles. My favorite soup recipe so far!
Natasha says
I'm so happy you liked it!
sarah says
really did not enjoy this. too much coconut milk i think - came out very fatty/bland
Natasha says
Sorry to hear that, Sarah!
Kate says
Just made this tonight. Yummy! Really great flavors and I liked all of the wonderful spiralized veggies, a nice twist on a Thai-style soup. My only complaint is that it took me over an hour start to finish and I’m very competent in the kitchen (and knowing my infant might need me at any moment I was moving fast!). I mean, just spiralizing all of those veggies, not to mention prepping all the other ingredients...it adds up! If you can get anything pre-prepped (eg minced garlic in a jar), have an extremely efficient spiralizer (mine is a little hand held thing), or have the light-speed chopping skills of a pro chef it might be closer to the mark 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
Natasha says
I am so glad you liked it, Kate! Yup, prep times are hard to estimate sometimes haha. I'm pretty quick, but yeah, I can see how this could take a bit longer than indicated.
Lizzie says
I'm trialing being vegan and this is the first vegan meal I've made. I really liked it, especially served with lots of salt and lime juice!
Natasha says
So happy that you liked it!! 🙂
Rita says
I’ve made this twice we both love it I double some of the soup broth items to make more so we have two dinners. The broth alone can be used for different types of soup. I also didn’t have enough lemongrass so used lemon zest. Great flavour!
Natasha says
So happy you guys like this, Rita! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
Olivia says
This was great! It was surprisingly spicy, which I loved — I love spice, and usually I add Sriarcha/Gochujang/red pepper flakes to recipes to bring them up to my spice level, but this didn't need any of those! It also was really filling; I usually have to eat multiple bowls of soup to feel full, but one bowl of this made a good-sized dinner. And it was really easy to make! I'm always skeptical of "total time" estimates on recipes because I'm terrible at multitasking and I guess I'm just a slow cook in general, but this really did just take 30 minutes (maybe even less), so I was able to make it on a Tuesday in the middle of a crazy week. Bonus: It was my first time cooking with lemongrass, so now I can add that to my pantry!
Natasha says
So happy you liked it, Olivia! I always wonder if I underestimate cooking time hahah. So glad that it worked out!
Genevieve says
Just made this for dinner and it was sooooo good! I had two bowls and am looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!
Natasha says
Yay!! That's great. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, Genevieve! 🙂
Natasha's Sister says
I spend a lot of time in an air-conditioned office as well, and you've never made this for me. Will you soon??
Natasha says
No.