Red Curry Noodles Recipe
Step 1 Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add the udon noodles and cook according to package instructions, until the noodles separate. Use tongs or chopsticks to gently loosen up the noodles. Drain, rinse well with cold water, and drain again.
- 28-ounces udon noodles (preferably shelf-stable vacuum sealed or frozen, unthawed), see Tip
- 1 tablespoon neutral-tasting oil, such as avocado
- 1 red or yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced (about 1½ cups)
- 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste, or more to taste
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 5 ounces spinach (about 5 cups)
- 2 limes, one halved and the other quartered
- 1 cup roughly chopped cilantro, divided
- 4 scallions, trimmed, white and green parts thinly sliced (about 1¼ cups), divided
- ½ cup (2-ounces) roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
- Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add the udon noodles and cook according to package instructions, until the noodles separate. Use tongs or chopsticks to gently loosen up the noodles. Drain, rinse well with cold water, and drain again.
- Heat a wok or large skillet on medium-high for 1 to 2 minutes, until very hot. Drizzle with oil and add the onion, stirring until slightly softened and starting to turn golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the noodles (if they have been sitting around a while and are sticking together, rinse with water to loosen them, draining off excess water), 2 tablespoons red curry paste and soy sauce and toss. Taste and check if you need more curry paste, adding another tablespoon if necessary. Add as much spinach as will fit into the pan and toss constantly, piling in more spinach as it cooks down. Keep tossing until all the spinach is wilted, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Juice 1 lime over the noodles, add half of the cilantro and half of the scallions and toss well. Taste and season with salt.
- To serve, divide the noodles among 4 bowls, scatter with peanuts and the remaining scallions and cilantro, with a wedge of lime on the side.
- Step 2 Heat a wok or large skillet on medium-high for 1 to 2 minutes, until very hot. Drizzle with oil and add the onion, stirring until slightly softened and starting to turn golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the noodles (if they have been sitting around a while and are sticking together, rinse with water to loosen them, draining off excess water), 2 tablespoons red curry paste and soy sauce and toss. Taste and check if you need more curry paste, adding another tablespoon if necessary. Add as much spinach as will fit into the pan and toss constantly, piling in more spinach as it cooks down. Keep tossing until all the spinach is wilted, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Step 3 Juice 1 lime over the noodles, add half of the cilantro and half of the scallions and toss well. Taste and season with salt.
- Step 4 To serve, divide the noodles among 4 bowls, scatter with peanuts and the remaining scallions and cilantro, with a wedge of lime on the side.
- The udon noodles can be replaced with any dried noodles; you’ll need about 10 ounces.
I plan on making this. Sounds delicious..but perhaps add a little protein…grilled shrimp or tofu perhaps? (Scratching head)
@Ronnie C in CT I think some sautéed grated tofu would be great with this!
We made it tonight with buccatini. I stir fried thinly sliced chicken breast in red chili paste first and added it back in after the spinach. Recommended--without protein of some sort this would have been a carb fest and, as others have noted, rather one-note in flavor. We added thinly sliced jalapeños with the peanuts, which helped. I could see adding bean sprouts or thinly sliced carrots for crunch and sweetness. (All said, my sweetie ate three servings so it went over well!)
To increase the protein, I cooked a pound of ground pork with a couple pinches of salt, then pulled that to a bowl and returned it after cooking the onions. I had to add another tablespoon plus of the red curry paste. People liked it but I felt it could have had a little more oomph. Next time I will probably add a bit of garlic and ginger to the pork right before I pull it out of the pan.
We enjoyed this recipe but will tweak it next time. Maybe we’ll opt for pasta as the udon seemed to suck up any moisture; might add more spinach as the ratio of noodle to spinach was off even though we used less udon than called for; we’ll be aware that the curry paste we’re using is vey spicy and might use a bit less. It was a quick recipe which is nice for a weeknight but I’m glad DH is the dish cleaner!
