Coconut Curry Soup with Chicken, Chickpeas and… | The Modern Proper (2024)

March 15, 2023

This coconut curry soup with chicken and chickpeas is so filling and satisfying, it’s hard to believe that it qualifies as health food—but we promise, it really, really does.

Virtuous Doesn’t Have to Mean Boring.

Take a gorgeous medley of vegetables, slowly simmer in a rich, creamy red curry coconut broth, add chicken, chickpeas, and dark leafy greens and voila! You’ve got yourself a healthy coconut curry soup that’s so filling and satisfying you might be fooled into thinking you aren’t eating as healthy as you actually are. And that's how it should be. That's real food done right. Healthy doesn’t have to be boring and delicious comfort food doesn’t have to be bad for you. To be successful in your healthy eating goals, it’s important to not feel like you’re suffering, and we promise, no one will be suffering when you offer them a steaming bowl of this hearty concoction.

Everything You’ll Need to Make Our Curry Soup Recipe

Comforting, spicy and oh-so-warming, coconut curry soup sings with the Thai flavors we love—but comes together faster than you’d think. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:

• Olive oil
• Onion
• Bell peppers
• Garlic
• Diced tomatoes
• Limes
• Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• Coconut milk—we recommend full fat coconut milk! Full fat makes for a luscious, creamy broth for the curry soup. Light coconut milk just won’t yield the same result.
• Red curry paste. OK, we have strong feelings about red curry paste—mainly that all brands are NOT created equal. You should taste a few and see which one suits your tastes. We are huge fans of the Mae Ploy brand, which is quite widely available (but do note—it is not vegetarian or vegan, as it contains shrimp paste). We also like the Thai and True brand, which is a vegan brand of red curry paste.
• Your favorite dark, leafy greens—kale, spinach or chard.
• Fish sauce
• Chicken stock
• Chicken breasts, sliced thin

Thai Red Curry Soup—Make It Meaty, Or Make It Vegan!

We’ve made this red curry soup recipe for groups of people large and small, that included people with all kinds of dietary preferences. It’s incredibly adaptable! While we often add chicken to give it extra heft, it’s easy to adapt this recipe into a vegan coconut curry. With the chickpeas, it still has protein to spare and thanks to all of the aromatics, fresh lime juice and curry paste, it’s deeply flavorful with or without meat. If you’re looking to vegan-ize this coconut curry recipe, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• You’ll have to leave out the fish sauce, which brings a lot of salty, umami flavors to the soup. You may want to make up for it with a splash of soy sauce.
• Some brands of red curry paste contain fish-y ingredients, like shrimp paste. Just be sure to use a vegan brand.
• Use veggie stock instead of chicken stock.

How To Make Coconut Curry Soup

Here’s the thing with cooking healthy food—easy recipes will help you stick to your goals. If it’s even easier to make something healthy than it is to cook something unhealthy, you’ll be way more inclined to make the healthy recipe, right? Luckily, it really doesn’t get much easier than this Thai coconut soup recipe. Here’s how to make it:

1. Sauté! Onions, peppers, garlic.
2. Add tomatoes, red curry paste, stock and chickpeas. Give it a quick simmer!
3. Add coconut milk, fish sauce and lime juice. Time for another quick simmer!
4. Add the chicken and simmer until it’s cooked through.
5. Finish with the kale, spinach or Swiss chard. Simmer just until the greens are wilted—spinach will wilt almost immediately, whereas kale and chard need a bit longer.
6. Serve! We love to serve this red curry soup with rice, or cauliflower rice, but it’s also a great one-bowl meal as-is.

Tools You’ll Need:

• Cutting board.
• Sharp knife.
• A good soup pot.
• Ladle.

More Cozy, Healthy Curry Soup Recipes to Keep You On Track.

What can we say? We’re really into curry. We’re really into coconut. And we’re REALLY into soup recipes. So guess what? We’ve got FIVE more curry soup recipes for you, just in case you discover that you, too, are obsessed:

• Coconut Curry Ramen
• Coconut Chicken Soup
• Coconut Curry Lentil Soup
• Curried Pumpkin Coconut Soup
• Vegetable Curry Soup

Soup Rocks.

It’s a fact. Budget-friendly, one-pot, easy to freeze—we make a big pot of soup just about EVERY Sunday, and we’re always so glad we did. We hope you try this easy coconut curry soup with chicken, and if you do, hit us up! Snap a photo of your soup and maybe even a video of the beautiful people you feed it to. Tag us on Instagram using @themodernproperand #themodernproper. Happy eating!