Easy Thai Curry Hot Pot

This Thai Curry Hot Pot recipe is ultra-easy to make, fun to customize with all of your favorite add-ins, naturally gluten-free and vegan (although you can add meat if you’d like!), perfect for entertaining, and SO delicious!

Only thing better than cooking for your favorite people?

Cooking with your favorite people…hot pot party style! ? ? ?

Oh man, guys, Barclay and I have jumped firmly on board the hot pot trend train these past few months (<– and as it turns out, it is officially a trend this year), especially once we realized our Instant Pot could double as the perfect hot pot at home. It’s ridiculously easy and fun, and has quickly turned into one of our favorite new ways to entertain.

To serve a meal hot-pot style, just cook up an ultra-flavorful broth and serve it hot and simmering in the middle of the table. Then surround it with a selection of your favorite add-ins, give each guest a bowl and some chopsticks, and let everyone create their own custom bowls by “cooking” their food together…right in the middle of the table! It’s incredibly fun, it requires minimal prep on your part, and it’s sure to be a dinner party that no one will forget.

And this particular curry hot pot recipe is one of my new faves.

It’s a Thai spin on the traditional Chinese hot pot, made with a super simple broth packed with bold red curry flavors. And it’s super versatile for entertaining. It works well with noodles or rice, plus practically any veggies and herbs that you’d like to add in. It tastes great with tofu, chicken, shrimp or beef (although I generally keep mine meatless, in case there are any vegetarians in the group). Your guests can amp up the heat if they’d like a spicier curry, or they can opt to keep it more mild. But however you make it, I’m telling you, it is going to be downright delicious.

So if you’re looking for a fun new way to spice up your next dinner party…or just your next weeknight dinner with the fam at home…you’ve gotta give this one a try.

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As I mentioned — in today’s edition of What Doesn’t The Instant Pot Do? — I’ve become a huge fan of just letting my Instant Pot double as my hot pot here at home. (Works like a charm in keeping the broth hot and simmering in the middle of the table, plus it also doubles as a sauté pan for the garlic and ginger.)

But if you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can purchase an actual hot pot. Or just use a hot plate to heat your regular stockpot.

Other tools that you might want to have on hand would include:

• A soup ladle, to scoop out the broth
• Various sizes of strainers, to cook the additional ingredients
  • I bought a batch of these small hot pot strainers, which are fun to pass out to everyone (or people can share)
  • Otherwise, any other sizes of traditional fine-mesh strainers work well too
• Chopsticks for everyone

Once your equipment is ready to go, next up is the fun part — the food.

To begin, prep all of the various dippers and toppings that you’d like to serve with your broth. (I often do this ahead of time before a party. OR, this can be a fun thing to split up between your guests, and invite everyone to bring a few ingredients to share.)  The sky is practically the limit when it comes to various things you can add to this broth, but I’d recommend choosing a few in each of these categories:

• Protein
  • As I mentioned, I typically keep my hot pots vegetarian or pescetarian, depending on who’s coming to dinner (so that the broth isn’t “contaminated” if someone at the table doesn’t eat meat). But that said, if you have a table of meat-eaters, feel free to serve any of your faves! Some options could include:
    • crispy tofu, shrimp, beef, chicken, and/or pork
• Noodles / Rice
  • I’m a huge fan of rice noodles in my hot pot, although rice or other grains could also work. I recommend cooking them ahead of time (vs. having everyone try to cook their noodles in the hot pot at the table), and then going ahead and placing a scoop of noodles in everyone’s bowls when you serve them. Then the noodle lovers at the table (?) can always go back for more. Some options here could include:
    • rice noodles (any width), brown or white rice, quinoa, or any other favorite grains
    • or, you also could sub in chickpeas in place of noodles
• Veggies
  • The more the merrier, if you ask me. Some options could include:
    • bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions (red, white or yellow), peas, squash, sweet potatoes
• Greens
  • These don’t take long to cook, so just add them in for a minute or two until they are slightly wilted
    • baby bok choy, cabbage, collards, kale, and/or spinach
• Toppings
  • If you can, it’s always fun to have some extra toppings on hand to finish off everyone’s bowls. (None of these need to be cooked in the actual hot pot itself.) . Some options could include:
    • fresh herbs (i.e. chopped Thai basil, chives, and/or cilantro)
    • fresh chiles (i.e. Thai bird chiles, serrano peppers, or dried crushed red peppers)
    • lime wedges
    • thinly-sliced green onions
    • toasted coconut flakes

Here’s the thing to remember — you can go as big or as simple here as you want. If you want to keep things simple with just a handful of options, it’ll be delicious! If you want to go crazy and have tons of options, it’ll also be delicious! The goal is to keep it fun, so go with whatever selection of add-ins works for your life that day.

Alright, once your add-ins are ready to go, prep dat delicious broth!

This Thai coconut curry broth is incredibly quick and easy to make with just 6 ingredients. (And it just gets tastier, as all of those extra add-ins start to get cooked in it.)

To prep it, sauté some garlic and fresh ginger in a bit of oil. Then add in my favorite Kitchen Basics Vegetable Stock (I use this in basically all of my vegetarian soups) and lots of coconut milk (you can use low-fat, if you prefer). And then — very important! — add in some Thai red curry paste to taste.  I like my broth pretty spicy, so I used about 6 tablespoons in this recipe. But as always when adding curry paste, start small, and you can always add more. (And if the broth accidentally gets too spicy, just add more vegetable stock and coconut milk.)

Then, once your broth is ready to go, serve it in the middle of the table nice and hot. You want it just barely simmering — not so hot that it boils down quickly, but hot enough that it will safely cook your meat and seafood.

Then it’s time to cook! Have your guests gather round and use their chopsticks to pop their favorite add-ins into the broth, and give them a stir. Then once they are cooked, your guests can use the strainers to add those ingredients into their individual serving bowls, top them off with a ladle of broth, maybe a few toppings, and….enjoy.

(And then absolutely go back for seconds. And thirds. ?)

Seriously, so fun, and SO GOOD.

For more hot pot inspiration, be sure to check out more hot pot recipes that are included in the McCormick 2018 Flavor Forecast. They have some more twists on the traditional hot pot — like Asian and Mexican hot pot recipes — that look really fun.

Enjoy, everyone!

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Easy Thai Curry Hot Pot

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 6 reviews

• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 8 -10 servings 1x

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Description

This Thai Curry Hot Pot recipe is ultra-easy to make, fun to customize with all of your favorite add-ins, naturally gluten-free and vegan (although you can add meat if you’d like!), perfect for entertaining, and SO delicious!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Hot Pot Broth Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 inch fresh ginger, cut into thick slices
• 8 cups Kitchen Basics Vegetable Stock
• 3 (15-ounce) cans coconut milk
• 4-6 tablespoons Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste, to taste

Hot Pot Dippers and Topping Ingredients (Pick Your Faves!)

• Protein
  • crispy tofu, raw shrimp, thinly-sliced* beef, chicken, and/or pork
• Noodles / Rice
  • cooked rice noodles (any width), brown or white rice, quinoa, or any other favorite grains
  • or, you also could sub in chickpeas in place of noodles
• Veggies
  • sliced bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions (red, white or yellow), peas, squash, sweet potatoes
• Greens
  • baby bok choy, cabbage, collards, kale, and/or spinach
• Toppings
  • fresh herbs (i.e. chopped Thai basil, chives, and/or cilantro)
  • fresh chiles (i.e. Thai bird chiles, serrano peppers, or dried crushed red peppers)
  • lime wedges
  • thinly-sliced green onions
  • toasted coconut flakes

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Instructions

To Make The Hot Pot Broth:

1. Heat olive oil in a large stockpot (or use the “Sauté” feature on the Instant Pot).  Add garlic and ginger and sauté for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is fragrant.  Add in the vegetable stock and coconut milk, and stir to combine.
2. Continue cooking until the broth nearly reaches a simmer.  Then add in 3 or 4 tablespoons of the curry paste, and whisk until it has dissolved.  Taste, and add more curry paste if you’d like.
3. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.  Then remove the ginger slices.
4. Serve simmering.  Then stir in your desired dippers, simmer until they have cooked, then use a strainer to transfer them to your individual serving bowl.  Add a ladle-full of broth to the individual serving bowl.
5. Serve warm, garnished with your desired toppings.

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Notes

*Be sure to thinly slice your meat, if using, so that it will cook quickly.  Also, be sure to thinly-slice any vegetables that take longer to cook (i.e. sweet potatoes).

This recipe is sponsored by McCormick, maker of my favorite veggie stock that I always keep stocked in my pantry (plus the Thai red curry that spices up this delicious broth). Thank you, as always, for supporting the brands who help make this site possible.