🇹🇭 Thai
Easy Thai Red Curry (Gaeng Phet)
⏱ 30 min
🍞
🍽 4-6 (family pot — Thai families serve curry family-style) servings
⭐ 4/5
⚠️ Estimates only — not medical advice. Carb counts vary by brand and portion. Always verify with your endo or CDCES.
🌍 Cultural note
Red curry (*gaeng phet*) is one of those dishes that taught me Thai food isn't just spicy — it's layered. Coconut milk, *bai makrut* (kaffir lime leaves), and red curry paste create this creamy-fragrant base that kids actually love when you dial the heat back. Thai families serve curry family-style with a big pot of jasmine rice and 2-3 other dishes, everyone scooping a little of everything onto their own plate. This recipe is the real family pot. Below, the kid carb math is broken out for your T1D baby.
🍽️ Kid's plate — the carb math
From this pot, build your child's plate:
| Kid portion | Carbs |
|---|---|
| ¼ cup jasmine + ¼ cup curry + sauce | ~14g |
| ⅓ cup jasmine + ⅓ cup curry + sauce | ~19g |
| ½ cup jasmine + ½ cup curry + sauce | ~28g |
| ½ cup cauli rice + ½ cup curry | ~7g |
| ¼ cup jasmine + ½ cup cauli + ¼ cup curry (sweet spot) | ~15g |
Adults take their full plate (¾-1 cup rice + ½-¾ cup curry). One pot, whole family.
Why this recipe is T1D-friendly
- Coconut milk is fat-forward — slows the rice glucose curve significantly
- The curry itself (no rice) is low-carb per scoop
- High protein from chicken keeps kids full longer between meals
- Freezes great — see Dash's tip
Ingredients
- 2 lb boneless chicken thighs, sliced
- 2 cans (13.5 oz each) full-fat coconut milk
- 3-4 tbsp Thai red curry paste (kid-mild: start with 3)
- 2 red bell peppers, sliced
- 1½ cups green beans, trimmed
- ¾ cup bamboo shoots, drained
- 5 bai makrut (kaffir lime leaves) — or zest of 1 lime
- 3 tbsp nam pla (fish sauce)
- 1½ tbsp allulose or monk fruit (replaces palm sugar)
- Juice of ½ lime
- ⅓ cup Thai basil leaves
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- Jasmine rice cooked separately (each plate gets its measured scoop)
Directions
- Open one can of coconut milk and scoop the thick cream from the top (about ⅓ of the can) into a wide pot or Dutch oven.
- Heat the coconut cream over medium until it bubbles and the oil starts to separate, about 3 minutes.
- Add red curry paste. Stir-fry in the coconut oil for 2 minutes until deeply fragrant — this "blooms" the spices.
- Add sliced chicken. Stir to coat in the paste and cook 4 minutes.
- Pour in the remaining coconut milk (both cans). Stir to combine.
- Add bai makrut, nam pla, and allulose. Simmer 10 minutes.
- Add bell peppers, green beans, and bamboo shoots. Simmer another 6 minutes until veggies are tender-crisp.
- Squeeze in lime juice. Taste — add more nam pla for salt, more allulose for balance.
- Turn off heat. Stir in Thai basil.
- Build plates at the table — rice first, then a ladle of curry. Kid's plate first.
Dash's kid tips 🐆
- Freeze single-serve portions of curry (no rice). Thai curries are made for this — the flavors deepen as they sit, and a frozen single-serve over fresh jasmine is a homerun T1D weeknight meal. Cook rice fresh.
- Start with 3 tbsp curry paste for the first time — you can always add more next round
- The coconut cream "blooming" step is what makes restaurant curry taste different from home curry; don't skip it
- Kids who don't love spice will gobble this if you serve them mostly the creamy sauce with chicken and a little rice
- Leftover curry is even better day 2 — the flavors deepen overnight