One of the saddest parts for me of moving to Louisiana was leaving behind all my favorite restaurants and foods I’d come to love. One of my favorite places was Noodles & Company. I’m sure you guys are the same as me–there are times in my life that I look back at with such fondness and such happy memories that it almost hurts. The summer of 2006 was that way for me and it seems like in my memories, I was always at Noodles & Company–with my sister before she moved to Alabama, with my then-two-year-old son on a rainy, rainy day after story time at the library, the night I found out I was pregnant with my daughter (and, subsequently, 9 months later on the night before I had her). My favorite thing to eat there (besides the Macaroni and Cheese which had about a million calories and as many grams of fat, so I’d order a small portion for my son and snack off his plate) was the Bangkok Curry. It was light, healthy, full of veggies, and unbelievably delicious. At the restaurant, there’s the option of adding grilled chicken or shrimp, but I always just went the vegetarian route.
Well, when we moved here, not only was there no Noodles & Company, but there was nothing even similar. And there were none close by. Not even in Texas. I tried to re-create it at home and failed. I scoured the internet for copycat recipes and came up with nothing. I resigned myself to a sad, Bangkok Curry-less existence. And then…a few months ago…I Googled it again for the heck of it and found not a copycat recipe but a recipe from Noodles & Company themselves! I went on a mad hunt for ingredients and tried making it that night. And, to be honest, it kind of flopped. The rice noodles were great in theory, but they only made things messier and more complicated than they needed to be. This sweet chili sauce
(which I had a heck of a time finding–I’ll warn you now to forgo the grocery store altogether on this one, head to a specialty or Asian foods market, and ask someone where to find the sweet chili sauce. It’ll save you some road rage and mean thoughts if you do!) was way spicier than I was anticipating and the amount called for in the recipe made mine inedible. There also weren’t enough veggies and blanching fresh broccoli and carrots, along with soaking the rice noodles and using the wok, completely destroyed my kitchen. So I tweaked, streamlined, and simplified. And the next go-around was awesome. Just like I’d been dreaming for 2 1/2 years.
Aside from the sweet chili sauce, you should be able to find everything else at your average grocery store:
Linguine (be sure to buy the 16-oz. package and not the 12-oz. package), green onions, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, mushrooms, frozen (gasp!) veggies, red bell peppers, curry paste, and coconut milk. I sometimes get a little bewildered at the grocery store when recipes call for curry paste–what kind of curry? Indian? Thai? Green? Red? Powder? Paste? Sauce? Yeah, you get the picture. In this recipe, I used Thai Kitchen red curry paste, although you could totally use their green curry paste, too. It’s inexpensive and super easy to find. Problem solved, right?
Questions & Reviews
I made this tonight and it was delicious! But it was SUPER spicy (and my husband and I love really spicy food). My kids couldn’t eat it. What could I decrease to make it edible for my kids?
Thank you for posting this recipe! I have a Noodles&Company close, and this is my favorite dish of theirs. But it’s $12 every time. I got all the ingredients from an Asian grocery store that I didn’t even know was there until I googled Asian grocers. It’s less than a mile from my home.
I took the long road and used fresh veggies, blanched some and julienned the carrots, peppers and onions. I used rice noodles, but only cooked them for six min, then ran cold water over them. They came out fine. I added pulled pork to it at the end. It was delicious! The only thing I might change next time is maybe a half a tbs of red curry paste. I like spice, but after my second bite I started sweating.
Made this tonight. Exactly followed the recipe except used fresh green beans rather than frozen vegetables. It was delicious. Had it with teriyaki duck breast. It was great together.
Just a couple of observations. You elude to the fact that the recipe uses just half of the can of coconut milk. However, the recipe never says to use just half. Also, the noodles should not sit in hot water for 30 minutes. I had them in the hot water for about 10 minutes then ran cold water on them to stop the cooking. I waited until the very end to add the noodles to the wok but they were a bit soft. I suggest letting the noodles sit in the hot water maybe 5 minutes before rinsing with cold water. They should be a bit underdone at that point since they will cook more in the wok.
This recipe has great taste. Try it.
made this on the weekend and it was delicious!
I have a bag of frozen stir fry veggies and a package of egg rolls in the freezer, a big bag of brown rice in the pantry..hmmm..how to pull all of it together for a quick & easy dinner? Poof! Just like magic, my search engine leads to me to you. Thank you so much for this recipe; I’ll be adding some sauteed tofu to my version, can’t wait to taste!
Why not use the rest of the coconut milk for a breakfast smoothie? That stuff doesn’t last long at my house!
This recipe was fabulous – it tastes like pad thai (but without the fishy taste). And just out of curiosity, I calculated how much making this recipe cost me (halfed, with one chicken breast added, w/out peppers, mushrooms or sesame seeds) and it only cost me $3.50 total or less to feed me and my husband! Very impressive!
I can’t wait to try this, I was just wondering if it matters what kind of curry paste you use? I’ve seen red curry paste, green curry paste, and an assortment of east indian dish curry pastes (like vindaloo, butter chicken, chicken masala, etc) when I went looking. Thanks!
I just used a regular red curry paste, but feel free to experiment! 🙂
SO GOOD! I just can’t believe we had such yummy thai food that I made, totally from scratch! Thank you!
Love this meal. Love. Thank you!
Thanks so much for this — I was googling for coconut curry sauce and found the recipe. It was a hit with the whole family. My six and nine year olds each had two servings! A definite keeper and fun to think about with other veggies, etc. We added salmon to this one.
Also, re: the sweet chili sauce, Trader Joe’s carries a fantastic, inexpensive bottle.
Tasty! My almost three year old DEVOURED multiple helpings and even ate the peppers and other veggies which he is usually very particular about. Total win. Also… our Costco now carries a huge bottle of the Sweet Chili Sauce for about the same price my grocery store was charging for a tiny one. Yum!
Love! Love! Love! The sauce is fantastic. I added leftover grilled chicken at the end and heated until warm. My family of four devoured the whole recipe.
Woo Hoo! I’m hitting the asain market after work and my tastebuds will be singing tonight :). I’ll let you know how really grateful I am after it’s done :).
There are a ton of recipes for sweet chili sauce online if you can’t find it at a store.
http://www.shesimmers.com/2009/02/how-to-make-thai-sweet-chili-dipping.html
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-chili-thai-sauce/
This was DIVINE!! I had all the ingredients already and was stoked to find a meatless recipe I could do right away. I actually didn’t have the sweet chili sauce but I had regular Asian chili sauce and mixed some apricot preserves with it and it was scrumptious!
My husband said this needs to be on our list of regular meals 🙂
I made this dinner last night and it was delicious! You can find the sweet chili sauce at Krogers in their international section. I took the time to look for it but it was really easy to find.
I made this for dinner and it was amazing!! I think it tasted even better when it was room temp. I *may* have snuck a few bites as I was packing up the leftovers 🙂 yum yum!
Hi Kate! I am fairly new to this site, but I have loved everything I have made. I am almost done making this recipe as we speak! I can’t wait to try it! I just wanted to let you and any other seakers of sweet chili sauce to know that I found the very bottle that you have pictured at Tom Thumb (in Texas) aka Safeway. They actually have a pretty impressive Asian food section. Anyway, thanks for the great website! I can’t wait to keep trying your recipes!
Mmm, that looks so good! Honestly, though, I would rather dump half a can of coconut milk than have that much leftover (my husband doesn’t like Thai food, especially with coconut involved, so I will be the only one eating it). I’m a big fan of Thai sweet chili sauce. I’m not sure if my store in SLC carries that brand or not, but they do have a few varieties in the same part of the store where you find the Thai Kitchen curry pastes and coconut milk.