Thai-Spiced Rice Bowls
This curried Thai peanut bowl recipe is warming, hearty and fresh! These delicious bowls are easy to make, too. The recipe comes from The Minimalist Kitchen Cookbook by Melissa Coleman.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 5, 2024
One of my favorite parts of my job is meeting and befriending other food bloggers. Melissa of The Faux Martha and I started our blogs around the same time. We commented on each other’s blogs for a while and then I reached out to Melissa way back when she was living in Chicago.
That’s how you know you’re headed in the right direction—when “networking” feels so natural and easy. Melissa invited me over to her home and out to dinner. We’ve been buds for a while now.
Last summer, when I was in Minneapolis for Lindsay’s photography workshop, Melissa invited us over for dinner. I got to see her amazing modern farmhouse in person, finally. We ate homemade pizza in her backyard under those big, round Christmas lights I love so much. Someday, I’ll have a proper backyard and I’ll “borrow” some of Melissa’s design elements.
Melissa is a designer. She worked as a graphic designer when I met her, then she became a blog designer, then she designed her home, and now she has made a cookbook. Melissa is a very thoughtful designer and everything she produces is beautiful, practical and functional at the same time. Those are the hallmarks of great design, right?
In her backyard, we talked about Melissa’s upcoming cookbook, The Minimalist Kitchen (affiliate link). Her book is here, finally! It’s everything that I knew it would be—beautiful, practical and functional, with Melissa’s honest and manageable approach to home cooking.
Melissa’s cookbook offers 100 wholesome recipes, made with essential tools and efficient techniques. She thought of everything, including how to measure margarita ingredients while dirtying the least amount of dishes.
This book is realistic minimalism—you won’t find 5-ingredient entrées (how good could those be?), but made-from-scratch recipes that use common ingredients. They’re delicious and affordable.
Melissa’s book offers quite a few vegetarian options, and I chose to make her Thai-spiced rice bowls. This recipe is perfect for transitional spring or fall weather, since it features warm curried peanut broth and hearty brown rice topped with lots of fresh garnishes. It’s almost like soup-meets-spring-rolls, and I’m really into it!
My Recipe Notes
Melissa’s recipe calls for chicken broth, but I used vegetable broth since I’m a vegetarian. She also suggests that you could top the bowls with shredded chicken, but I think this crispy baked tofu would be a fantastic vegetarian/vegan option.
If you’d like your vegetarian peanut broth to have a little more body, you can whisk in more peanut butter or use regular (full-fat) coconut milk instead of light. That said, I liked my broth a lot as-is.
Be sure to check out Melissa’s book, The Minimalist Kitchen, and let us know how you like the recipe in the comments! If you’re craving more Thai-inspired recipes, I have more over here.
Thai-Spiced Rice Bowls
This curried Thai peanut bowl recipe is warming, hearty and fresh! These delicious bowls are easy to make, too. Recipe yields 6 servings.
Ingredients
Rice
- 1 ½ cups uncooked rice (I used long-grain brown rice)
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt (or ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt)
Peanut Broth
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- Thumb-tip of peeled fresh ginger, pressed or minced
- 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
- ¼ cup soy sauce (I used reduced-sodium tamari)
- ¼ cup natural peanut butter
- 4 cups (1 quart) vegetable broth
- 1 can (14 ounces) light coconut milk
- Generous squeeze of honey
Garnishes
- 1 cup matchstick-cut carrots (I used my julienne peeler)
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- ½ English cucumber, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (optional; I used a regular cucumber and seeded it before slicing)
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- ¼ cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (optional)
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Make the rice: Cook the rice according to the package instructions, then stir in the butter and salt. (Here’s how I cook brown rice.)
- Make the broth: Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once warm, add the oil. Add the garlic and ginger. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the remaining broth ingredients. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes to develop the flavor.
- Meanwhile, prepare the garnishes. To serve, divide the rice evenly among 6 serving bowls. Top each serving evenly with the broth. Garnish as desired.
Notes
Recipe barely adapted from The Minimalist Kitchen by Melissa Coleman.
Make it vegan: Omit the butter for the rice, or replace it with coconut oil, added to taste. Use maple syrup instead of honey to sweeten the broth.
Make it gluten free: Use gluten-free tamari instead of regular soy sauce.
Change it up: Melissa says you can add edamame or peas to this recipe.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This sounds amazing! Looking forward to trying it soon..:)
Let me know what you think!
Awww I love you so much! I think its awesome how you really helped your fellow blogger Melissa by both promoting her awesome new book and giving her the credit for this inspired dish. Its so refreshing in this new age to see women help each other’s work in a non-competitive way. This speaks oodles of your integrity and character. Can’t wait to try this new recipe. I too like your vegetarian version. I might still get her book too. I got yours and I just love it. All the recipes I’ve tried are delicious and I always feel nourished and energized afterwards.
Thank you! We like to support one another for sure. I appreciate your kind words, Yvette.
I agree w/ Yvette’s comment, btw. It was something that I’d noticed about your blog and always appreciated and admired.
Quick question: what Thai curry paste do you recommend? I’ve shied away from them because I try to avoid MSG (“natural flavoring”), but I would love to incorporate both red and green Thai curries into my cooking. Thank you!
Thai Kitchen is usually what I get. Hopefully this helps!
Thank you!
This looks so amazing! I am obsessed with red curry paste. I’m definitely going to make this next week. I think I might use water instead of veg. broth. I usually find when a sauce/soup has a lot going on (ginger, curry, peanut butter, coconut) you can get away with it.
Can we use Himalayan rock salt
Let me know what you think of it with water! I do think it will lose some flavor. But would love to hear from you.
Hi,
It looks so spicy and nutty. Can’t wait to cook this one.
There are many spicy Kashmiri dishes that you would definitely wanna cook. If can try them first before you cook.
Wonderful! Love to hear what you think.
Just loved this – it was perfect– thank you
You’re welcome! Thanks, Louise for the review.
I’m doing Whole 30 this month. Do you think there’s any reason I couldn’t substitute Sun butter for peanut butter? I would just make it over cauliflower rice instead of brown rice. Thanks!
I’m not sure. You could try it! But it would likely take away from the expected flavor.
Looks like such a beautiful and tasty recipe! My dad is a graphic designer for movies, so he also knows a thing or two about making pictures look magnificent! If I were to write a book, I’d turn to him first for photo editing! But anyways, I’ll definitely see how the vegan version is. I cannot pass this one up!
Let me know what you think!
I would love to try this but my daughter has a peanut allergy. Would you suggest we use almond or sesame butter in place of the peanut butter?
Sure! Those sound like great options. I think sesame butter would provide a nice Thai flavor. Let me know what you think!
I tried it tonight. Yum. Will make again.
Wonderful!
Made this tonight, and it was delicious. Added crispy tofu to it, and it was a complete meal that even my 5-year old enjoyed. Thanks!
That’s so great to hear! What a great eater. Thank you for your review, Jeff!
Oh my, this looks soooo rich and delicious! Such a yummy idea for a comforting dinner!
Thank you!
Hello, I’m allergic to peanuts. Do you think it would work with almonds and almond butter?? Thanks!
Or cashews! Maybe cashews…
You could also try tahini would be another possibility. Let me know what you think.
Tahini works. I make this recipe with tahini for my daughter who is struggling with several allergies, one of them being to peanuts.
Do you have any recommendations on broth without the peanut butter? I have a peanut allergy, but this sounds amazing and I’m curious what you’d sub in for this.
You could try tahini or almond butter. I haven’t tried those, but are usually good substitutes. Let me know what you think!
It says cook time of 15 minutes; how do you make brown rice in less than 50 minutes?
Hi Annette, Melissa made her recipe with white rice so I kept her suggested timing. I make brown rice in about 40 minutes—you can find my favorite cooking method in step 1 here.
Love this soup-meets-spring roll meal! Perfect for those nights when I’m indecisive.
I know what you mean!
Yum! This looks so good!
Kari
Thank you!
I immediately became addicted to this Thai recipes nowadays and I’m just making almost every other week. The spiciness, the color and everything of this recipe made me tempted very much, I’m closing my laptop and immediately jumping off to the kitchen to make a bowl for my own .
What did you think?!
This recipe is amazing!! Super easy to make and tasted delicious! The only thing I used from the garnish was the pepper. I put broccoli, green beans and chilli flakes instead.
Thank you, Holly! I appreciate your comment and review.
Looks delicious, can’t wait to try! Do you think the broth would freeze well?
Hi, Erin! I don’t try to freeze all my recipes but you could try it. Let me know if you do.
I’m thinking of adding cubed tofu to this. I’m leaning raw, firm (not extra firm)… what do you think? Sauteed first or straight from the fridge to the pot? Oh the possibilities!
Hi Rena! I don’t love raw tofu myself, so I’d probably bake up some of my crispy tofu!
Kathryne! Means so much that you would make one of these recipes. Thank you for supporting this book baby! Let’s do pizza this summer again? Or something else soon. Miss you friend!
You’re very welcome! I’m so happy to. Yes, let’s plan something!
Delicous! Made this tonight and loved the broth. Added fresh turmeric, shredded chicken, and baby corn as I had them on hand. My husband told me it was a meal we should make when we have company! (the ultimate compliment)
I will take the ultimate compliment! Thanks so much, Kaitlin.
This sound like my mom’s sour and spice soup. Gonna made this tonight, sound good!
What did you think?!
Another winner!! This is so warm, comforting, and healthy w/ all the colorful veggies.
I’ll use brown Jasmine rice next time bc it’s heftier; even so, the white Jasmine rice will be better in the bowl tomorrow once it’s dried out and crunchier so it doesn’t disintegrate in the broth lol.
I added sliced zucchini that I had on hand while the broth was simmering. Next time, I’ll add soft tofu as well to make the bowl more filling w/ protein.
Thanks again!
Wonderful! Thanks, Barbara.
I made this for dinner tonight and we thought it was tasty – sautéed some spicy shrimp as an add-in for my hubby and the crispy tofu for myself (came out great! I use a tofu press and it really makes squeezing out the water a breeze). Only thing was that we didn’t want it to be a soup as much as a rice bowl (as the name implies) so I cut way back on the veggie broth for a thicker consistency and it worked great. Posting a pic to Instagram! Thanks for being one of my go to blogs!
I’m happy this is a go-to blog for you, Sue! Thank you, for your review.
It looks delicious and healthy.
Thank you!
I made this recipe last night and I think I’m obsessed. So delicious!! I’ve been sharing it with people in my office (we work on healthy eating and scratch cooking).
Thank you!
You’re welcome!
I made this for dinner tonight and my husband and I are both raving, it is so delicious! I followed the recipe as is, omitting only the cucumbers and mint on top. There’s tons of savory, comforting flavor and it’s not heavy. I’m curious about how leftovers will work (we’ll store broth, rice and veggies seperately). Wr will make this again and again.
BTW Kate, we love your cookbook!
Great, Susan! I’m happy you hear you love the cookbook. :)
So good!
I made this for lunch today with your vegan modifications. Perfect complex flavor profile, and with the brown rice it was hearty and comforting. Thank you for introducing me to Melissa
You’re welcome! She is great. :)
What about using ramen noodles instead of rice?
I didn’t try it with ramen, but go for it!
I’m obsessed with this recipe. We made it with homemade broth I had just done over the weekend (do you ever make your own broth? I’d love to know if you do and any recipes you use! We just keep our scraps from veggies and herbs in a bag in the freezer and then simmer them for hours when we have enough with some bay leaves and peppercorns and it’s always different and so good.) We had chicken on hand so added shredded chicken but honestly it doesn’t need it. I’ve already made it twice and can’t wait to make it next time we have friends for dinner!
Hi Lis! I’m glad you like it. I usually stick with buying broth. :) Thanks for your review!
So delicious! Would make again, maybe for friends next time. I made Love Real Food’s tofu with it and added about a cup and a half of green beans. I made this all for myself, so have some recs about packing for lunch
1) I just put the pepper + carrots+ cilantro + lime into the broth (after it was off heat) directly rather than topping for simplicity’s sake. Packed rice +scallion + tofu (and forgot the other stuff)
2) I didn’t have tamari so I just used regular soy sauce. Was okay while fresh but got saltier than i’d like the next day. Would recommend reducing that quantity if not using low sodium.
Thank you, Danielle for sharing!
Made tonight using farro instead of rice. Oh so great! Especially on a cold rainy night! Will definitely become part of our regular rotation.
Wonderful, Julie!
Yum yum yum. Thank you Kate for your inspiring recipes. We live in New Zealand and have recently ordered and received your recipe book ‘Love real Food’ of which we are making every delicious dish and that’s exactly what they have all been!!! Thank you so much can’t wait for more of your creations.
Thank you, Marisa for your support! I’m so happy you got it.
Absolutely delicious!
Thank you!
We loved this recipe! It was a winner among my kids too! We put the sauce on the side for dipping, and all the toppings and rice in little piles on their plates and they loved it! We will be making this one again!
Wonderful to hear, Megan! Thanks for your review.
We usually love a curry dish but we made this last night and while it was ok, it seemed to lack some depth of flavor! I tried adding some additional curry as well as some additional PB, but neither was able to full develop the flavor in the sauce/broth.
I would definitely prioritize making your Thai Red Curry w/vegetables over making this again! That is a fan favorite in our house. Love your recipes, Kate!
I’m sorry to hear that! That is interesting that the additional curry didn’t provide the added kick. I’m glad to hear you like my Thai Red Curry, though! Thanks or sharing, Lucy.
OMG so good!! I sauteed my veggies in some red curry paste and garlic chile sauce before adding them to the sauce. This is definitely being added to the weekly rotation!
Wonderful!
In restaurant speak, would you describe this as Mild, Medium, or Spicy? We have digestive issues in our house and need to err on the Mild side.
I would say mild to medium, depending on your sensitivity to heat and depends on the brand of curry used. You can always increase the heat level.
Inspired by the pictures and the flavors I made this; it was easy to make and quite satisfying. I added some leftover chicken which was a nice complement to the dish. The broth was rather thin (despite efforts to try and boil down) and I almost added a little cornstarch to thicker up yet opted to go with the recipe. Also added probably double the amount of the red curry paste to add more flavor. This is something I’d definitely make again.
Thanks for trying it, Christine!
These bowls were so good. I mean so, so good. Soupy, salty, rich, flavourful, but still great for spring thanks to the veggies that provide crunch and freshness to balance it all out. Thanks for the recipe!
I also just want to add, to echo the comment above, that I also added extra curry paste as I thought 1 tbsp wasn’t going to be quite enough for my liking. I recommend that if you like curry flavour! I also used coconut oil in the rice instead of butter with great results.
I’m glad you like them so much, Emma. I appreciate the review!
I made this last night and it was so good!
Wonderful, Giselle!
Very good and definitely added to the rotation!! I followed the broth recipe as is and added veggies I had on hand. SO wants it again tomorrow!!
Leftovers are so good! Thank you, Stacy.
Tried this tonight. Followed the recipe pretty closely. Fantastic!!!
Wonderful, Sarah! Thank you for your review.
This was delicious – boyfriend loved it, too.
Lots of chopping for the accouterments, but overall very easy recipe.
Great, Amanda! Thanks for your review.
My teenage son has been going to a more vegetarian diet and he loves curry. So of course this recipe caught my attention. I made this last night and it was amazing!! We both loved it! The flavor is incredible and the toppings take it to another level. I chopped jalapenos, cilantro and green onion together and sliced baby carrots thinly on my mandoline. I too added extra curry paste because we love the flavor. I used natural chunky peanut butter for the extra crunch. The final presentation is incredible! This will be a frequent meal in our home!! Thank you for sharing!
WonderfuL! I love how you made this fit your specific taste, Angelia. Thanks for sharing and for your review.
My sister and I both made this with brown rice noodles instead of rice and it was delish! I used brown rice pad thai noodles and just let them cook with the broth. Super quick, more like a light soup than a bowl. Also added some chili garlic sauce for added kick.
Thanks for sharing, CJ!
This has been added to our weekly rotation! I prefer to use the broth more like a sauce, so I cut the measurements in half when I make it. This is so so tasty and a big hit at my house!
Wonderful, Jillian! Thanks so much for your comment and review.
This Thai dish is delicious and easy to make. Hands down, your vegetarian recipes are the yummiest!! Looking forward to your next cookbook :)
I’m glad you really liked it, Amy! Thanks so much for your review.