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Almost Instant Red Curry Beef and Garlic Noodles. Homemade garlic oil with Thai red curry and frizzled scallions. All tossed with quick-cooking ground beef, garden vegetables, and egg noodles. This comes together quickly, all in one skillet, with minimal prep work involved. Delicious for nights when you’re craving spicy Chinese noodles, but need them to be homemade – and quick!
The past couple of weeks here at home have been filled with such nice summer weather. It’s made being in the kitchen so hard! In an effort to spend a little time outside each night, I’ve been making a lot of under-30-minute dinners.
Sometimes it can be fun to spend all day working on an amazing meal. But when the weather is so nice, I really rely on simple recipes like these beef garlic noodles for family dinners. We love this recipe, Creighton even thinks it’s much better than ordering out Chinese!
That’s such a compliment coming from him, he’s a tough critic!!
When creating this recipe, I knew I wanted the beef and noodles to have some spiciness to them. I also knew that incorporating summer produce would be so delicious!
For spice, I took a shortcut and used Thai red curry paste. And for the vegetables, I used red bell peppers and broccoli – two of my favorites!
Ingredients
- Sesame or olive oil
- Butter
- Green onions
- Thai red curry paste
- Garlic
- Shallot
- Lean ground beef
- Egg
- Bell peppers
- Chopped broccoli florets
- Chili flakes
- Chopped fresh Thai or regular basil
- Ramen noodles, egg noodles, or rice noodles
- Tamari or soy sauce
- Honey
Here are details
Step 1: make the oil
The oil is the heart of this recipe. The beef and noodles are, of course, important, but it’s really the oil that adds all the flavor. You’ll want to start out by warming together the sesame oil and green onions (or scallions…what do you call them?). Warm until the green onions are super fragrant and frizzled up.
Frying the onions in the oil creates a really wonderful flavor. Once the onions are frizzled up, stir in the Thai red curry paste. Allow the curry paste to cook a minute or so to really intensify the flavors. Then mix in the garlic and an extra pinch of chili flakes. I love to use a Korean-style chili flake, which I purchase at Whole Foods.
Step 2: add the beef
Now, mix the beef into the oil. As it cooks, break it up into smaller pieces. Then add a splash of tamari and a squeeze of honey.
Let the beef caramelize, then mix in an egg.
Step 3: the vegetables
Now it is time for the vegetables. As mentioned, I use red bell peppers and broccoli. I love this combo of veggies, but you can use what you love!
Zucchini would be delicious too. Or try snap peas, corn, and or shredded cabbage. Oh, mushrooms would also be so delicious!
Add the vegetables to the beef, toss, and cook for a few minutes.
Step 4: the noodles
I love using an Asian-style egg noodle (look at Whole Foods for some good options, or Amazon has options too). I love using Brown Rice Ramen (which you can find at Whole Foods and in many grocery stores). These noodles taste just like real-deal ramen noodles, but they’re much healthier, gluten-free, and vegan.
Mix the noodles into the beef and vegetable. Then add the remaining tamari, and let the sauce cook into the noodles until they are coated.
At this point, remove everything from the heat.
Serve the beef and noodles immediately topped with fresh green onions and basil. I like to add peanuts too. So yummy!
Looking for other fun noodle recipes? Here are some favorites:
Crispy Sesame Garlic Chili Oil Noodles
Stir Fried Honey Ginger Sesame Noodles
Creamy Thai Turmeric Chicken and Noodles
Lastly, if you make these Almost Instant Red Curry Beef and Garlic Noodles, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Almost Instant Red Curry Beef and Garlic Noodles
Servings: 4
Calories Per Serving: 477 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sesame or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup green onions, sliced
- 1-3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
- 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 egg
- 1-2 bell peppers, thinly sliced
- 1 cup chopped broccoli florets
- chili flakes
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh Thai or regular basil
- 4 squares ramen noodles, egg noodles, or 6 ounces of rice noodles
- 1/3 cup tamari or soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon honey
Instructions
- 1. In a skillet, cook the oil and green onions over medium heat until very fragrant, 3-5 minutes. Lower the heat, stir in the butter, red curry paste, garlic, shallots, and chili flakes, cook 2 minutes.2. Add the beef and brown all over, 5 minutes. Pour over 2 tablespoons tamari and 1 teaspoon honey. Let the beef caramelize for 2 minutes. Mix in the egg and vegetables.3. Cook the noodles according to package directions, then drain and toss with the beef mix and 1/3 cup tamari. Cooker 2-3 minutes. Then remove from the heat. 4. Serve the noodles with additional green onions and basil. Top with peanuts.
This post was originally published on July 20, 2023
Hi Tieghan,
You are amazing! I am making this tomorrow. Do I cook the broccoli and peppers before adding? Are they raw? Thanks
Thank you so much! They are added at the end of Step 2!
Loved this recipe. Easy to follow and delicious. Will definitely be a staple in our house.
Thank you Nicole!!
I can’t review as I am trying to make this and there is NO indication about when to put the peppers and broccoli in. I wish someone could proofread this.
2. Add the beef and brown all over, 5 minutes. Pour over 2 tablespoons tamari and 1 teaspoon honey. Let the beef caramelize for 2 minutes. Mix in the egg and vegetables.
The vegetables are added in Step 2! Hope this helps!
This was enjoyable but I agree that the ground beef didn’t really work for me! Ground chicken or cubed steak would be great here. I added about 4 tbsp red curry paste and it was way overpowered by the ground beef. I also added fish sauce and lemongrass paste for more flavor and 3 thai red chiles. Cut back on the soy sauce and sesame oil as well with good results.
Thank you for the feedback!
Pretty good flavor. I used avocado oil and soy sauce (was out of others). Only thing I didn’t love was ground meat, just seemed weird and a little greasy. I think I would sub sliced or cubed beef instead next time. I used almost 3 tbsp of curry paste, I think it needs that for flavor, and pad thai noodles worked great!
Thanks for letting me know! xT
I made this for dinner tonight. Followed the recipe exactly. I’m sorry but it was very bland.
Oh no I’m so sorry to hear that! Is there anything you did differently? xT
Even with only 1 veggie in the bin & chicken instead of beef, this was DELICIOUS. And easy.🙌🏻
So glad you are loving this recipe! Thanks for trying it out! xT
Hi the first paragraph you said you used egg noodles. One person comment what type of of egg noodles. You replied you didn’t use egg noodles. Looks delicious and I want to make it how it’s pictured. Can you clarify for me what is tbe noodle in tbe picture.?
Update (didn’t realize I couldn’t update my other review). We loved this dinner! It was absolutely great. Definitely going to write this one out because I felt the cooking remarks in the blog and the cooking instructions below the ingredients are kind of wonky and missing things individually. Made it a bit frustrating when cooking. But the meal itself was awesome!
He Heather! Thank you for letting me know!
I am currently working on this recipe – and while I am so excited for it – can you please rework the recipe. The blog post has some information, the instructions have other information. Stuff is missing from both. It’s just very conflicting and a lot to bounce back and forth!
Hi Heather! I am so sorry for the confusion, is there something specific that I can clarify? xT
Shouldn’t the recipe read 1/3 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons tamari? A little recipe editing on the front side would really help. And, wow, this was really, really salty. Would not make it again.
Try the low sodium Tamari sauce, I used it and worked great!
Hey Barb! I’m so sorry this recipe didn’t turn out well for you! Thank you for letting me know! xT
Looks amazing! Planning on making this tonight. When do you add the veggies?
Hi Nicole! You add them in step 2!
Wish peanuts were listed as an ingredient. I went to the store and followed the listed ingredients and then was sad when I got to the last step and didn’t have peanuts 🙁 and agreed with the comment below. Please give us more detailed instructions for us to follow!
Thank you for this feedback, Taylor! I really appreciate it! xT
I was so excited to cook this but I was a little disappointed by the recipe. There was no method involved for actually cooking the broccoli / red peppers and I didn’t want to put them in raw as the recipe suggested, so I had to adjust the steps. Then, the flavor wasn’t as great as I was hoping. Typo in the recipe as well, step 3.
Hey Molly, I’m so sorry that you were disappointed by this recipe! Thank you for you feedback. Is there anything else I can do to help? xT
Wow, this is another mega delicious recipe!! I added some left-over cabbage from yesterday and it fit perfectly. Thanks again for a Finger Licking recipe! You’re a superstar Tieghan! ❤️
Thanks for trying out the recipe! So glad you loved it! xT