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Home » Recipes » Homemade Yellow Curry Paste

Homemade Yellow Curry Paste

by Mike Hultquist · Apr 26, 2019 · 10 Comments

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Use this easy yellow curry paste recipe to make your own fresh homemade spicy curries, sauces, soups, and stews.

Yellow Curry Paste Recipe

Homemade Yellow Curry Paste

Do you love curry? Do you find yourself making curry at home? If you're a spicy food lover like me, I'm sure curries are on your radar or in your regular recipe rotation.

Curry is wonderfully spicy and filled with so many satisfying flavors. And there are so many different types we can make. It's a spicy food lover's dream dish.

If you're making it at home, you want to make it as good as it can be. This brings us to a simple question.

What Differentiates Great Curry from Good Curry?

Great curry uses the freshest ingredients possible, as well as a piquant mix of homemade curry seasonings, and this includes a great homemade curry paste. If you want to make great curry, you need to use great, fresh ingredients and seasonings.

Like this one, this homemade yellow curry paste recipe will help make your curry mouth-watering great.

This is more of a Thai curry paste, but you can use it to add flavor to pretty much any of your curry dishes. It's loaded with fresh ingredients and spices, and I think you'll love it as much as I do.

Let's talk about how to make yellow curry paste, shall we?

What Ingredients are in Yellow Curry Paste?

  • 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped (or use other larger sweet pepper)
  • 4 small spicy red chili peppers, chopped (Thai peppers are best, but you can use any of your choice – cayenne or red serrano are good substitutes - I used some peppers from my garden)
  • 1 shallot, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 lemongrass stalk (trimmed, woody parts removed)
  • 6 stalks green onion, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon shrimp paste
  • 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger (ground is good, too)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh minced turmeric (ground is good, too)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (olive oil is good, or use a neutral oil)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar (optional, or use brown sugar)
Spicy Yellow Curry Paste ingredients

How to Make Homemade Yellow Curry Paste

First, add all of the ingredients to a food processor or blender, including chili peppers, shallot, garlic, lemongrass, green onion, shrimp paste, ginger, turmeric, lemon juice, lime juice, oil, and seasonings.

Yellow Curry Paste ingredients in a food processor, ready to be processed

Process until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.

Yellow Curry Paste ingredients in a food processor, processed

Alternatively, you can grind down the solid ingredients and spices with a mortar and pestle, then slowly add in the liquid ingredients as you mix. Mix until a paste forms to your preferred consistency.

Taste and adjust to your personal tastes. Need more salt? More lime juice? A pinch of sugar? Prefer brown sugar instead? Adjust as needed.

Strain out excess liquid, if desired, or use as-is.

Yellow Curry Paste in a bowl

Boom! Easy enough, right? Now it's time to get cooking with your awesome new yellow curry paste. Go to town!

Recipe Tips & Notes

  • Many Ingredient Options. There are many other ingredients that you can add to this curry paste to make it your own. Some additions might include fresh herbs like cilantro or parsley. Some people like to include a curry powder blend or perhaps some garam masala.
  • My Favorite Extras. Mustard seeds are a nice addition, as is fish sauce, though I chose to use shrimp paste. I just love the flavor it brings.
  • Roasting. Try roasting the shallots and garlic before grinding into this recipe for even more flavor. It's just so good for building up the taste.

Making Spicy Curry Paste

The real key to making a good spicy curry paste is your choice of chili peppers. Thai peppers bring quite a bit of heat, measuring from 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville Heat Units on the Scoville Scale. That's quite hot! The lowest end of that range is about as hot as a serrano pepper.

If you'd like a milder curry, go with milder peppers. If you'd like a spicier curry, go with more Thai peppers, or use even hotter peppers, like this Ghost Pepper Curry that I love to enjoy.

It's so much better than any store-bought curry paste.

How to Cook with Curry Paste

Curry paste is essential to many different Thai food dishes and especially curries.  When cooking with curry paste, it is usually added after you've cooked down your aromatics. You'll cook it in the hot pan for only a minute or two before adding in your liquid, such as chicken stock or coconut milk.

From there, it simply simmers into your recipe and the flavors develop from there.

You can use many different proteins or ingredients to round out your curry, such as chicken, beef, lamb, shrimp, even chickpeas.

Lastly, you don't have to only make curry with curry paste. Give other dishes a bit of Thai flare by tossing some into soups or stews simmering on the stove. Use it as part of a marinade or a rub.

Coconut Curry with Chicken Thighs, in a pan, simmering

What's the Difference Between Yellow Curry Paste and Red Curry Paste?

Aside from the obvious color difference, the biggest difference between yellow curry paste and red curry paste is in the heat level and ingredients used.

Yellow curry gains its color mostly from turmeric, which is a vibrant yellow.

Red curry paste focuses more on the red peppers and that fiery flavor, though both can be quite spicy.

Storage

Store your fresh curry paste in the fridge, covered. It should last about a week in the fridge. Or, you can freeze it if needed.

I'll often freeze it in ice cube trays so I can have simple portions to toss into meals!

Final Notes

That's it, my friends! You can use this yellow curry paste to add flavor and spice to pretty much any curry recipe. Use it in place of your curry seasoning blend, or better yet, use it alongside that blend as a great flavor developer.

I hope you enjoy it!

Cookbook Recommendation

If you enjoy spicy cooking, I hope you'll check out my cookbook! 75 easy recipes with big, bold flavor.

  • The Spicy Food Lovers' Cookbook, by Mike Hultquist (affiliate link, my friends!)
The Spicy Food Lovers' Cookbook - Fiery, No-Fuss Meals, by Michael Hultquist

Try Some of My Popular Curry Recipes

  • Green Curry Paste
  • Red Curry Paste
  • Panang Curry Paste (Prik Gaeng Panang)
  • Massaman Curry Paste
  • Butter Chicken
  • Chicken Korma
  • Spicy Thai Curry Chicken Soup
  • Easy Chickpea Curry
  • Coconut Chicken Curry
  • Khao Soi – Northern Thai Coconut Curry Soup
  • Thai Shrimp Curry
  • Tikka Masala Sauce
Yellow Curry Paste on a spoon

Got any questions? Ask away! I’m happy to help. If you enjoy this recipe, I hope you’ll leave a comment with some STARS. Also, please share it on social media. Don’t forget to tag us at #ChiliPepperMadness. I’ll be sure to share! Thanks! — Mike H.

Yellow Curry Paste Recipe
Print

Homemade Yellow Curry Paste Recipe

Use this easy yellow curry paste recipe to make your own fresh homemade spicy curries, sauces, soups and stews.
Save Recipe Saved!
Course: Main Course, sauce
Cuisine: American, Indian, Thai
Keyword: chili peppers, curry, recipe, spicy
Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes minutes
Calories: 28kcal
Author: Mike Hultquist
Servings: 20
Tap or hover to scale
4.67 from 3 votes
Leave a Review

Ingredients

  • 1 red bell pepper stemmed, seeded and chopped
  • 4 small spicy red peppers chopped (Thai peppers are best, but you can use any to you choice – cayenne or red serrano are good substitutes)
  • 1 shallot chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic chopped
  • 1 stalk lemongrass trimmed, woody parts removed
  • 6 stalks green onion sliced
  • 1 tablespoon shrimp paste
  • 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger ground is good, too
  • 1 tablespoon fresh minced turmeric ground is good, too
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon sugar optional, or use brown sugar

Instructions

  • Add all of the ingredients to a food processor or blender. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
  • Alternatively, you can grind down the solid ingredients and spices in a mortar and pestle, then slowly add in the liquid ingredients as you mix. Mix until a paste forms to your preferred consistency.
  • Taste and adjust to your personal tastes. Need more salt? More lime juice? A pinch of sugar? Adjust as needed.
  • Strain out excess liquid, if desired, or use as-is.

Video

Notes

Makes 1.5-2 cups.
Heat Factor: Mild-Medium, but it is HUGE on flavor. You can easily bring up the heat level by using spicier peppers or by adding spicy chili powder or flakes.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 28kcal   Carbohydrates: 3g   Protein: 1g   Fat: 1g   Saturated Fat: 1g   Cholesterol: 8mg   Sodium: 86mg   Potassium: 70mg   Sugar: 1g   Vitamin A: 310IU   Vitamin C: 22.6mg   Calcium: 10mg   Iron: 0.5mg
Yellow Curry Paste Recipe
Did You Enjoy This Recipe?I love hearing how you like it and how you made it your own. Leave a comment below and tag @ChiliPepperMadness on social media.

Reader Interactions

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Brenda B says

    February 28, 2025 at 11:00 am

    4 stars
    Mike I live in Canada and do not recognize these large red peppers in the photo's. Please explain them for me. These are not a bell pepper and Thai peppers are very small...

    Reply
    • Mike Hultquist says

      February 28, 2025 at 12:50 pm

      Brenda, it is best to follow the recipe as written, so use red bell pepper (which should be easy to find) and spicy Thai chilies if you can, or use similar for some heat. I have a note earlier in the ingredients section above about using some from my garden. This recipe will work with many types of peppers that you have available to you. I hope this helps and makes sense.

      Reply
  2. Conrad says

    February 28, 2022 at 2:23 pm

    5 stars
    Could you recommend a substitute to shrimp paste. Wife is allergic.

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says

      February 28, 2022 at 2:35 pm

      Conrad, you can use anchovy paste or anchovies, or go with miso or dried shiitake mushrooms for a vegan substitute.

      Reply
  3. Maurice Balk says

    December 21, 2020 at 1:24 pm

    5 stars
    I made this and loved it.

    Reply
    • Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says

      December 21, 2020 at 1:36 pm

      Thanks so much, Maurice! Super happy you loved it!

      Reply
  4. Tailith Sky says

    December 10, 2019 at 1:39 pm

    I have a recipe that calls for lime leaf, galengal, coriander root ect. It closely resembles the Rooster and Mai Ploy brands. Have you ever made one like this?

    Reply
    • Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says

      December 10, 2019 at 1:58 pm

      Tailith, I have not, but I imagine it being much like making a typical curry or chili paste. Let me know how it turns out for you.

      Reply
  5. Noel says

    April 26, 2019 at 10:52 pm

    Hi Mike,

    How long would you suggest keeping this in the frig ?

    Reply
    • Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says

      April 27, 2019 at 10:29 am

      Noel, this will last a week in the fridge, covered. You can freeze it, though, to keep it longer, at least 3 months. Enjoy!

      Reply

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