Thai ground beef curry = awesome. This dish is delish. The recipe is similar to an Indian recipe that I make often called keema. Keema is a South Asian minced meat dish and its usually made with peas or potatoes. Well, THIS was the Thai version of keema, only with broccoli. And it rocked. I WILL be making this again:
You can keep this paleo-friendly and serve it overtop cauli-rice or you can serve this with a side of jasmine rice (hubby prefers rice to cauli-rice).
5/2016 update: now that I’ve made this several times, I also eat this overtop gluten-free pasta. It’s kind of like the Thai-version of Italian meat sauce. And yes, in this post alone I’ve compared this Thai ground curry to Indian and Italian cuisine.
If you like this recipe, definitely check out another Thai food favorite, Paleo Drunken Noodles.
If you’re new to cooking international foods, it’s easy – you just need the right spices and ingredients. Check out some local ethnic food stores. In most cases, you’ll find most of these spices at Kroger. If not, there’s always Amazon 🙂
Looking for more paleo-friendly Thai recipes? I’ve compiled this list of tasty Thai recipes you should check out.
Thai Ground Beef Curry
Yield: 4
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or fat of choice
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2-3 Thai bird chilies, slit but keep intact
- 1 pound ground beef
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 inch-knob ginger, minced
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon red curry paste
- 1 medium broccoli head, chopped into florets
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 giant handful of Thai basil
- 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
Instructions
- Heat a skillet or wok over medium heat and add the oil, onion and Thai chilies.
- Once the onion begins to brown, add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, salt, black pepper and ground beef. Cook until the beef is no longer pink.
- Stir in the red curry paste then add broccoli. Cook for a minute then add tomato sauce, fish sauce and Thai basil.
- Simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes – or until sauce begins to thicken.
- Add the fresh lime juice and serve.
Notes
I always use grassfed beef, so if you’re using regular beef, you can probably cut down on the oil.
Also, if you can’t find Thai bird chilies, use serrano peppers instead.
Just for fun, here’s a picture of this dish that I took back in 2013:
Thai Ground Beef Curry
GreenMonkey says
August 21, 2013 at 4:06 pmAshley,
I had a chuck roast thawed out and wanted something different than a pot roast. I trimmed most of the fat from the roast and cut it into chunks and used this instead of the ground beef for this recipe. Fantastic!! Thanks, I will be making use of this recipe for a foundation for many more meat dishes.
My Heart Beets says
August 26, 2013 at 10:30 pmI’m so glad you liked this recipe – thank you so much for letting me know! I actually just posted a fried beef recipe that calls for beef cubes/chunks – maybe you’ll like that too? 🙂
Rachael says
January 27, 2014 at 8:16 amThis sounds amazing, can’t wait to give it a go! Just wondering how many it serves?
BarryinSF says
July 10, 2015 at 3:47 pmGreat recipe- I loved it as did my family! Thank you!
I have a suggestion, however. In the future, you might want to put down calories, number of servings, and total time to prepare/cook in a summary. It helps a lot. Other than that it was perfect 🙂
★★★★★
My Heart Beets says
July 10, 2015 at 6:34 pmI’m so glad you and your family liked the recipe!! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Hannah says
March 16, 2016 at 8:19 pmAlways looking for healthy grass fed beef meals. This meal was very easy to make. I thoroughly enjoyed this Thai Ground Beef Curry. I most certainly will be making this again.
★★★★★
My Heart Beets says
March 17, 2016 at 1:10 pmHappy to hear that, Hannah! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Carrie says
May 26, 2016 at 3:32 amWow….well, I will admit that the first time I tried to make this several months back I had a complete and total brain malfunction and interpreted the ingredient “tomato sauce” to mean your typical marinara spaghetti sauce. The result? A meal that just tasted….wrong. I have to assume now, in retrospect, it was ingredients like oregano that are in marinara that made the dish taste like some sort of Italian/Asian fusion gone terribly wrong, and I thought “well, maybe this is the one thing I don’t like from the blog, that’s okay”. But recently you posted on Facebook about this recipe so I had a look at the ingredient list again and realized my error 🙂 Today I went and got the PROPER ingredients and all I can say is I am beyond excited to have another one of your amazingly flavorful recipes as a regular in our home! This was a total powerhouse of various flavors that went well together – thank you for FBing about it so I could try it again the right way!
★★★★★
My Heart Beets says
May 26, 2016 at 10:10 amLOL! Carrie, this literally made me laugh out loud – lol, you poor thing! I’m SO happy you tried it again with the right ingredients!! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out 🙂
Lisa says
January 23, 2017 at 3:28 pmCan you please tell me what tomato sauce should be used?! Thank you!!
My Heart Beets says
January 23, 2017 at 7:25 pmHi Lisa, I use canned tomato sauce 🙂 Hope that helps!
Claire says
August 15, 2016 at 11:17 pmHi Ashley, I made this tonight. I was tired, but even being tired it was easy to make and the excitement of using a lot of spices woke me up. I was scared to death to used that bird’s eye chile from what I read on the web about them, so I only used one and it was not super spicy at all. I also had a hard time finding out more about it (do you dare to eat it later?) I guess I’ll try a nibble of it tomorrow. Tonight I served on cauliflower rice and it was good. Tomorrow I’ll try making your GF naan and eat it with that. I too made the “mistake” of using spaghetti sauce instead of tomato sauce because I oddly had one cup left over from spaghetti the night before…I thought I was being thrifty. It was fine I thought. I didn’t have the basil, so I was missing that but had all the other ingredients. I found myself wanting more veggies in it. Maybe I’ll add some more tomorrow night. ANYHOW, I really enjoyed the complex flavors and cooking with spices….really fun. I’ll be back for more of your recipes. You’re my favorite food blogger! PS — I’m 67 and still cooking from scratch and healthy food!
★★★★
My Heart Beets says
August 16, 2016 at 12:45 amAww thank you!! It makes my day hearing that I’m your favorite food blogger – so nice of you to say 🙂 I’m so glad you liked the recipe! I look forward to hearing how the naan turns out for you 🙂
Clare says
August 21, 2016 at 2:04 amThe bird’s eye chili was not too hot….I ate the whole chili once it was cooked. And I DID try the naan and it was amazing and SO EASY to make! Since I am gluten-free, that will be a regular for me. It was delicious…I was surprised because I used to love wheat naan back in the day, but this was a great substitute. You are my favorite food blogger because you make the kind of food I like to eat and it’s gluten-free and delicious! Good luck to you!
My Heart Beets says
August 23, 2016 at 10:50 pmClare, thanks for letting me know how the naan turned out!! And so happy that I’m your fav blogger – hearing that makes my day! 🙂 Thank you!
Kate Sanderson says
August 1, 2018 at 12:44 amI’d love to try this recipe but am not sure on ‘tomato sauce’….in NZ that’s ketchup. I assume it’s more a can of pureed tomatoes?
My Heart Beets says
August 1, 2018 at 1:14 pmHi Kate! Ah I didn’t realize that – yes it is a can of pureed tomatoes that have been cooked down. If you want to use fresh tomato puree you can do that – I’d suggest using 1.5-2 cups and adding it in step 2 with the beef so that it can thicken. Let me know if you try it!