This Thai ground beef curry is so, so good! It’s a bit similar to an Indian recipe that I make often called keema. Keema is a South Asian minced meat dish and is usually made with peas or potatoes. Well, THIS is the Thai version of keema, only with broccoli. And it rocks.
You can keep serve this overtop cauli-rice or you can serve this with a side of jasmine rice (hubby prefers rice to cauli-rice). I’ll sometimes eat this over gluten-free pasta. It’s kind of like the Thai-version of Italian meat sauce. And yes, I’ve somehow compared this Thai ground curry to both Indian cuisine and Italian cuisine.
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.
Ingredients
- 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
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:
Protima says
Hi,
Which brand of Thai curry paste do you use? Maesri for example is hotter than the Thai Kitchen brand.
Thanks
Mally says
Can I use ground chicken instead? How would the cooking time change?
Nicolette says
Solid recipe with good flavors. Thanks so much. I had tomato paste and no sauce, so I just added a little water and it worked perfectly!
My Heart Beets says
Nicolette, so glad you liked it!
Cate says
Hi, I can’t get Thai peppers where I am, do you have a substitute you can recommend?
My Heart Beets says
Hi Cate, you can use serrano peppers – I think that’ll work well in this 🙂
Kate Sanderson says
I’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
Hi 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!
Claire says
Hi 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
Aww 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
The 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
Clare, 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!
Carrie says
Wow….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
LOL! 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
Can you please tell me what tomato sauce should be used?! Thank you!!
My Heart Beets says
Hi Lisa, I use canned tomato sauce 🙂 Hope that helps!
Hannah says
Always 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
Happy to hear that, Hannah! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
BarryinSF says
Great 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
I’m so glad you and your family liked the recipe!! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Rachael says
This sounds amazing, can’t wait to give it a go! Just wondering how many it serves?
GreenMonkey says
Ashley,
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
I’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? 🙂