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Thai Jungle Curry, Kaeng Pa, Made With Healthier Ingredients

Jungle curry is so named because it comes from the more mountainous jungle areas of Northern Thailand rather than the ocean front areas. This is why it doesn’t typically have coconut milk in it and why it has more, “jungle” plant based ingredients. You might also see it called forest or wild curry depending on the area or restaurant, but it refers to the same dish.

Because jungle curry doesn’t have the coconut milk, it is also a better option. People on low saturated fat diets can’t have much coconut milk, so this is the curry for them. You will occasionally find coconut milk in some variations of the recipe at restaurants but not in this one. When in doubt, check it out and ask the server at the restaurant you are at. If you are interested in learning more about the background of this dish, check out the Wikipedia article here.

What We Did To Make It Healthier

As usual, we always change ingredients that are easy to improve such as going for lean meat and fish when possible. We used chicken breast in this because pound for pound it just packs so much protein and we lift weights regularly, therefore we need to eat more protein. We also try to include as many whole food ingredients as possible, organic whenever possible. We use a monounsaturated fat such as olive oil and watch the amount we are using. We also choose stevia as our favorite alternative to sugar.

If you have any other ideas that improve upon this fantastic Northern Thai dish, please let us know. We had to use acorn squash which is not a typical Thai ingredient. In Thailand, you would use the kabocha squash which is usually available in Asia and sometimes available in the US at Asian markets. You can find it at some American-style markets occasionally in the produce section.

The Recipe

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs. sliced chicken

1 Acorn squash, about 1/2 lb., cut it in a bite size

1/2 sliced red bell pepper, about 1 cm. wide

3 Japanese eggplants, or 1 Chinese eggplant, cut it in a bit size

7 oz. green beans

3.5 oz. sliced mushrooms

1 oz. basil leaves (leaves only)

0.8 oz. rhizome, Some Asain grocery carry the rhizome in a bottle if you want to try it. It’s not necessary for the recipe, but it enhances the flavor of the curry.

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp red curry paste

6 cups water

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp stevia

Instructions:

Heat olive oil in a pot or pan then add red curry paste and stir fry it real quick just to be able to smell the curry. Add chicken and stir it in the curry paste until it’s almost cooked. Pour 6 cups of water in a big saucepan and heat it up. When the water is boiling, add chicken, Acorn squash, green beans, and eggplants into the saucepan and let them simmer until the vegetables are soft. Next add red bell pepper, mushrooms. After everything is cooked and all the vegetables are soft, turn off the stove and add basil leaves. Stir the basil leaves in the curry. Enjoy while it’s still hot with some brown rice or just the curry itself.

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