Easy Thai Recipes For Beginners

Authored by Jill Brent, our guest contributor

As we have previously discussed in our post, Thai food is influenced by a lot of countries including China, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, India, Portugal and France. This makes Thai food a tad bit daunting for most cooks out there, especially those who are novices in cooking. However, if you look through the extensive list of Thai dishes, there are a lot of recipes there that even beginners can ace. Here are some of them:

Vegetarian Pad Thai

If you are a fan of Thai food, you’ve probably heard of the famous pad thai. To make a vegetarian version of this dish, Taste of Home mentioned that all you have to do is stir fry a variety of vegetables such as carrots, sweet red pepper, green onions, garlic cloves, bean sprouts and fresh cilantro in a large pan. For a more seamless cooking experience, opt for a reliable non-stick skillet pan like the ones from Anolon. This budget-friendly pan brandishes a sleek and clean design, is PFOA-free, metal utensil safe, oven safe and suitable for all stovetops (except induction).

Once your stir-fried veggies are done, transfer them to a bowl and cook some eggs in the emptied pan. Toss the veggies back in, and then add rice noodles that have been prepped with brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and lime juice once the eggs are cooked. Mix everything up, add toppings of your choice and then serve.

Prawn Green Curry

Whether you are cooking a green, red or yellow curry, a Thai curry wouldn’t be a Thai curry if the paste is not made from scratch. In making a green curry paste, Delicious noted that you would need some coriander leaves, coriander stalks, lemongrass stems (the pale part), long green chillis, garlic cloves, ginger, Asian eschalots, cumin and fish sauce. Chop all the aforementioned ingredients finely, and grind them into a paste with a mortar and pestle. Once your curry is done, you can now mix in all the other ingredients in a pot and let it simmer for a few minutes or until the prawn is cooked.

While this dish can be cooked in a regular pot, beginners may want to try using a rice cooker instead. Not only do these kitchen accessories make it easy to cook perfect, fluffy rice, they also have great functionality. Case in point: Zojirushi rice cookers can also function as food warmers, slow cookers, and even pressure cookers. By using a multifunctional rice cooker like this, you won't even need to adjust the heat ever so often, as they often have adjustable timers that can adapt to the ingredients you're using.

Baked Ribs

Great for dinner parties and casual movie nights, Thai baked ribs are the perfect combination of sweet, spicy, tangy and savory. To make the marinade, Spruce Eats suggests combining soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, sherry and chili. After marinating your ribs for at least 10 minutes, place it in a preheated oven for two hours. To ensure that your ribs are cooked thoroughly, stick with Neff ovens, which can help you achieve your desired temperature quicker and more evenly than other conventional ovens.

To make the tangy sauce, mix some rice vinegar, brown sugar, chili, fish sauce, garlic and lime juice in a pan and let it simmer until the sauce has reduced by ⅓ and has thickened. Coat your baked ribs with the Thai sauce and top it with some green onion and coriander.

With these easy recipes and with the right tools, you'll be able to make great, authentic Thai food right from the comforts of your home!