TikTok’s Viral Red Curry Dumpling Soup Is Shockingly Easy for Nights When You Just Can’t Deal

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Dreaming up easy dinner recipes that actually taste good isn’t as easy as it sounds. While a jar of marinara and box of spaghetti is always an option, there are times when the thought of staring into yet another bowl of pasta with red sauce as we dissociate in front of the TV is a little too depressing to handle. And it turns out, there are many meals you can make in just 15 or so minutes that are loaded with way more flavor than that old standby, while still staying incredibly simple and low-effort. Our latest obsession? A TikTok viral red curry dumpling soup that mostly relies on store-bought ingredients and that’s shockingly simple to throw together, even on nights when you want nothing more than to go straight from work to bed.

Account @PlantYou shared her simple plant-based version of the viral red curry dumpling soup on TikTok, and one of our favorite things about it is that you can make the soup as basic or elaborate as you like. In her version, you’ll sauté chopped onions, garlic, and ginger in oil with Thai red chiles, before adding a can or jar of red curry paste from the store, a can of coconut milk, some boxed or canned broth, chopped leafy greens, and frozen dumplings. The dumplings get added right to the red curry coconut broth, and once they’re cooked through, dinner is ready.

But how can you make this meal even easier? There are a few different options. If the thought of chopping onions, ginger, garlic, and chilies is more than you can handle, you can always use frozen onions (frozen pearl onions work, too!), jarred or frozen garlic, frozen minced ginger or powdered ginger, and a dollop of chili paste, sriracha, or red pepper flakes.

When we’re feeling up to the task, we like to buy a ton of pre-peeled garlic cloves and mince them in the food processor, then add the garlic paste to ice cube trays and freeze for later use. Any time we need a few cloves of garlic for a recipe, it’s as easy as throwing in a garlic ice cube or two. You can do the same thing with peeled ginger root, and it’s a huge time saver! Alternatively, you can also often find jarred ginger-garlic paste at grocery stores that carry lots of Indian food.

As for the greens, you can buy a bag of pre-chopped greens to add to your red curry soup, or opt for your favorite frozen green veggies, whether that’s spinach, broccoli, or green peas.

The frozen dumplings are a must, because who has time to make dumplings from scratch on a weeknight (or even a long luxurious weekend evening)? Keep the recipe vegetarian by opting for a meatless dumpling, or shake things up with another style. We’re huge fans of Trader Joe’s Chicken and Cilantro Mini Wontons, and their gyoza potstickers would be delicious too. Not a fan of dumplings? You can opt for frozen meatballs instead, or even throw in some leftover roast pork or Costco rotisserie chicken.

However you make it, you’ll have this to look forward to after minimal time in the kitchen: a steaming bowl of flavorful, creamy, spiced broth, loaded with veggies and dumplings or the protein of your choice. It’s exactly the type of low-effort comfort food we’re craving right now, with the added bonus of being something different than what we usually make.

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