This Thai-inspired Seafood Laksa is a great way to get a great spicy noodle dish on the table quickly, using just one pan and ready in less than 30 minutes. If you love spicy Thai food like I do, then you will love this!
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Seafood laksa is heaven in a bowl.
careless, splash-orange-sauce-down-your-white-part-enthusiastically The kind of soup that makes you look at your husband’s bowl to see if he has anything left that you can steal.
That’s how good this soup is. It’s also on the table in less than half an hour.
I first had laksa soup in a Thai restaurant many years ago, and I adored all the flavors and textures. I may have mentioned before that Thai is my favorite type of food, and seafood lasagna is a great way to get a great meal on the table quickly, using just one pan.
📋 What do we need?
for the laksa paste
For curry and decoration
📺 Watch how it is prepared
Full recipe with detailed steps on the recipe card at the end of this post.
I make my own laxa paste for this recipe. Most store-bought versions are a good alternative, but it’s pretty quick to make your own glue. Plus you can control the heat level.
I like to cook my paste ingredients before their merger. I find that cooking the paste ingredients first gives the whole dish a deeper the level of taste.
👩🍳Professional tip You can use prepared vermicelli noodles if you like. Run them under a little boiling water in a strainer/colander to warm them up before putting them in the bowl.
From my research, it seems that most curry/laksa soup recipes, whether from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand or Indonesia, have the same base of noodles, with seafood or chicken in a spicy coconut sauce. There is also a variation called assam laksa, this No Use coconut milk, but he uses fish paste and tamarind for a more sour and not creamy taste.
Believed to have originated as a combination of Chinese noodle soup (brought by early Chinese immigrants who settled in Malacca, Malaysia) and local spices and coconut milk, it falls well under the label of Peranakan cuisine.
My version was created when I was wondering what to do with the leftover donkey (I thawed too much after making a fish burger and matchstick chips the night before) and some prawns I forgot to put back in the freezer.
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Seafood Laksa
Do you have a craving for Thai food? Why not try the super delicious Thai seafood Laksa. A great way to get a great Thai meal on the table quickly, using just one pan and ready in less than 30 minutes. If you love Thai food like I do, you will love this!
Instructions
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Heat the oil in a large pan and add the chopped onion. Cook on medium for about 5 minutes until the onion softens and starts to become transparent.
3 tablespoons of oil, 1 onion
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Add in the rest of the laxa paste ingredients, mix and continue to cook for 5 minutes while stirring occasionally.
4 red chilies, 2 teaspoons of ginger paste, 2 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of lemon grass spread, 1 heaping tablespoon of fresh cilantro stems, 1.5 teaspoon turmeric, ½ teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon of tamarind paste
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While the laksa paste ingredients are frying, prepare the decoration. Add the vinegar, sugar, chili, cucumber, red onion and cilantro to a small bowl. Mix together, then set aside.
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon fine sugar, 1 red chili, A finger-sized piece of cucumber, ¼ small red onion, A small handful of chopped cilantro (cilantro)
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Turn off the heat from the pan and transfer the onion-chili-spice mixture to a mini chopper or food processor. Grind together until a paste is formed (alternatively, you can use a stick blender to blend the ingredients into a paste directly in the mold, but be careful of splashes)
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Add the laxa paste back to the pan.
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Lower the heat to medium-high and add the coconut milk, fish sauce and stock. Mix together and heat until just boiling.
200 ml (7 fl oz) whole coconut milk, 1 teaspoon fish sauce, 200 ml (7 fl oz) chicken or seafood stock
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Add the fish, mix and let cook for 4 minutes, turning a few times until the fish starts to fall apart.
2 cod or pumpkin fillets
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While the fish is cooking, soak the noodles in boiling water until soft (usually this takes about 3 minutes) and then drain.
200g (7oz) dried rice/vermicelli noodles
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Return to the laksa, add in the crabs, mix and cook for one minute. The crabs should start to turn pink, and your fish should be cooked.
12-16 king crabs
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Finally, add in the sprouts and cook for another minute, so that they are warmed up, but still slightly crunchy. Turn off the fire.
200 g (7 oz) bean sprouts
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Divide the drained noodles between bowls and top with the laksa sauce and seafood.
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Top each bowl with a spoonful of the decoration you made earlier, and serve.
✎ Notes
If you don’t want to make your own laksa paste, you can use store-bought. They vary in strength, so read the side of the bottle to figure out how much you need for four servings.
How do I make chicken laksa instead?
Yes, you can just replace the butter and shrimp with cooked shredded chicken. Alternatively, you can add raw chicken pieces with the mixed paste and cook until the chicken is sealed. Add the coconut milk and stock and cook until the chicken is ready, then continue with the rest of the steps of the recipe.
Can I freeze Lexa?
The noodles, seafood and beans will not freeze well. If you want to go ahead, I would suggest making the dough and freezing it in batches. After that you can thaw and continue with the recipe from step 4 (prepare the decoration on the day of serving as well).
Can I make low fat laksa?
You can use low-fat coconut milk, although it is lower in fat, it has more of a tendency to curdle. To deal with this, I would suggest leaving the coconut milk until the end of cooking, then adding the low-fat coconut milk to the laksa and heating until hot. Do not let it boil or it will split.
Can I be early for lunch the next day?
If you want to make this for lunch to take to work the next day, then make the soup to the point just before you add the beans, cool and refrigerate. Then simply heat the sauce for a few minutes in a pan or in the microwave, throw in the bean sprouts for the last minute and pour over the pre-cooked noodles.
Approximate nutritional information, per serving (this recipe serves 4).
diet
Calories: 517KKLCarbohydrates: 58Gprotein: 21GFat: 22GSaturated fat: 11GCholesterol: 83mgsodium: 757mgpotassium: 699mgfiber: 3GSugar: 8Gvitamin: 970IUVitamin C: 92.9mgcalcium: 74mgiron: 4.4mg
This recipe was first published in 2014. Updated in March 2018 and then again in March 2023 with new photos and video and some more housekeeping.
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