Grilled Coconut Red Curry Shrimp Skewers with bell pepper and onions are so flavorful, thanks to one of my favorite pantry staples – red curry paste.
Coconut Red Curry Shrimp Skewers
The shrimp in these Coconut Red Curry Shrimp Skewers marinate in cooling coconut milk, spicy red curry paste and jalapeños, and fresh garlic, ginger, and lime juice. It’s a match made in heaven for big, juicy shrimp, which get nicely charred with the veggies on the grill. Most of the prep and cook time is hands-off, leaving you time to heat your grill and enjoy the summer weather. More shrimp skewer recipes I love are these Grilled Shrimp Panzanella Skewers and Gochujang-Honey Glazed Shrimp Skewers.
Curry paste, a pantry staple I keep on hand, makes it easy and quick to cook a flavorful dinner without too many dishes — it adds so much dimension to a marinade. Curry paste comes in different heat levels, so if you’re not fan of spicy food, make sure to buy a milder paste. You can also omit the jalapeño or just remove all of the seeds and ribs to keep the spiciness in check. Don’t be afraid to taste as you go!
What to Serve with Curry Shrimp Skewers
These grilled curry shrimp kabobs would be delicious with Brown Coconut Rice or lentils. You could also keep it really simple and just serve them with a piece of your favorite bread or side salad.
Variations:
- Swap the shrimp for chicken.
- Add zucchini or squash for extra veggies.
- If you don’t have a grill, cook the skewers on a grill pan on your stove.
- Buy a mild curry paste and omit the jalapeños if you don’t like spicy food.
More Curry Recipes You’ll Love:
- Salmon Coconut Curry with Spinach and Chickpeas
- Indian Shrimp Curry
- Warm Curry Roasted Sheet Pan Vegetable Salad
- Broiled Tilapia with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce
- Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp
Coconut Red Curry Shrimp Skewers
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs large, 20-25# shrimp, peeled
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 red onion
- ½ cup low-fat coconut milk
- 2 Tbsp red curry paste, or more to taste
- 1 ½ tsp minced or grated fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
- ½ jalapeño, minced (optional)
- 2 limes
- 2 red bell pepper
- 8 or 16 large skewers
- Cooking spray
- Chopped cilantro for serving
Instructions
- Pat the shrimp dry and season both sides with salt.
- Cut the onion into 8 wedges and reserve 7 wedges for the skewers.
- Mince the remaining wedge and add it to a large bowl with the coconut milk, curry paste, ginger, garlic, and jalapeño (if using) along with the zest and juice of 1 lime.
- Whisk until smooth, then give it a taste; if you’d like a stronger curry flavor, add a little more paste.
- Add the shrimp to the bowl and marinate for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the grill with high heat and oil the grates.
- Cut the reserved onion wedges into approximately 1-inch chunks, and try to keep the layers intact.
- Cut the bell pepper into 1- to 2-inch pieces.
- Thread the shrimp, onion wedges, and [individual or doubled slices of] bell pepper onto doubled skewers, alternating as you like but beginning and ending each skewer with shrimp, for a total of 8 kabobs.
- Reserve the marinade and lightly spray the kabobs with cooking oil.
- Add the kabobs to the grill and brush with marinade. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side, brushing with marinade after flipping, until the shrimp are pink and firm and the onion is lightly charred.
- To serve, place the kabobs on a platter. Generously sprinkle chopped cilantro over everything and serve with wedges of lime.
Made this tonight with jasmine rice. I reserved half of the marinade and put over the rice. My hubby loved it!
Would you cook on medium heat if making in grill pan on stove?
My family loved this recipe served with fluffy coconut rice. Instead of making skewers I grilled the vegetables (including zucchini rounds) and shrimp separately on the grill (for one vegetarian kid), like a grilled sheet pan dinner. This one’s definitely a keeper.
Super fresh tasting and my kids (6 and 3) loved it!
Made this for dinner last night…it was very tasty. I made all the sauce for two servings…reserved half of it and poured over rice for my hubby. (Shrimp and veggies would not be substantial enough for him!) I soaked the red onions in cold water first, which tamed their sharp flavor quite nicely. Then I separated them into much smaller chunks (two layers or so) for the skewers, so that they would cook as quickly as the shrimp. I brushed some sauce on the skewers before grilling, and salted everything thereafter. We both really liked it. It would also be good with chicken, if you’re not a fan of shrimp. I ran out of curry paste, or I probably would have added more, but this amount gave a pleasant warmth! Sizing the veggies appropriately is really important if you want to grill on the same skewers as the shrimp. For me, an eighth of a (typically huge) red onion is way too thick for grilling along with shrimp, but two-layer sections worked great.
Enjoy Indian spiced recipes. This had subtle flavor, not too spicy. I did as another reviewer and marinated veggies on their own with some of the marinade and cooked them in 425 oven sheet pan, 30-40 min, sprayed with olive oil. We like roasted more cooked veggies, and a bit easier to me then grilling. we did grill shrimp, they were perfect. May try veggies grilled net time too–added zucchini and yellow squash. Side balsamic rice with an ounce of died cherries and sprinkle of cashews as anyone wanted. Thai basil in garden as garnish as well as cilantro. Colorful and lots of veggies. Very good.
This is sooooo good! Really enjoyed this dish and was easy to make.
Turned out great! Used red pepper, red onion, and yellow squash, and only 1lb of shrimp, very pretty meal. Split the marinade into two dishes so the veggies could marinate in those yummy flavors a bit two. Gave the shrimp there own skewers and put the veggies in a grill basket,which let me adjust the grill timing to not overcook shrimp or veggies. Made it with your brown coconut rice recipe so the whole can of coconut milk got used up. Thanks for the great summer grill recipe!
This was so delicious! Next time I’m going to allow the marinade to sit just a bit longer. The shrimp the next day had a bit of a bite of them but loved it. I added a yellow squash and made this dish super colorful. The purple from the red onion, the vibrant yellow from the squash, the red from the red peppers and the pink from the shrimp. Not only that, I skewered them by the vegetable because I wanted everything to cook evenly. This is a keeper! Thank you for the super recipe. Also for the rice, I used Thai rice with butter and a squeeze of lime, cilantro and salt and pepper. A great compliment!
Wow! Curry lovers delite! Beautiful balance of flavors and so easy.
1) Can you substitute curry powder for the paste?
2) How would you make this without the skewers? Like a stir fry, for example.
I did it tonight and it worked great – with cooked shrimp. After 30 minutes marinating I turned on the heat on low (to not overcook shrimp) and warmed it up.