Fish Curry With Coconut Milk

Published: June 6, 2019 Updated: March 6, 2020 / By: Dawn | Girl Heart Food 39 Comments

This easy fish curry with coconut milk has a rich and creamy sauce, lots of vegetables and perfectly cooked white fish. Garnish to taste and serve with naan for soaking up all that deliciousness!

Close-up of fish curry in a pan garnished with cilantro, chili pepper and green onion.

Hi friends! Today I’m sharing a super easy curry recipe. I tested this fish curry with coconut milk a bunch of times to get it just right! Oh, the things we have to do, right?

I absolutely love any type of curry. I’ve shared a bunch of recipes with you all before, like chickpea cauliflower curry and zucchini noodle curry soup.

Today though? A super relishing, belly satisfying recipe for fish in coconut milk! This one has a little heat and is oh so hearty.

This recipe is easy enough for busy weekdays or fancy enough for weekend entertaining. Whip this up, place on the table and watch everyone dig!

It can be enjoyed as it, but I love with lots of naan for soaking up every last bit of that delicious sauce.

Ingredients

Coconut oil
Garlic and ginger
Curry paste
Crushed red pepper flakes
Vegetables: onion, baby potatoes, bell peppers and baby spinach
Salt and black pepper
Kaffir lime leaves
Seafood broth
Coconut milk
Cod fillets
Cornstarch and water (to thicken the curry sauce)

Best Fish To Use

For this recipe, a simple white fish works lovely. I tend to prefer those over oilier fish, like salmon, for instance, in this type of dish. I’ve made with cod and haddock. Halibut or tilapia would work great too!

You can use fresh or frozen (just thaw before using).

A note on fish, though: Varieties of fish can vary. Halibut, for example, is more steak-like and denser than, say, cod. Even within a variety, the fillets can range from on the thinner side to the thicker side. And the cut (or section) of the fish can affect the thickness. An end or tail piece would be typically be thinner than what a centre cut would be.

Bottom line: Whatever you use, just heat until the fish is completely cooked through and easily flakes when prodded with a fork. If you think it’s done and decide to check, only to find out it’s not cooked, no worries. Just continue cooking until it is.

How To Make Fish Curry With Coconut Milk

Full details are in the recipe card below, but here are the basics:

Heat coconut oil in a pan. Once the coconut oil is melted, add onion and cook until softened. Then add garlic and ginger and cook until they’re nice and fragrant.
Stir in curry paste and crushed red pepper flakes.
Add baby potatoes, bell peppers, salt, black pepper and lime leaves, stirring to coat everything nicely in the flavourful curry paste mixture.
Pour in the seafood broth, then bring that to a simmer, cover with lid slightly ajar and cook until the potatoes are almost fork-tender.
Stir in coconut milk. Reduce the heat just a tad so you have a gentler/slower simmer and cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring every so often.
Make 4 little wells in the curry mixture and tuck the fish fillets into their nice little curry bath, LOL. Submerge them in the sauce and spoon some sauce over each. Heat until the fish is cooked through.
Remove and discard lime leaves (they’ve done their part). Then carefully transfer the fish to a plate, being careful not to break up the pieces.
Stir in a cornstarch slurry and cook for a bit to thicken that coconut-y deliciousness.
Stir in spinach and cook until just wilted (you can turn the heat off now if you like; the spinach will wilt with the residual heat in the pan). By doing this, the spinach will still retain some of it’s beautiful green colour.
Return the cooked fish to the pan and garnish to taste.

Close-up of fish curry garnished with cilantro, chili pepper and green onion.

Delicious Garnish Ideas

Garnish adds more flavour, colour and texture. Here are some delicious options:

Fresh herbs, like cilantro, basil or mint (any one or a combo of them)
Thinly sliced chili pepper or crushed red pepper flakes
Sliced green onion
Squeeze of lime juice
Sprinkle of lemon zest

Spatula taking up a cod fillet from a pan of fish curry.

Sides To Serve With It

Any of these pair lovely with this fish curry recipe:

Naan
Poppadums
Rice
Quinoa
Couscous
Raita or yogurt
Nice big wedge of lime

Tips for Making This Recipe

Seafood broth or stock was used here to infuse flavour and help speed up the cooking time of those potatoes. Don’t have seafood broth on hand? Use vegetable broth or even water.
Full-fat coconut milk was used and that’s what I recommend here.
The fillets used in this recipe were about 4 ounces each. If your fillets are larger, they make take longer to cook, just cook until the fish is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork.
I used 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes in this curry. If you aren’t a fan of spice, you can omit. Alternatively, if you are, add more.
I used baby potatoes, but you could totally use a regular ol’ potato (just cut into bite-sized chunks).

A forkful of curried white fish and red bell pepper.

More Easy Seafood Recipes

If you make this fish curry recipe, be sure to leave a comment below!