This Slow Cooker Thai Green Beef Curry is deliciously authentic with all the typical thai mouth popping flavours you’d expect from a store bought thai beef green curry.
With melt in your mouth tender beef, pumpkin, beans and a rich thick aromatic sauce this is the ultimate clean eating comfort food curry you’ll come back to time and again.

Why Make This Recipe
- Meltingly tender, soft and juicy 8 hour slow cooker beef
- Easy 15 minutes of prep, using a store bought curry paste
- Thick, rich aromatic creamy curry sauce
- Just as good, if not better that what you'd buy at your local Thai shop
- Easy to make low carb with cauliflower rice
- Freezes well and make for great meal prep
- Easy to adjust the level of spiciness to make it more or less spicy
Ingredients
These ingredients, used in just the right quantity will give you the most authentic and delicious tasting thai curry, bursting with flavour and that curry sauce, you’ll just want to eat it on it’s own.
How To Make
- Brown Meat: In a large non stick pan set to high, brown the meat for 2 to 3 minutes. (I recommend doing it in two batches as it makes it a bit easier - the pan isn't over-crowed and the meat browns quicker.) Once browned, transfer the meat into the slow cooker pot.
- Add Aromatics: To the same pan on the stove, add the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli and lemongrass. Stir through for 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant. Add to the slow cooker, stirring into the meat.
- Add Seasonings: Add the curry paste, fish sauce, honey, lime leaves, beef stock/broth, and the coconut milk. Stir to combine.
- Add Vegetables: Add the beans and pumpkin and stir to combine.
- Cook: Set slow cooker to cook on Low for 8 hours, or cook on high for 4 hours.
- Add Spinach: Once its finished cooking stir in the baby spinach and serve.
- Serve: Serve steamed jasmine rice.
Best Cut Of Meat To Use
For this recipe I chose to use gravy beef and I trimmed the excess fat from beef, then cut it into 2cm cubes.
Tips For Making Green Curry Beef
This is a really simple recipe, but there are a couple of things you can do in the preparation that really take this slow cooker than green beef curry to next level.
- Browning the beef is essential. This locks in the flavour before the slow cooking process begins and keep the meat tender throughout. You can either do this in your slow cooker pot using a saute function or in a separate pan on the stove. I tend to do mine in a separate pan on the stove as it end up being quicker, even though it dirties an extra dish.
- Saute the onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chilli. These will get your tastebuds watering for sure. Its that quintessential scent of the beginnings of something spicy, something Asian and something that ‘s going to be bursting with flavour.
Your Questions Answered
Thai green curry is a medium curry. Not as hot as a red curry, but hotter than a yellow or panang curry. I generally tend to find thai green curries in the mild to medium range, and if you’re not keen on spicy foods but still love a good curry, just reduce the amount of curry paste by a quarter.
I am a fan of the Volcom brand of thai curry pastes and this is the brand of curry paste I use most often. They are available in supermarkets in the Asian food aisle. I find that compared to some of the other ones I have used that the Volcom brand are a little less oily and have more flavour. But by all means experiment with what is available near you, or use your favourite green curry paste you’ve been using for years.
If you want to spice up a green curry, you could add additional curry paste as this will increase the level of heat in the dish, or you could add more chilli. I would only do this though if you are used to eating hot or very hot curries, as this is already a medium heat curry.
Yes, this curry freezes well and will keep in sealed containers for 6 weeks. If you’re making it to freeze, make sure to portion it out into serving sized containers to make it easier and to avoid wastage. Also label and date your containers so you know what’s in it and when it should be used by, especially if you’re containers are no see through.
Curries are so warm and comforting, and I think that’s what makes them a food that I never tire of, regardless of the type of curry, thai, Indian or even Japanese, I love them all.
This slow cooker thai green beef curry is definitely in my top 3 curry dishes that I come back to time and time again. I love the smell of it wafting through the house on a Sunday, and then the effortless dinner on a Sunday evening with practically no cleaning up (thank goodness for dishwashers).
This humble curry is big on flavour, with that one of a kind meltingly tender beef from 8 hours of long slow delicious cooking.
More Curry Recipes:
- 25 minute stovetop Clean Eating Green Thai Chicken Curry
- 15 minute Stovetop Indian Coconut Chicken Curry
- Slow Cooker Rogan Josh Beef Curry
- 20 minute Chicken Korma made in the Pressure Cooker
- 30 Minute Beef Rendang made in the pressure cooker
- Indian Beef Masala Curry (make in the pressure cooker or slow cooker)
Slow Cooker Thai Green Beef Curry
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 kg / 2 pounds lean gravy beef cut into 2cm chunks - fat trimmed 1 medium Brown onion, finely diced
- 2 tablespoons Thai Green Curry Paste - see note 1
- 1 tablespoon Crushed garlic
- 1 tablespoon Minced Ginger
- 1 tablespoon Lemongrass paste or fresh chopped lemongrass
- 1 Red chilli - finely diced
- 1 tablespoon Fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon Raw honey
- ¾ cup Coconut milk
- ¾ cup Beef stock/broth
- 4 fresh Kaffir Lime Leaves - see note 6
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup diced Pumpkin - 1cm x1cm
- 20 long Green beans - chopped
- 2 cups baby spinach
Optional
- 2 cups Jasmine rice
Instructions
- In a large non stick pan set to high, brown the meat for 2 to 3 minutes. (I recommend doing it in two batches as it makes it a bit easier - the pan isn't over-crowed and the meat browns quicker. Once browned, transfer the meat into the sloe cooker pot.
- To the same pan on the stove, add the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli and lemongrass. Stir through for 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant. Add to the slow cooker, stirring into the meat.
- Add the curry paste, fish sauce, honey, lime leaves, beef stock/broth, and the coconut milk. Stir to combine.
- Add the beans and pumpkin and stir to combine.
- Set slow cooker to cook on Low for 8 hours, or cook on high for 4 hours.
- Once its finished cooking stir in the baby spinach and serve.
- Serve steamed jasmine rice.
Notes
- Curry Paste: 2 tablespoons Thai Green Curry Paste will result in a mild curry. For a medium curry, increase to 3tablespoons of curry paste. I use the Volcom brand.
- Meat: Suitable cuts of meat include skirt steak, gravy beef, or shin. Cheap cuts of meat are great for slow cooking, just make sure to trim off any excess fat before browning the meat.
- Kaffir Lime leaves are available from supermarkets in the fresh fruit and veg section. There are also bottled kaffir lime leaves in the Asian section of Woolworths and Coles that you could try if you can’t find the fresh ones.
- Lemongrass paste: I find this in the fresh food section of Coles and Woolworths, generally where the herbs are.
- Freezing: This recipe is suitable to freeze for upto 8 weeks.
- Nutritional information does not include rice.
Nutrition
Note: Sugars contained in this recipe are from naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables or other natural sweeteners.
Jaimie
I love Thai curries and green is one of my favourites! I also love the Volcom pastes and totally agree with you about the oil/flavour ratio! Thank you for sharing your recipe, I look forward to giving it a go 🙂
Lisa
Hi Kim,
I’ve just found your Green Thai beef curry recipe and I’m going to give it a try - the only thing is I can’t find kaffir like leaves here - what can I use as an alternative? Many thanks Lisa.
Kim
You could leave it out altogether, or try some lime peel instead. Whilst it adds a nice flavour, the dish will still be good without it.