Name: Slow-Cooker Thai Green Curry With Shrimp and Sweet Potatoes
Total time: 4 h
Cuisine: ThaiAsia
Ingredients: 2 cups chicken broth, plus extra as needed; 2 tablespoons Thai green curry paste; 2 tablespoons instant tapioca; 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces; 1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk; 1 1/2 pounds large shrimp (26 to 30 per pound), peeled, deveined, and tails removed; Salt and pepper; 2 tablespoons lime juice; 1 tablespoon fish sauce; 8 ounces snow peas, strings removed and cut into 1-inch pieces; 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Why This Recipe Works

Thai curries usually get their complex flavor from a laundry list of aromatic ingredients—lemongrass, ginger, garlic, chiles, and other spices. To achieve the same great flavor without hunting down all those ingredients, we found a single ingredient that could substitute for them all: green curry paste, which contained all the ingredients of classic Thai curries and added big flavor to this dish in record time. All it needed was a little lime juice and fish sauce to round out the flavors. A combination of chicken broth and coconut milk gave us a rich, creamy base for our curry. To ensure that the delicate shrimp didn't overcook, we stirred them in toward the end of cooking. For snow peas that were perfectly crisp-tender, we microwaved them with a little oil and then added them to the finished curry.

Before You Begin

The sweet potatoes become very tender in this dish; be sure to stir the curry gently to prevent the potatoes from breaking up too much.

Instructions

1. Whisk broth, curry paste, and tapioca together in slow cooker, then stir in potatoes. Cover and cook until flavors meld and potatoes are tender, 4 to 5 hours on low or 3 to 4 hours on high.

Microwave coconut milk in bowl until hot, about 2 minutes. Season shrimp with salt and pepper. Stir shrimp, coconut milk, lime juice, and fish sauce into curry. Cover and cook on high until shrimp are opaque throughout, about 30 minutes.

Microwave snow peas and oil in bowl, stirring occasionally, until snow peas are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir snow peas into curry. Adjust consistency with extra hot broth as needed. Stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.