As anyone who follows me on Instagram will know, I’ve been making this same thai green curry long before I went vegan. And as anyone who has been to my house for dinner will know, it’s a tried and true winner. I’ve also been making it vegan (with the exception of the stock) the entire time! Making a curry paste from scratch sounds pretty daunting, but it’s actually super easy when it comes down to it. You don’t even really need a food processor, you can use a pestle and mortar or just chop everything super finely and mix well.
You will need:
- 80g fresh coriander, finely chopped (including stems) – you could also use frozen or a paste version
- 2 tbsp lemongrass paste (yes this is lazy but I’ve tried using fresh and dried but find this works best
- 2 small white onions or shallots, quartered
- 3 finger chillies, finely diced
- 2 birds eye chillies, finely diced
- 1 small bulb of garlic (about 5 large cloves – this was a disappointing garlic), roughly chopped
- 1 thumb of ginger, roughly diced
- 1 aubergine, diced
- 1 medium courgettes, chopped
- 100g mushrooms, sliced
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 1 can light coconut milk
- 1 pack tofu, drained and pressed if needed
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp vegan stock powder
- boiled water
- prepared rice to serve
Let’s make it:
Start with preparing the paste. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass paste, chillies and coriander to the food processor and pulse until it forms a loose paste. It is important to finely dice the chillies (and deseed) before putting in the food processor as I find the whole chillies hide at the edges of the food processor and don’t get chopped up – sneaky chillies.
Next fry off the paste in a non-stick pan (no water or oil needed) until the onion pieces are translucent.
This next part is going to seem a bit strange but it gives great flavour for the tofu. Drain the liquid of the coconut milk (holding back the cream) into the paste in the pan, add the tofu and steam for 5-6mins until the tofu looks like it’s absorbing the liquid a little.
Then sprinkle over the stock powder, mix then add in the veggies. Fill the pan half way with boiling water, add the lemon juice (lime works well, too), cover and let cook down on a medium-high heat until the carrots are cooked through (I’m using the carrots as a gauge as they take the longest).
Next you’ll want to add in the remaining coconut cream and mix well. Serve with a healthy serving of your favourite rice. Obviously you can use any veggies and any kind of tofu, chickpeas, vegan chicken alternative you like. Like almost all of my recipes you can freeze this and it reheats well. If you prefer something a bit milder, just cut down the chillies to your taste, this is full of many other flavours. You won’t be able to stop making this, and you’ll want to serve it to everyone! Enjoy!
Hannah Finds Vegan 