Easy Homemade Thai Green Curry
Vegan, gluten free, and healthy curry with homemade Thai green curry paste, maitake mushrooms, broccoli and crispy tofu.
Posted By Savita
Easy and flavorful Thai Green Curry dinner made with fresh homemade green curry paste and coconut curry sauce tossed with sauted broccoli, meaty maitake mushrooms, crispy tofu, and brown rice. This is a kind of vegetarian meal which will make even hardcore carnivores, crave tofu and mushrooms! It is THAT good!
Oh, and did I mention Thai curry is an excellent source of antioxidants too? And a flavorful base for variety of homemade meals. Mix one batch of green curry paste and then enjoy all of these: Thai curry soup, green curry chicken, green curry noodle bowl or this humble and simple vegetarian green curry with rice.
Speaking of this vegetarian Thai green curry.. every ingredient here adds some value to the meal. Honestly, there is nothing to not like here.. but a few things are my special favorite:
1. The green curry sauce is to die for. Silky smooth sauce with flavor of fresh chilies, subtle coconut flavor and aroma of curry spices. Like I said, sauce alone can be used so many ways.
2. My immediate next favorite is meaty and earthy maitake mushrooms. Since mushrooms are like little sponges, these pick up the flavor of curry and that makes them even more delicious.
3. Next in my hit list - Crunch of broccoli with lemony curry sauce. I know, I just said - I love the curry. But, lite sauted crunchy broccoli goes SO well with lemony sauce.. it deserves a special mention.
Making Thai green curry paste at home might sound intimidating but it is actually very-very easy. Most common green curry paste ingredients are: ginger, green chilies, lemongrass, onion, garlic, and cilantro. Once you have these, curry paste comes together in 5 minutes. All I do is, peel (ginger) and rough chop everything else, then put in food processor. A quick pulse makes a most amazing, fresh and fragrant paste ever. It has very fresh and vibrant color and taste. (Nothing like store bought jar, for sure!)
All ingredients for green curry paste are easy to find... The only tricky one to find, sometimes, is lemongrass shoots or lemongrass paste. If I can't find lemongrass, I use juice of lime and zest. It always works out great. In-fact I used same combination in this Laksa Curry Soup.
Now, I must also tell you that I often used to be concerned about pricing of lemon grass. But, a month ago, I found a big bundle of fresh lemongrass… I mean, really fresh, in Ralph's!! Amazingly not costly as well. And I'm not paid to mention this retailer. It was right when I was planning initial testing of green curry paste recipe. Omg! I felt on top of the world. I did a couple of rounds of testing… and a half of it, I processed with some oil to make paste and froze it. Since then I have used it countless number of ways.
Make Ahead Fresh Green Curry Paste
Fresh Thai green curry paste stays good in refrigerator for more than a week. If you planning to make ahead and use whole week, I suggest not adding the salt while processing the paste. Salt draw out natural water from fresh ingredients which will make paste runny. Instead, by adding salt just before using, paste can be preserved for a long time.
For similar reason, I also add couple of spoons of oil in the paste which act as a natural preservative. It is also a time-saver while sauting the paste for curry without opening the oil bottle.
This green curry paste recipe is medium spicy. However, you can make it hot or mild just by changing amount of one main ingredient: Green Chilies. I used jalapeno chilies which are milder than serrano or Thai green chilies.
Here is the chart if you want hot green curry paste or want to use different kind of chilies:
1 large Jalapeno or 1 medium Serrano or 4 small Thai green chilies = mild
2 Jalapeno or 3 Serrano or 6-8 Thai green chilies = medium
4 Jalapeno or 5-6 Serrano or 10-15 Thai green chilies = hot
Oh, and before I usher you towards recipe... I must ask! How was the Valentine's Day?! :)
About us, we had quite homemade pasta dinner with sweet finish of min chocolate cakes for dessert.
.. today on-wards, I'm back on my simple weeknight menus. :) I still have some frozen green curry paste.. It is sure hitting my dinner table tonight.
If you love greens and curries, I'm sure you will enjoy these:
Roasted Tomatillos Chickpea Curry
Spinach Flat Bread
Chipotle Sofritas Verde
Wish you a wonderful day! -Savita
Ingredients
- Green Curry Paste
- 1/2 Cup Cilantro (stem and leaves)
- 2 Jalapeno (remove seeds)
- 1/4 Cup Shallot Onions (about 1 medium onion, coarse chopped)
- 2 tbsp Lemon Grass (pale yellow part of two stalks only, or jest and juice of one lime)
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil (divided )
- 3 inch Ginger (peeled and coarse chopped )
- 6-8 Garlic (large cloves, about one medium head of garlic)
- 2 tbsp Curry Powder (**such as Madras curry powder)
- 1 tsp White Pepper (or black pepper)
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 3 tbsp Lemon (juice)
- Veggie Curry Bowl
- 1 Cup Coconut milk (8 ounce can of low-fat coconut milk)
- 4 Cup Rice (cooked)
- 140 Grams Mushrooms (5 ounce, fresh maitake mushroom)
- 1 Broccoli (head, broken in florets)
- 250 Grams Tofu (cubed)
Directions
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1. In a food processor, combine all paste ingredients and process to a make a paste. - 2. Heat remaining 1 tbsp oil in a skillet, add mushroom and saute until water evaporates, remove in a plate. Add tofu and broccoli, then saute until tofu is slight brown from all sides. Remove in same plate with mushrooms.
-
3.
Heat a dry skillet, add paste and saute for 2 minutes or until oil show on sides. Add curry powder, salt and pepper and saute for 30 seconds. Add coconut milk with 1/2 cup water, cook for 2-3 more minutes or until sauce thickens and comes together. Taste and adjust salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Additional Notes:
I added about 3/4 of the green curry paste. -
4. In 4 bowls, add rice, top with portion of mushrooms, broccoli, and tofu. Ladle curry sauce on top. Garnish with toasted peanuts. Serve and enjoy!
Savita's Recipe Notes:
**If not using curry powder, you can use equal part - coriander, cumin, 1/4 part mustard also
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