Thai Green Curry | Vegan

We love Thailand! From its friendly people to its beautiful locations, and incredible food. Indeed, there’s nothing quite like the masterful balance of salty, sweet, aromatic, spicy and pungent that occurs in Thai food. We’ve spent years perfecting our vegan version of Thai green curry, and we hope it shows!

DIY Thai

We think there are two great secrets to making amazing Thai green curry. Firstly, take the time to find all the right ingredients. Secondly, try making the curry paste yourself! You will notice the difference right away. Maybe because you’ll never be able to remove the dinner guests from your house!

We had a Thai chef guiding us the first time we made green curry. During the lesson, she explained the method for making the paste with this simple mantra …

Bok Bok Bok – Tok Tok Tok – Exercise!

The ‘bok’ and ‘tok’ referred to the sound of the mortar and pestle used to grind the Thai green curry paste. The ‘exercise’ happened in the arm and shoulder while we pulverized the ingredients. We were feeling the burn before we even started eating!

Since then we’ve settled on using a food processor to get our green curry going faster. However, Andrew occasionally breaks out the old school equipment depending on the time available (he swears it tastes better).

Seek and You Shall Find

Thai green curry just doesn’t taste the same without the right ingredients. These vegetables, herbs, and spices are what make Thai curries unique. Therefore, we highly recommend making the effort to track them down. In addition to the more common ingredients you’ll need:

• Thai green chilies (small chilis that have their own special flavor)
• Galangal (looks like ginger, but has a different and distinctive taste)
• Lemongrass (quite common)
• Thai basil (slightly spicy, tastes a little like licorice)
• Kaffir lime leaves (absolutely essential!)

In our experience, the ingredients for green curry are readily available from most Asian grocers. The great thing is, many Asian markets are also a culinary wonderland! While you’re shopping, take some time to check out the produce and walk the aisles. You’ll come home full of great ideas.

There’s also a trick to making this curry vegan – a substitute for fish sauce. That strong fishy kick is hard to replace – but we’ve found a worthy substitute: Vegan ‘Fish sauce’ made with seaweed. It’s really good at adding a similar depth of flavor.

Curry in a Hurry

Trust us, all of this work will pay off. When you’re done you’ll have plenty of extra green curry paste left. Just divide this into single-use amounts and freeze it. In fact, this is a great form of meal prep – because with curry paste on hand a delicious vegan meal is just minutes away!

Green Curry for Daaays!

The green curry paste may be a little complex, but the rest of the recipe is quite simple. Just fry the paste a bit to release its fragrance, and then add the eggplant (browning the eggplant enhances its flavor). After that, the rest of the ingredients spend a few minutes simmering in coconut milk. Make sure you give it a big sniff to enjoy the aromas as the veggies cook and the tofu soaks up those flavors!

You can spoon the curry straight into a bowl to enjoy it. However, that green curry is also great with a side of jasmine rice. The curry and rice mingle to create one of the best mouthfuls of food on the planet!

As you can probably tell, we’re pretty excited about Thai green curry. We hope you are too! If you try it, please let us know with a comment and a rating. Every bit of feedback helps make the blog even better!

If you’re looking to spice things up with more curry, check out our Sweet Potato Curry Soup.

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