Thai Green Curry
Try this easy and flavourful homemade version of Thai green curry and I promise you’ll never buy one of those pre-made curry pastes ever again. You’ll be surprised how much more vibrant it tastes!
I would really encourage you to play around with this recipe and make it suit your own personal taste. Add more ginger if you like that, or make it as spicy/mild as you want! If you really can’t handle heat, add a piece of green bell pepper to get some colour without the spiciness.
Thai Green Curry
Try this easy and flavourful homemade version of Thai green curry and I promise you’ll never buy one of those pre-made curry pastes ever again.
Equipment
- Blender or chopper
Ingredients
Green curry paste
- 3-5 cm ginger to taste
- 1 white onion
- 2-3 jalapeños or other green chillies to taste
- 1 stalk of lemongrass or 2 tbsp minced lemongrass from a jar
Curry
- 1 tbsp coconut (or any) oil
- 1 tbsp cane sugar palm sugar if you have it
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 5 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 small block tofu squeezed and cut into cubes
- 1 red onion quartered
- 6 dried shiitake mushrooms pre-soaked in hot water
- ½ courgette cut in half-moons
- 3 spring onions
- 6 small cherry tomatoes
- 1 lime
- 2 tbsp fish sauce (soy to keep it vegetarian/vegan)
Garnish
- thai basil leaves
- coriander leaves
- slice of lime
Instructions
Preparation
- Just a reminder: if you want to serve this with rice, you should probably start that now.
- Boil water and let the dried shiitake mushrooms soak.
- Drain the water from the tofu, wrap in a clean towel or kitchen paper to remove excess moisture. You can put some weight on it, like a bag of rice.
Make the curry paste
- Peel your ginger and onion and chop into chunks so they'll fit into the chopper. Cut the chillies in half and remove some of the seeds and white pith (the more you leave in, the spicier the end result will be). Try scraping those out with a spoon – less heat on your fingertips! Chop up the fresh lemongrass a bit finer, as it is harder to blend and may leave long stringy bits in your curry. Alternatively, use lemongrass paste from a jar. Add everything to the chopper and blitz until all the ingredients are fine but not mushy.
Curry time!
- Fry the paste for five minutes in a pan or wok over medium to medium-high heat with some oil. Add the sugar and fry again for a couple more minutes. Since the paste is fresh, it's a bit wetter than store bought.
- Add the coconut milk, fresh lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, multitask and cut your veggies. Squeeze out the shiitake and cut in thin slices. Cut the tofu in cubes. Cut the onion in 4 wedges. Slice the courgette in half-moons. Add them to the curry and simmer for some 5 minutes.
- If you prefer a more soupy consistency to your curry, I like to add some of the shiitake soaking water or vegetable stock.
- Cut the spring onions and add them to the pan, also add the tomatoes. Season with fish/soy sauce and the juice of the lime. Taste and add more if needed.
- Garnish with thai basil and/or coriander leaves, and a slice of lime if you want to be fancy. Enjoy!
Notes
The best part of this recipe is how customisable it is. Add any vegetable you want (I’m just giving you suggestions), or replace the tofu with chicken, fish, shrimp or whatever you like. Small white button mushrooms are also pretty good, but I like the dried shiitake!
I get dried shiitake from the Chinese supermarket. A packet costs only a couple of euros and they go a long way.
You can get kaffir lime leaves from the same Chinese supermarket. I get them frozen instead of dried, they taste way better and 1 pack lasts you a really long time.
You can buy a pack of fresh lemongrass stalks from any supermarket these days. Just stick the leftover ones in the freezer for next time!
If you don’t have a blender or chopper, you can just as well make the paste using a pestle and mortar – I’m just way too hungry to put in that much work.