This vegan Thai green curry with tofu and vegetables is a delicious coconut milk-based curry full of refreshing Thai flavors. Even the green curry paste is made from scratch. Once you try this easy curry recipe at home, you will forget takeaways.
The first time I got curious about Thai cuisine was when a former Miss World Yukta Mukhi mentioned it as her favorite cuisine in one of her interviews.
I was a kid at that time, living in a world where international cuisine was limited to a few Chinese, Italian, British, and American dishes. That was also not an era of Google so I could only imagine the favorite cuisine of a beauty queen.
A few years later when I got the opportunity to try Thai food, I instantly fell in love with it. It's so refreshing and flavorful that it's hard not to like it.
Today I am sharing the recipe for one of my favorite Thai recipes- vegan Thai green curry- loaded with tofu and vegetables. If I have to choose one non-Indian dish which I can call my comfort food, I will pick this plant-based Thai curry.
Jump to:
- Ingredients required to make vegan green curry paste from scratch
- Ingredients required to bake tofu
- Ingredients needed to make vegan Thai green curry
- Ingredient notes
- Step-by-step photo instructions
- How to make tofu Thai curry from scratch?
- Serving suggestion
- How to store?
- Freezing tips
- Recipe tips and tricks
- Frequently asked questions
- More Vegan Thai recipes
- Recipe
Ingredients required to make vegan green curry paste from scratch
The signature green color of green curry paste comes from all the green colors used to make it like cilantro leaves and stems, green chilies, Kaffir lime leaves, and lemongrass stalk.
Ingredients required to bake tofu
More ingredients like chili flakes, garlic powder, ground black pepper, etc can be used to flavor the tofu cubes.
Use medium-firm tofu in this recipe.
Ingredients needed to make vegan Thai green curry
Ingredient notes
Vegetables: Feel free to use more vegetables of your choice. The other vegetables that taste good in Thai curry are eggplant, French beans, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. If using eggplant in this recipe either roast it or shallow fry before adding to the curry. Bamboo shoots also taste great in vegan Thai curries.
Coconut sugar: Palm sugar or other sweeteners can also be used.
Salt: As we are using soy sauce too, add additional salt carefully and only if required.
Step-by-step photo instructions
How to make tofu Thai curry from scratch?
Because of how delicious and flavorful Thai curries are, I had never imagined that making them will be so easy. From the time I have started making Thai curries at home, we completely stopped ordering them from restaurants as they taste a lot better when cooked at home. Also, making them is also very simple, just follow the steps given below:
Bake tofu cubes: We will start with pressing tofu. Wrap the tofu block in a kitchen towel or thick tissue paper. Put a plate on top and place something heavy on it like a jar of beans. Let it stay like that for at least 15 minutes. You can also use a tofu press.
After 15 minutes, remove the kitchen towel and cut the tofu block into bite-size cubes.
Put the tofu cubes in a bowl, add oil, salt, and pepper. Toss.
Line a baking tray with a baking sheet and spread the tofu cubes on it. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°C (around 400°F) for around 13-15 minutes.
Make the curry paste: It's not very easy to find a vegan curry paste in the market. So, I always prefer making my green curry paste from scratch at home. It's very easy to make and tastes more flavorful too.
To make the curry paste, start with dry roasting coriander and cumin seeds on a pan. Roast on a low flame for a few minutes or until the spices become fragrant. Allow them to reach room temperature.
Put the roasted spices, Thai green chilies, Thai basil leaves, cilantro stems and leaves, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, lime zest, lemongrass stalk (remove the woody part), shallots, garlic, white peppercorns, and some water into a grinding jar and make a smooth paste.
Making curry: Heat a cooking pot and add ¾ cup coconut milk to it. Once the coconut milk starts releasing oil from the edges (it will take around 6-7 minutes), add the curry paste.
Cook the curry paste for around 4 minutes and then add all the chopped vegetables and cook them for around 5 minutes. Keep stirring in between. Once the vegetables are cooked, add vegetable stock, coconut sugar, salt, and soy sauce. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
When the stock starts simmering, add 1+¼ cup of coconut milk. Stir everything for a minute and then cover the pan. Cook covered for 10 minutes.
Remove the lid and add baked tofu cubes. Cook for one more minute.
Finally garnish with lime juice, chopped Thai red chilies, and fresh cilantro. Enjoy!
Serving suggestion
Tofu Thai curry tastes the best with some plain jasmine rice. You can also serve it with sticky rice.
If you prefer noodles, serve the curry with Thai rice noodles.
How to store?
To store, put the curry in an airtight container and refrigerate. It will be fine for 3-4 days.
Freezing tips
To freeze Thai green curry with tofu, put it in batch-size freezer-safe containers and freeze. It will be fine for 3 months.
Recipe tips and tricks
- For a faster process, instead of cooking the coconut milk until it starts releasing coconut oil, Just heat around ½ a tablespoon of coconut oil and saute the curry paste in it. For less coconutty flavor use refined coconut oil.
- To reduce the heat of curry, remove the seeds of the chili peppers before making the paste.
- Cilantro roots are also very flavorful and are traditionally used in curry paste. However, use it only if you have organic cilantro.
- You can completely skip the step of making curry paste from scratch and use store-bought curry paste. The rest of the recipe will still remain the same.
- After adding the coconut milk, don't stop stirring for 1-2 minutes otherwise the milk might get curdled.
- Don't use dark soy sauce otherwise, it will change the color of the curry.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, this vegan Thai curry paste can be frozen. To freeze, make a larger batch of curry paste and freeze it in ice trays. Once frozen, you can transfer the frozen curry paste cubes to a zip lock bag and re-freeze.
When you want to make the curry, just throw in a few frozen curry paste cubes in the pot.
Yes, Thai green curry is spicy but that depends on the recipe too. If you remove all the seeds of chilies, you can make it less spicy.
Also, for lesser heat, you can use a less hot variety of green chili peppers so that you get the green color but not the heat.
Yes, you can freeze extra kaffir lime leaves and galangal. Put them in an airtight container or zip lock bag and freeze for up to a year. For galangal, it's better if you cut it into smaller pieces first and then freeze it.
To make gluten-free Thai green curry, just replace soy sauce with Tamari or coconut aminos.
More Vegan Thai recipes
If you also love Thai food and want to make easy vegan Thai dishes at home then don't miss to check the following recipes on my blog:
- Vegan Thai Red Curry
- Vegan Pad Thai
- Mushroom Tom Yum Soup
- Mango sticky rice
- Thai curry noodles
- Thai cabbage salad
- Stir-fried mushrooms-Thai style
- Thai cold vermicelli noodle salad
If you try any of my recipes, please rate ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ it on the recipe card and also leave your feedback in the comments section below. You can also follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and subscribe to my youtube channel.
Recipe
Vegan Thai green curry with tofu and vegetables
Equipment
- Cooking pot
Ingredients
Ingredients for green curry paste
- A handful of fresh coriander leaves and stems
- 4-5 kaffir lime leaves
- 1-inch piece of Galangal
- 4 Thai green chilies de-seed some or all to reduce heat
- Zest of 1 kaffir lime/ regular lime
- 3 stalks of lemongrass remove the woody part
- 4-5 shallots
- 3-4 garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon dried Thai basil/ 8-10 fresh Thai basil leaves
- ½ teaspoon White peppercorns
- 2 teaspoons Coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 3-4 tablespoons water
Ingredients for baked tofu cubes
- 1 cup medium-firm tofu cubes
- 1 teaspoon any neutral flavored oil
- Salt to taste
Other ingredients
- ½ cup chopped mushrooms bite size pieces
- ¼ cup chopped baby corns bite size pieces
- ¼ cup chopped carrots bite size pieces
- 2 cups (1.25 + 0.75) unsweetened full fat coconut milk
- 1.25 cups vegetable stock
- ½ tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon lime juice adjust to taste
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar
- Salt to taste
- Chopped Thai red chilies and fresh coriander leaves for garnishing optional
Instructions
- Put the tofu cubes in a bowl, add oil and salt. Toss well. Spread on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°C (around 400°F) for around 13-15 minutes.
- Dry roast cumin and coriander seeds in a pan for 2-3 minutes or until they become fragrant. Put in a grinder along will all the remaining curry paste ingredients and grind to make a smooth paste
- Heat a cooking pot and add ¾ cup of coconut milk to it. Cook while stirring in between until it thickens and coconut oil starts getting separated from the milk. It will take around 6-7 minutes.
- Add green curry paste to the pot and sauté for 3-4 minutes.
- Next, add chopped vegetables and cook for around 5 minutes. Keep stirring in between.
- Add vegetable stock, coconut sugar, salt, and soy sauce. Cook for around 2-3 minutes.
- Once the curry starts simmering, add around 1+¼ cups of coconut milk. Stir for a minute and then cover the pan. Cook on low flame for around 10 minutes.
- Remove the lid and add tofu cubes. Cook for another minute and switch off the stove.
- Finally, add lime juice, chopped Thai red chilies, and coriander leaves. Serve with steamed Jasmine rice/ sticky rice/ rice noodles.
Notes
- To reduce the heat of curry, remove the seeds of some or all chili peppers before making the paste.
- Add more vegetables of your choice, if you want.
- Don't use dark soy sauce in this recipe otherwise, the curry won't remain green.
- More recipe tips and tricks are given in the post above, please follow them to make this recipe.
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