Vegan Thai red curry is a delicious recipe with the most refreshing and soothing flavors that are required in a comfort food recipe. A must try recipe for every foodie.
Generally, our comfort food is something which we grew up eating – something which was cooked for us by our parents or grandparents and reminds us of their soothing affection. That’s the reason most of the time our comfort food is something from our country of origin or anything which was cooked regularly in our kitchens since childhood.
Like most of the Indians, my comfort food is also home-cooked dal chawal, khichdi, kadhi chawal, rajma chawal, sambhar chawal.
However, in my list of comfort food, there is something more which I didn’t even taste until I started working – Thai curries.
I love Thai curries- be it Green / Red/ Yellow or any type of Thai curry. Thai curries are loved by almost everyone in my family.
The fresh flavors of Thai curries are so soothing that they instantly calm you down, nothing better you can ask for dinner after a stressful day.
Summer will be hitting us soon and these light, fresh Thai curries will be made more often in my kitchen now.
A few months back I shared the recipe of Vegan Thai green curry and today I will share another great Thai curry recipe – Vegan Thai red curry.
The first time I tried these recipes at a restaurant, I thought that it would be tough to cook them at home. Now that I have learned to cook Thai curries, I make them when I want to cook something easy.
For learning the tips & tricks of Thai cooking, I vouch for Pai from Hot Thai kitchen. I love watching her Thai recipes.
Even the weirdest tips given by her on Thai cooking turn out to be great. Like adding a little amount of tomato paste to Thai red curry. I could never have imagined doing it and even the thought of adding tomato paste to Thai red curry was scary. However, my experience with her Thai cooking tips was so good that I thought of taking this risk and added a little bit of tomato paste to the curry. Honestly, you can never guess the presence of tomato in the final dish and it tastes great.
If you want to skip it you can but I would highly recommend adding it.
Do you also have a comfort food which you didn’t grow up eating but now love having it when you need something comforting? Please share with me in the comments section.
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Vegan Thai Red Curry
Ingredients
Ingredients for vegan Thai red curry paste
- 12-14 pieces dried red chilies
- 2-3 pieces fresh Thai red chilies optional
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped shallots/ red onion
- 2 tbsp roughly chopped garlic
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped lemon grass stalk
- 1 tbsp roughly chopped galangal
- 6-7 pieces cilantro root/ stem
- Zest of 1 Kaffir lime if you couldn't find kaffir lime, use zest of normal lime but it will be less flavorful
- 1 teaspoon white peppercorns
- Salt as per taste
Ingredients for the curry
- 1 + 1/4 cups diced vegetables of your choice I have used cauliflower, mushrooms, French beans and snow peas
- 1/.4 cup baked/ fried tofu optional
- 3-4 kaffir lime leaves
- 5-6 basil leaves
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato paste optional
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar/ brown sugar
- 3/4 + 2 cups coconut milk
- 1 vegetable bouillon cube
- 1 cup water
Ingredients for garnishing (optional)
- 1 tbsp roughly chopped basil leaves
- 1 tbsp roughly chopped coriander leaves
- 1 teaspoon chopped Thai red/ green chilies
Instructions
- Remove the seeds and placenta of dry red chilies and soak them in hot water for 2-3 hours. Removing seeds and placenta will reduce the heat of chilies.
- In a grinder add the soaked dry red chilies and all the other ingredients of curry paste and make a smooth paste out of it. Keep it aside.
- Heat a pot and add ¾ cup of coconut milk to it. Cook while stirring in between till it thickens and coconut oil starts getting separated from the corners. Sometimes the oil doesn’t get released if you are using canned coconut milk, in that case also cook the milk for 6-7 minutes until it gets thickened.
- Add in the curry paste and vegetable bouillon cube. Mix well and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add in the tomato paste, coconut sugar and cook for another minute.
- Next, add in the chopped vegetables. If you are also using baked/ fried tofu don’t add it at this stage. Stir fry the vegetables for 2-3 minutes. We don’t want to turn them soft.
- Now add coconut milk, water, soy sauce, crushed kaffir lime leaves, and basil leaves. Mix well and let it simmer for 10-12 minutes.
- Throw in the baked tofu and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
- Garnish with basil, coriander leaves, and chopped chilies. Serve hot with steamed rice.
Nutrition
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