Vegan Thai Green Curry makes a fantastic meal full of warm and comforting vibes. This 20 minutes Thai Green Vegetable Curry recipe is creamy rich and bursting with layers of flavors.
Pair this delicious one pot curry with rice or quinoa for scrumptious weeknight dinner. It is GLUTEN FREE, DAIRY FREE and NUT FREE. It also has all elements of classic Go-To Curry – quick, easy, delicious and healthy!
You will love this easy recipe that tastes BETTER THAN carryout from ANY RESTAURANT! Let’s take easy route and whip up incredibly Gourmet Thai Food with minimal efforts. Shall we?
Pick any vegetables of your choice, coconut milk and green curry paste. Add in tofu for some meatless protein. Simple cooking technique of sautéing and simmering and dinner is ready in no time.
You can make this recipe either on stove top or in electric pressure cooker like Instantpot. I am including both directions in the recipe card.
The key to bringing the store brought curry paste alive is to sauté it with some oil. It allows all the flavors to permeate the curry thoroughly.
Then you let it simmer in coconut milk so that all the ingredients are infused with robust and dynamic flavors. It results in finger licking delicious curry you want to eat till the last drop.
Feel free to change up the vegetables to whatever suits your mood. You might as well call it “cleaning-out-the-refrigerator” curry.
You could try snow peas, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, diced butternut or sweet potato, sliced zucchini and/or yellow squash.
PRO TIPS TO MAKE BEST WEEKNIGHT THAI CURRY DINNER
Choose full-fat coconut milk for its richness.
Stirring in just a little bit of lime juice and sugar adds tons of complexity.
Sauté the curry paste in oil with vegetables so the flavors liven up.
DECODING DIFFRENET COLORS OF THAI CURRY
Thai curry is color coded. It’s like a traffic signal, once you see the color, you know what to expect.
All the colorful curries are superbly flavorful. The difference is the level of hot-spiciness. From mild to tongue tickling to blow your top off kind ..They have varying degree of spiciness.
So, the run down is like this.. yellow curries (Panang and Masaman) are mild, red curry is in between and green curry is spicy HOT.
I encourage you to try all of them to see which one you prefer. Chances are you are going to like them all…
HOME-MADE or STORE BROUGHT THAI CURRY PASTE
It is a personal preference, but I like to use quality store brought curry pastes. Maesri is my favorite authentic brand. Thai Kitchen and Trader Joe’s also have good selection of curry paste.
Since these sultry curry pastes require a lot of ingredients, chances are you don’t have all the required ingredients at home handy. Here’s Amazon affiliate link for Maesri Green Curry Paste
So, I prefer to stock up on these variety pack of curry paste and coconut milk. They do have long shelf life.
You can find curry pastes in the ethnic isles of supermarkets or in Asian grocery stores and of course on Amazon.
I highly recommend stocking up on readymade curry pastes. These “curry in a hurry” meals are life savers.
INGREDIENTS
Vegetables – I am using carrots, red bell pepper, green bell pepper and Chinese eggplant.
Tofu – adds excellent meatless protein and makes the curry filling. Use extra firm tofu and try to squeeze as much water out as possible before cutting.
Coconut Milk – I prefer full fat coconut milk. Feel free to use lite version but curry may not feel as rich.
Green Curry Paste – my favorite Maesri brand curry paste. It is free of added color, MSG and preservatives.
Aromatics – Since green curry paste is full of robust flavors, I only add onions. I didn’t feel it was necessary to add extra ginger and garlic or chilies but you can.
Lime juice, raw sugar, cooking oil and salt
Fresh herbs – I am using basil leaves, cilantro and kaffir lime leaves. If you don’t have them easily available, simply skip it.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS :
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan on medium high heat. Once oil is hot, add onions. Sauté well till they get translucent.
Add all the veggies to the pan. Add green curry paste. Sprinkle some salt. Toss veggies for around 2 minutes on medium high heat.
Add water. Stir well so it’s all combined.
Cover the pot and let the veggies cook on medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes.
Add cubed tofu and coconut milk. Mix well. Cover the pot with the lid and let it come to a light simmer and become thick and creamy.
Remove the lid. Add lime juice and sugar. Mix everything together. Turn off the heat.
Add in the thai basil leaves, cilantro and kaffir lime leaves, if using. Gently stir so it combines well.
Serve this vegan Thai Green Curry with rice. Enjoy!
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Vegan Thai Green Curry
weeknight dinner recipe that can be done in 20 minutes. You will love this spicy, creamy and amazingly flavorful curry that is healthy and tastes way better than takeout.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Thai green curry paste
- 1 small onion diced
- 3 cups of vegetables - I used diced carrots green and red bell pepper and Chinese eggplant
- 1 14 oz. can coconut milk (I used organic full-fat )
- ½ cup water
- 1 teaspoon coconut sugar or raw sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
- Salt to taste
Optional Garnishes
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro and basil leaves . Few kefir lime leaves for extra flavor.
Instructions
STOVETOP INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan on medium high heat. Once oil is hot, add onions. Sauté well till they get translucent. Add all the veggies to the pan. Add green curry paste. Sprinkle some salt. Toss veggies for around 2 minutes on medium high heat. Add water. Stir well so it's all combined.
- Cover the pot and let the veggies cook on medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Add cubed tofu and coconut milk. Mix well. Cover the pot with the lid and let it come to a light simmer and become thick and creamy.
- Remove the lid. Add lime juice and sugar. Mix everything together. Turn off the heat. Add in the thai basil leaves, cilantro and kaffir lime leaves, if using. Gently stir so it combines well. Serve this vegan Thai Green Curry with rice. Enjoy!
INSTANTPOT DIRECTIONS
- Start Instantpot on SAUTE mode. Add oil. After few minutes,
add onions and sprinkle some salt. Sauté well till onions get translucent. Add rest of the vegetables and green curry
paste. Sauté for couple minutes. Add water and deglaze the pan by scrapping the bottom with the spatula. - Cancel SAUTE. Close the lid. Press MANUAL or PRESSURE COOK
button. Select 2 minutes high Pressure. After Instantpot done cooking, let it release the pressure naturally for 5 minutes and release leftover pressure by moving the valve from Sealing to Venting. - Open the lid when silver pin drops. Press SAUTE. Add coconut
milk and tofu. Mix well. Let the curry come to light simmer. Cancel SAUTE. Stir in lime juice, sugar and fresh herbs. Mix well. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Lime, Sugar, Galangal, Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Cardamom and Turmeric. Maesri Green Curry paste is spicy hot, so use sparingly. I used 2 heaping teaspoons. If you can't tolerate the heat, use 1 teaspoon. Adjust the consistency of the curry. If you feel it is too thick, add little
water to thin it out. The curry thickens as it cools down. You will have to add some water while re-heating. Recipe yields two large servings or four small servings. This curry pairs well with White rice (Jasmine or Basmati preferred) or brown rice, cauliflower rice or quinoa.
Aanchal
Lovely Recipe!