Thai Green Curry with Tofu

Vegan and Gluten-free Thai Green Curry made with homemade curry paste.

Thai Green Curry is one of the most popular dishes in Thailand and it's well known all around the world. Green Curry is spicier than red and yellow curry but if you enjoy eating spicy food, it's a dish that you need to start cooking at home! Vegan, gluten-free, packed full of flavour and so easy to prepare at home, this Thai Green Curry with Tofu is the perfect lunch or dinner.

Most of the recipes you can find online use store-bought curry paste, but our Thai Green Curry with Tofu is made from scratch. Making the curry paste is not difficult and you can even make it ahead. When you have the right ingredients it will be really straight forward as you just need to chop and blend all the ingredients in order to prepare the curry paste. You can buy the curry paste online or in an Asian supermarket. We used to do that all the time and our curries would still be delicious. The homemade paste is just the next level.

The flavour you get out of fresh homemade paste cannot be found in store-bought one. When making it at home you can also control the spice level and adjust it to your taste.

At our home, curries are made from scratch and we don't want it any other way. Check out our Thai Red Curry, Yellow Curry, Massaman Curry or our famous Thai Peanut Curry for more Thai curry recipes.

How to make Curry Paste from scratch

Ingredients for the Green Curry Paste

• Green Chillis. The key ingredients for the green curry paste are the green chillis. They will give your paste a vibrant green colour and the spice that this curry calls for. Depending on the chillis you choose to make the paste, the spice level will vary. The traditional recipe calls for Thai green chillis which are quite spicy. For our curry paste, we use Serrano chillis (milder) and green Bird's eye Chillis (spicier). Depending on your level of spice tolerance, you can change the amount and type of chilli that our recipe calls for. This recipe comes out medium-high spicy.
• Fresh Coriander. Originally, green curry paste is made with coriander root, but as we cannot find coriander root, we use fresh coriander. When making curry paste, make sure to use both, stems and leaves as they have similar taste and are equally good to prepare your curry paste. If you can buy the coriander bunch with some of the roots still there, make sure to choose that one and add them into the paste.
• Lemongrass Stalks. One of the most popular ingredients in Thai food. Lemongrass will give your curry a proper Thai fragrance and flavour. The part of the lemongrass stalks you need is the bottom part as that's where most of the flavour is packed. When you slice it, it has a purple colour inside. Save the green top part for other Thai dishes such as Coconut Curry Soups.
• Shallots. If you cannot find shallots, you can alternatively use white onion.
• Galangal. Traditionally, the curry paste is made with galangal. This ingredient may be a bit challenging to find if you are not in Asia. We can find it at an Asian supermarket close by. They have it frozen so it's perfect as we can keep it in the freezer and use it as we need it. If you cannot find galangal, you can use ginger.
• Kaffir lime zest and Kaffir lime leaves. Kaffir lime may be difficult to find if you are not in Thailand. Some Asian supermarkets will sell it fresh or frozen but it can be challenging. You can add lime zest instead, just make sure to add just the green part (as the white part will make your paste sour). You can as well, leave this ingredient out as the lime leaves will give you curry already a good punch. We add the lime leaves while cooking the curry instead of blending them with the rest of the ingredients. They can be blended as well, but we prefer them whole inside the curry.
• Garlic.
• Miso paste. We know! Miso paste is Japanese, so why are we using it in a Thai curry? Well, we tried different ingredients to substitute the prawn paste that goes in curry pastes. After different tries, we found out that miso adds the perfect saltiness and flavour that we were looking for!
• Spices. Our spice blend for the green curry paste contains white and black peppercorns, cumin powder, coriander powder.
• Sea salt. If you want to keep your paste a few days or a week in the fridge, it will stay good for longer if you add salt or sea salt.

Method

To make the green curry paste, you can use a food processor (make sure you are making a big enough batch, otherwise it won't work), a mortar and pestle or a hand blender.

We use the small food processor of our hand blender, you can find it on amazon. It works amazingly when making curry paste, pesto, or other dips and sauces.

• Add into the food processor or blender the white ingredients: Shallots roughly chopped, lemongrass finely sliced (just the thicker part), garlic cloves and galagal roughly chopped. Blend all these ingredients until you have a consistency that already looks like a paste.
• Add the green ingredients: De-seed and sliced green chilis, chopped coriander (roots, stems and leaves) and kaffir or regular lime zest. Blend again for a couple of minutes.
• Add the spices, sea salt and miso paste. Blend one last time until all the ingredients are perfectly blended and you have a paste consistency.

To save some time in the kitchen, prepare the curry paste in advance. Most days we will prepare the paste the day before we want to have Thai curry. You can freeze it and it will last for months in the freezer or you can keep it in the fridge for 1 week.

How to prepare our Thai Green Curry with Tofu once the curry paste is made

If you already have the curry paste prepared or you are using store-bought one, the most challenging part is done. All you need to do now is to heat some coconut oil in a pan and add the curry paste. Leave it cooking for a couple of minutes and then add coconut milk, water or stock, soy sauce, brown sugar, fresh vegetables and tofu.

For vegetables, we use bamboo shoots, baby corn, red pepper and broccoli. You can use other vegetables such as Thai eggplant, zucchini, green pepper, carrot or any other veggie of your choice.

To prepare the tofu, cut it into cubes or triangles. You can pan fry the tofu separately adding some soy sauce and sriracha to give the tofu some extra flavour and add it to the curry before serving or if you want to save time, cook it directly with the rest of the vegetables inside the curry.

Serving Suggestions

We normally serve our vegan Thai green curry with jasmine rice, as a soup or with rice noodles.

Serve your green curry with some jasmine rice and have a restaurant-like dinner. Don't forget to add some chopped cilantro on the top.

If you are looking for a lighter meal, skip the rice and serve the curry on its own. You can add some extra coconut milk or stock to make it soupier.

Another great option is to serve it as a soup with rice noodles. This is probably our favourite on those busier days. Rice noodles cook way faster than rice, and your meal will be ready really quick.

What can I do with the leftover curry paste?

If you are using a food processor to make your curry paste from scratch, it's better to make a bigger batch in order for the food processor to blend all the ingredients better. That, sometimes, results in too much paste. Don't worry! Curry paste can be frozen or kept in the fridge.

Transfer any leftover paste into an air-tight container and keep it in the fridge up to 1 week or freeze it and save it for longer. Next time you want to cook curry, your paste will already be made! We recommend using small containers so you can unfreeze the right amount for a meal and keep the rest frozen.

If you tried our recipe, please leave a comment or tag us on Instagram. We are always happy to see your creations!

MORE THAI CURRIES:

• Vegan Khao Soi
• Red Curry with Tofu
• Yellow Curry with Tofu
• Peanut Curry
• Vegan Massaman Curry