Name: Thai Red Curry with Tofu
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 10-15 Bird's eye chillis; 1 tablespoon coriander stems; 2 lemongrass stalks; 3 garlic cloves finely chopped or crushed; 2 shallots finely chopped; 1 tablespoon galagal; 1 teaspoon miso paste; 1 teaspoon white peppercorn; 1 teaspoon cumin powder; 1 teaspoon coriander powder; 1/2 teaspoon black pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon coconut oil; 2 1/2 tablespoon red curry paste; 400 ml coconut milk; 250 ml water (or stock); 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 1 teaspoon brown sugar; 5-6 kaffir lime leaves; Fresh chopped vegetables of your choice. (We use zucchini, carrots and red pepper); 250 g firm tofu

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Thai Red Curry is one of the most popular dishes in Thailand. Rich, creamy, spicy and absolutely delicious, our Vegan version of the traditional Red Curry is made with homemade paste and served with veggies and tofu.

If you have been following us for a bit now, you may know how much we enjoy cooking Asian-style recipes. We always try to make them as authentic as possible using plant-based ingredients. Ingredients such as prawn paste or fish sauce are very common in Thai recipes but we have found other lovely ingredients that will make your recipes just as yummy.

Our Vegan Red Curry is packed full of umami flavours. Making the paste from scratch makes a huge difference when it comes to Thai curries. All you need are the right ingredients, some extra time and a good blender.

If you prefer to cook our Thai Red Curry with store-bought paste, don't worry, simply skip the paste-making part and follow the rest of the process. It won't take longer than 30 minutes if you are using pre-made red curry paste.

What is Red Curry?

Red Curry is one of the most popular Thai Curries. This Thai dish gets the name from the colour of the curry paste which is made with red chillis, aromatics such as lemongrass, shallots, kaffir lime leaves and galangal, spices and other umami-packed ingredients such as garlic, or prawn paste. For our Vegan Red Curry paste, we use miso paste instead of prawn paste.

Thai Red Curry is made with coconut milk and served with a variety of vegetables and protein. We use tofu as the main protein and vegetables such as zucchini, red pepper and carrots.

Red Curry is normally milder than Green Curry and spicier than Yellow curry. You can use red curry paste to elaborate make other dishes such as Khao Soi or Tom Kha.

Our Thai Red Curry is:

Vegan
Gluten-free
Thai-style dish
Spicy
Made from scratch
Flavourful

WHAT MAKES OUR VEGAN RED CURRY RECIPE UNIQUE?

We cook our Thai Red Curry from scratch to make sure we add the spice level we want, the whole spices we love, and no fish products such as fish sauce or prawn paste. Our curry paste is vegan, oil-free and gluten-free.

If making homemade curry paste seems like too much for you, you can jump straight to the curry recipe part and skip the paste-making process. You can use already store-bought red curry paste.

Vegan Red Curry Paste from scratch

Making the paste from scratch does take a bit longer but every minute invested in making this, it's definitely worth it.

Ingredients for the Curry Paste

Dried bird-eye chillies. You can use larger chillies as well. This is the main ingredient to give the curry paste a red colour. In order to be able to use more chillies without the paste being too spicy, the chillies will need to be deseeded. Using gloves, cut the chillies down the side with scissors, remove the seeds and leave them soaking in water for around 10 minutes. We normally add around 10-15 bird-eyes chillies. The curry comes out spicy but not super spicy. If you prefer milder curries, get larger chillies, as they will normally be less spicy.
Aromatics. To make our red curry paste we use a few aromatics which include lemongrass stalks, shallots, galangal, garlic and coriander stems. The part of the lemongrass stalks you need is the bottom part which contains most of the flavour. If you cannot find galangal, feel free to use ginger instead. We normally find frozen galangal in our local Asian supermarket. Traditionally, coriander root is used instead of the stems, but we are unable to get them in Spain.
Miso paste. We know! Miso paste is Japanese, so why are we using it in 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 red curry paste contains white and black pepper, cumin powder, and coriander powder. Whole spices contain a stronger flavour. If you buy them already crushed or powdered like us, the taste of your curry paste will still be totally yummy.
Sea salt. If you want to keep your paste for a few days or a week in the fridge, it will stay good for longer if you add salt or sea salt.

Step by step METHOD

To make the vegan 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 and green ingredients: Shallots roughly chopped, lemongrass finely sliced (just the thicker part), garlic cloves, galangal roughly chopped, lime zest and coriander stems. Blend all these ingredients until you have a consistency that already looks like a paste. Keep pushing the ingredients down with a spatula and blending further if needed.
Add the chillies and blend until you have a red paste. Make sure the chillies are well blended. This may take 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 the right consistency.
Your paste will be ready to make the curry or to store it at this point. It can be frozen and it will last for months in the freezer or you can keep it in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.

If you want to learn how to make your curry pastes with pestle and mortar we recommend checking how Hot Thai Kitchen makes them!

How to make Thai Red Curry

INGREDIENTS FOR VEGETARIAN RED CURRY

Red curry paste. If you are making your paste from scratch, follow the steps above. Otherwise, simply get your vegan store-bought paste ready!
Protein. We use tofu as our main protein. We like pan-frying the tofu before but you can add the tofu into the curry raw and let it cook with the rest of the ingredients.
Coconut milk. One ingredient that you will need to make most of the Thai curries is coconut milk and Red Curry is one of them.
Vegetables. For this curry, we use red peppers, carrots and zucchinis. Other vegetables that go really good would be green beans, broccoli, sweet potato, baby corn or eggplant.
Kaffir lime leaves. 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.
Water or stock. You can use water to make this recipe as the curry paste is already packed with flavour.
Tamari or soy sauce. Use tamari for a gluten-free red curry.
Sugar (optional)
Fresh coriander to sprinkle on top before serving.

Step by Step Method

Heat some coconut oil in a pan and add the curry paste. Leave it cooking for 1-2 minutes.
Add 2 tablespoons of coconut milk. Keep cooking until it starts bubbling and the oil separated from the paste.
Add the rest of the coconut milk, water or stock, soy sauce or tamari (gluten-free), brown sugar, lime leaves and fresh veggies of your choice.

To prepare the tofu, cut it into cubes or triangles. We normally pan fry the tofu separately adding some soy sauce to give the tofu some extra flavour but if you want to save time you can cook it directly with the rest of the vegetables inside the curry too.

Thai Red Curry with vegetables step by step

Serving Suggestions

Thai Red Curry is normally served with jasmine rice. If you add more coconut milk, water, or homemade broth, it can be served as a coconut soup as well with rice noodles.

Before serving, add some fresh chopped cilantro. Serve with Jasmine rice on the side and extra chilli flakes for people to add to taste.

If you have leftovers, don't worry. Thai curries are one of these meals that taste better the second day so you can enjoy this dish two days in a row!

When we prepare red curry paste we make a curry and a few days later we make a coconut noodle soup or a Tom Kha Soup using the same paste.

FAQ and Tips

Are store-bought curry pastes vegan? Depends. Brands like Aroy-D are vegan but some other brands contain prawn paste. The only way to make sure is by reading the list of ingredients before buying it.
Where can I find vegan Red Curry paste? You should be able to find a vegan option in a local Asian supermarket or online (amazon).
Is Red Curry spicy? Red Curry is normally spicy when ordered at restaurants. It is milder than Green Curry and spicier than Yellow Curry. If you are making your paste from scratch you can add more chilis or reduce the number of chilis to make the paste spicier or milder. When cooking with pre-made curry paste, you can add more or less paste depending on how spicy you like your curries.
You can keep the leftovers in an air-tight container for 3-4 days.
If you want to prepare this dish ahead of time, you can leave the curry paste cooked and frozen. It will save you time when you want to prepare the meal!

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