Thai Red Curry with Tofu

This is our Vegan Version of Thai Red Curry, prepared with homemade paste and Tofu.

Astra introduced me to Thai food. He travelled to Thailand for the first time when he was 17 and fell in love with Thai Cuisine. The first dish I tried was a Red Curry with Tofu as I was already a vegetarian back then. That day I found my new favourite dish in the world and I became obsessed with Thai food!

We were having Thai food every week and started making it at home. The store-bought curry paste that you can buy in supermarkets or even online is good enough if you want to make a quick curry at home but there is nothing like homemade red curry paste.

Red curry is normally milder than green curry but spicier than yellow curry. For us, it has the right amount of spiciness for spice lovers and people that tolerate some spice to enjoy.

Our recipe is vegan and gluten-free. Thai red curry is a perfect dinner for a Saturday night. We normally prepare the curry paste on Friday night and leave it ready for the next day. Once the curry paste is ready, cooking the curry takes no longer than 30 minutes.

How to make homemade Red Curry Paste

The key for a delicious Thai Red Curry is the curry paste. You cannot go wrong with homemade red curry paste. All you need are the right ingredients, a good blender and 20 minutes of your time. The deep flavour it will bring to your curry is just not possible to get from a store-bought one. Our red curry paste is vegan and gluten-free, but be aware that sometimes, the paste you buy or get in a restaurant may contain fish sauce or prawn paste.

We love making all our recipes from scratch and making curry paste is fun! Check our Green Curry or Massaman Curry for more Thai recipes.

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.
• Coriander Stems. Originally, red curry paste is made with coriander roots, but as we cannot find coriander roots in our local supermarkets, we use coriander stems. Prepare the coriander steams chopping them into small pieces
• Lemongrass Stalks. One of the most popular ingredients in Thai food. Lemongrass will give your curry proper Thai fragrance and flavour. The part of the lemongrass stalks you need is the bottom part. 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. We use finely chopped shallots for our curry paste but white or red onion can be used as well.
• Galangal or ginger. 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. You can add lime zest instead, make sure to just add 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 red curry paste contains white and black pepper, cumin powder, coriander powder. Whole spices contain a stronger flavour. If you buy them already crushed or powdered like us will still be totally fine.
• 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.

METHOD

To make the 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.

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.

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

If you already have the curry paste prepared or you have some 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 1-2 minutes and then 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.

Green and red bell peppers, bamboo shoots, broccoli, zucchini or carrots are great choices for the red curry.

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.

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.

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.

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