Vegan Massaman Curry with Tofu

Massaman curry can be made from scratch using simple and easy to find ingredients. Flavourful, slightly sweet, slightly spicy and extremely delicious, our vegan Massaman Curry with Tofu has become a favourite at home.

Thai cuisine is one of our favourite cuisines in the world, and Vegan Massaman Curry is Astra's favourite curry. Whenever we go out to restaurants, if massaman curry is on the menu, he won't bother looking at the rest of the dishes, it's always his choice.

We travelled around Thailand for a month, and we found this lovely massaman curry on a tiny island called Koh Lipe. After trying that dish, we couldn't order anything else but that curry. They served it with vegan protein and it was absolutely delicious. We always joke about going back to Koh Lipe just for that curry, even if we have to travel halfway around the world.

We decided to master this recipe and now it has become a family favourite. When we have people over, this is a dish we love cooking. It's creamy, rich and not too spicy.

About our Massaman Curry

• It's vegan. We use tofu as the protein and soy sauce instead of fish sauce. You can as well, add some vegan fish sauce to the curry.
• It's made with homemade curry paste. I know for a fact that you can get a delicious Massaman using store-bought paste, we have been there, but homemade massaman paste, that's another level. The deep flavour you will bring to your massaman curry making your own homemade paste is just not possible to get from a store-bought one.
• If you substitute the soy sauce for tamari, you can make this dish gluten-free.
• We love spicy food, so we make our massaman curry spicy enough. If you prefer a milder curry, reduce the amount of chili flakes.
• It's easy to make. Even if we make the curry paste from scratch, our recipe is quite simple. We blend all the ingredients for the curry paste and spices raw. You can toast the spices and cook the ingredients before blending them as they will release more flavour but we like keeping it simple.

How to make Massaman Curry Paste from scratch

All you need are the right ingredients, a good blender and 20 minutes of your time. We love making all our recipes from scratch and making curry paste is fun! Check our Green Curry or Red Curry for more Thai recipes using homemade paste.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CURRY PASTE

• 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.
• Garlic.
• Spices. Our spice blend for the massaman curry paste contains cardamom pods, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, turmeric, white pepper, chilli flakes and salt. Whole spices contain a stronger flavour. If you buy them already crushed or powdered like us will still be totally fine. You can use dried bird's eye chillies instead of chilli flakes. Just make sure you take out the seeds and hydrate them for at least 10 minutes.

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.

1. Add into the food processor or blender the fresh ingredients: Shallots, lemongrass f, garlic cloves and galangal. 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.
2. Add the spice mix and salt and blend until all the ingredients are perfectly incorporated.

HOW TO PREPARE OUR MASSAMAN CURRY 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) and brown sugar. Then, add fresh veggies of your choice, roasted peanuts, star anise, cloves and cinnamon stick.

Our Massaman Curry is cooked with onion, potatoes, sweet corn and carrots. We like it simple, as the sauce already has an extraordinary taste. But you can add more vegetables if you like.

For protein, we use tofu. It works better if you cook the tofu separate before adding it to the curry. You can cook it in a frying pan with some soy sauce, or bake it in the oven.

Serve your curry with jasmine rice, crushed peanuts, fresh cilantro and some chilli flakes on the top.

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