Vegetarian Thai Green Curry Recipe, Step by Step

Thai green curry is possibly the most popular among all the curries available in the cuisine. The blend of Thai basil, lemon grass, lime leaves, and spices gives a unique and delicious twist to the curry. This green curry recipe uses a vegetarian green curry paste and uses no fish sauce so it's probably not the most 'authentic' recipe but hey, vegetarians need to enjoy a good Thai green curry too, right?

This recipe is adapted from a cooking class I took in Bangkok at May Kaidee cooking school. They specialise in Thai vegetarian recipes and teach only those and I learnt a few amazing and simple recipes. I've probably made this green curry the most because once you make the curry paste, you can freeze it and I generally make enough for 3-4 rounds of curry-making. From what I saw, the key to making a good vegetarian Thai curry is to get the right kind of soya sauce and coconut milk. I highly recommend buying them from a Thai store and choosing products imported from there. Check out my green curry paste recipe post to see a picture of the products I used.

Green curry goes best with steamed jasmine or Thai hom mali rice but you can also serve it with a light tofu and egg fried rice. We like our gravy a bit on the thinner side but you can adjust that consistency by adjusting the amount of water you add and keeping the coconut milk thick. I used canned coconut milk. If you use fresh Indian coconuts, the taste may vary a bit since Thai coconut meat tastes a bit different and to me, less sweet.

I also make a mean vegetarian Tom Kha soup in case you want to check it out. Here's how to make vegetarian pad thai and the most gorgeous Thai Mango Sticky Rice recipe, one of the most often pinned recipes in Edible Garden.

Check this post on how to make coconut milk at home.

THAI GREEN CURRY RECIPE (VEGETARIAN)

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 cups of mixed vegetables like baby corn, carrot, beans, pumpkin, capsicum
2 tbsp of homemade green curry paste
1 tbsp of oil
2 small pieces of lemon grass
2 kaffir lime leaves
2-3 small pieces of galangal
2 cups of thin coconut milk (see notes)
1 cup of thick coconut milk
1 tsp of sugar
1 tbsp of light Thai soya sauce (Healthy boy brand if you can find it)
1 tsp of lime juice (optional)
1/4 cup of red onions, sliced

INSTRUCTIONS:

Before beginning to cook the curry, prepare all ingredients by cleaning and chopping the vegetables, measuring out the soya sauce, coconut milk, etc. Once you start the cooking process, simply add the ingredients in the order below and you will have a steaming pot of Thai green curry ready in no time.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wide pan and add 2 tbsp green curry paste.

Lightly saut� it for 20 seconds until fragrant.

Add all the vegetables, onions, galangal, lemon grass, and lime leaves to the pan and mix well.

Add the 2 cups of thin coconut milk and cook on medium flame until the vegetables turn softer but not mushy.

Add the soya sauce and sugar and mix well.

Now add the 1 cup of thick coconut milk and give everything a good stir. Also add the lemon juice at this stage, if using. 

All done! Serve hot with rice.

Notes:

1. If using canned coconut milk, dilute it with equal parts of water to get thin coconut milk. Don't skimp on coconut milk since that's what gives this curry body and flavour
2. A good Thai curry should have the perfect balancing of sweet, sour, and spice so adjust as you go along to make sure it's all good to your taste

Vegetarian Thai green curry keeps well in the refrigerator for a day. Reheat gently before serving, don't boil.

Pad Thai - Vegetarian Pad Thai Noodles Recipe, Step by Step

Learn how to make vegetarian Pad Thai - the vegetarian version of popular Pad Thai rice noodles from Thailand. Pad Thai is a great example of the balance of textures and flavours in a single dish, something Thai cuisine handles so well.

I have said this many times but it's worth repeating - TH and I love Thai food and in the years we spent in Singapore and now in Sydney, we often crave a good Thai meal and seek out restaurants that serve vegetarian Thai dishes. In our quest to find a repeat-worthy pad thai and drool-worthy green curry, many restaurants have come and gone through our list of to-eat places. In spite of my love for Thai food, I have not ventured much into cooking my own except for the vegetarian tom kha soup I made ages ago and more recently, vegetarian green curry paste and Thai green curry recipe with vegetables.

I can't think of why it took me so long to plunge into the world of Thai cooking. The ingredients were most readily available in Singapore (except Thai basil which for some reason always remained elusive) and there's a great Thai grocery store I frequent in Sydney too. So it's not the ingredients, I just felt I didn't know where to start. So to solve this, I attended this lovely vegetarian Thai cooking class in Bangkok - at May Kaidee's. Sala from Veggie Belly had taken their classes in Chiang Mai and I looked them up when I was in Bangkok. A morning well spent. The class was intimate with just 3 of us, very hands-on, and taught more things than they promised. We came back stuffed, happy, and all set to make our own tom yum paste and green curry paste from scratch.

This pad thai recipe is adapted from what we learnt in class. I had to make do with the Thai soya sauces available in Sydney so the brands and type are a bit different. I felt like everything we made in class was absolutely delicious and this pad thai (this is my third attempt at making it near-perfect) was pretty close to the real deal.

An important note - if you want to make great Thai food at home, it's important you buy the right ingredients. Soya sauce is a key piece of this so I'd advice you use a Thai brand. The healthy boy brand is popular and heavily exported so hopefully you can find it where you live. Here's a picture of what I bought.

VEGETARIAN PAD THAI RECIPE

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 2-4

INGREDIENTS:
200 gm packet of flat rice noodles
1 tbsp of peanut oil
1 cup mix of carrot, beans, red onions, julienned
1 small tomato, cubed
1 tsp of minced garlic
1 egg (optional)
1.5 tbsp of Thai soya sauce (dark or light)
A fistful of bean sprouts
1 tbsp of crushed roasted peanuts
1 tsp of red chilli flakes
2 tbsp of chopped spring onions (or coriander leaves)
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1/2 tsp of sugar

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. First important step is to prep and keep all your ingredients ready. Then it's just a matter of adding everything in one by one.

2. Prepare the noodles per packet instructions. Mine were instant noodles so I had to immerse the noodles in boiling water for 3 mins and transfer to a colander to drain the remaining water.

3. Heat oil in a wok and add the garlic, onions, carrot, beans, and tomatoes.

Saute on high heat until the vegetables are beginning to turn soft. Lower heat.

4. Push the vegetables to the side of the wok and break the egg in, if using. Let it cook for a bit and then lightly scramble it without making the pieces too tiny.

5. Add the cooked noodles and mix well to incorporate.

6. Increase heat to high and add the soya sauce and sugar.

Saute to combine well. Then throw in the spring onions (coriander leaves), bean sprouts, peanut powder, and chilli flakes.

Mix again until the noodles and the vegetables look combined and cooked through. Turn off the flame and squeeze the lime juice. Add more coriander leaves for garnish and mix again.

All done! Serve pad thai noodles hot for best flavour. You can serve some more peanut powder and chilli flakes with lime wedges so that people can adjust the flavour to their liking.

Notes:
- the salt in the soya sauce is generally enough for the noodles but you can test and add more if needed
- you can also add cubed fried tofu, baby corn, bell pepper, etc for added crunch and flavour

Vegetarian Green Curry Paste Recipe - Thai Veg Green Chilli Paste

Learn how to make vegetarian green curry paste for Thai green curry with vegetables. This authentic Thai recipe uses no fish sauce and instead we compensate by adding two kinds of soy sauce. This recipe is perfect for those who love Thai food but follow a vegetarian diet. One other vegetarian Thai recipe I've tried is my favourite veg tom kha soup using coconut milk.

When I was in Bangkok in May 2013 on work, I extended my trip to include a weekend just so I could take a Vegetarian Thai cooking class in Bangkok. I took the recommendation from Sala's post on Thai cooking classes and picked May Kaidee Thai cooking school in Bangkok. It was not very fancy but the class was intimate (just me and 2 other guys) and we learnt so many dishes in 4 hours, in addition to Thai singing and dance!

TH and I love Thai food and since he's vegetarian, it was great to attend an exclusive vegetarian class. After getting back to Singapore, it was soon time for us to pack our bags to move to Australia and I was worried that I'd forget all the dishes we learnt in class. I'd taken pictures of all the ingredients we used so I could get similar or same brands wherever possible. The ingredients, particularly the coconut milk used in green curry, makes a lot of difference in taste to the final dish. I'll share the vegetarian Thai green curry recipe soon but first we need to learn how to make the green curry paste at home.

Most of the store-bought brands of green curry paste have fish sauce or too much salt in them and there's really no reason why you shouldn't make your own, since the ingredients are easily available in a Thai store. In Sydney, Lucky Thai Grocers near Paddy's Markets has everything you need. Admittedly their lemon grass was not very fresh so my green curry paste looks a bit fibrous but it still tasted fabulously fragrant.

When you make your own green curry paste, you can adjust flavours according to your preference, like the heat, salt levels, amount of lemongrass, etc. So let's get started on some Thai green curry paste, shall we?

VEGETARIAN THAI GREEN CURRY PASTE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Makes 1 cup
Recipe Source: May Kaidee Thai cooking school notes

INGREDIENTS:
2 stalks of lemon grass, cut into small pieces
2 shallots or 1/4 cup chopped onions
6 Thai green chillies (I used mix of green and red), adjust to taste
4-5 kaffir lime leaves
1 tsp of cumin seeds
2" piece of galangal
2 tbsp of coconut milk
1 tbsp of soya sauce (use thin soya sauce from healthy boy brand if available, or any Thai soya sauce)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. It's important to prep your ingredients and have a mise en place to cook Thai food. Makes things more organized and easier to put together. If possible, use the brands of coconut milk and soya sauce shown below. For the paste, I used the thin soya sauce and when we make the curry, we'll use a mix of two soya sauces.

2. Grind all ingredients to a coarse paste. In the class we used a deep large stone pestle and mortar and it took about 12 mins to get the right consistency. in the mixie, it took me less than a minute. I'll let you decide how you want to do this :D

Once the paste is done, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use. It keeps well for 2-3 days but I recommend making the paste just before making the green curry, for best results.

Recipe for vegetarian Thai green curry coming soon!