Vegetarian Thai Red Curry With Tofu

I posted about the main Thai Ingredients used for the curries this sunday. So here I am today with Red Curry Recipe. Pretty much all the Thai curry pastes use shrimp paste called as Gapi or fish sauce. So obviously I am skipping them in my recipe and making it vegetarian. I am replacing the protein part (meat) with Tofu. But if you don’t have tofu just go with vegetables or with paneer.

I love Thai food. Period. When I came to US, M who knew my taste buds very well slowly introduced me to the other cuisines one by one. There is a Thai restaurant in Eldorado Hills which was our favorite. It was close to Regal Cinemas too and it became our regular hangout spot. I love that restaurant to such an extent that when my friends asked me where to cater/what food I want for my baby shower (mine was not a surprise one), I immediately answered Thai food from this place. So we had the party at home and went to the restaurant to enjoy the Thai food. I have many more stories to share but in the coming posts.

My favorite color is yellow and yellow curry is my personal favorite. But as Red Curry Paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Ped) forms the main base for all the curries I am starting with this one. This is a spicy curry and the Thai Red Chillies I had added more spice to the curry. Basically I referred two sites and one book for the curry and the paste. One was Thai Table and this book – Thailand: The Beautiful Cookbook, and the last one from this site. The main reason for referring three sites was to understand the ingredient proportions.

Here is what I tried and please see the notes section for additional information.

Ingredients:

For the Red Curry Paste: 

• Thai Red Chillies – 2
• Dried Thai Red Chillies – 2
• Peppercorns – 1/2 tsp
• Cumin Seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Garlic Cloves – 2
• Shallots – 2
• Lemon Grass – 1 tbsp ( 1 stalk)
• Coriander Seeds – 1 tsp
• Cilantro Stems – 1 tbsp
• Galangal – 1 inch piece

Other Ingredients:

• Tofu cubes – 1/4 cup
• Potato – 1
• Eggplants – 2
• Green Beans – 4 to 5
• Thai Basil – few leaves
• Kaffir Lime Leaves -2
• Oil – 1 tbsp
• Thin coconut milk – 1 cup
• Thick coconut milk – 1 cup
• Paprika – 3/4 tsp
• Salt – 1 tsp to 1.5 tsps. (Adjust according to your taste)
• Water – 2 to 3 tbsps

Steps:

• Chop the galangal and lemon grass.

• Grind all the ingredients given under “For Red Curry Paste” coarsely by adding 2 to 3 gbps of water.

• Chop the tofu into cubes and chop the veggies. I used my curvy knife for these shapes. (Beans is missing here in the picture, missed it .)

• Now heat the pan/kadai and add oil.
• Once the oil is hot add the veggies alone and saute for a minute.
• Now add the thin coconut milk and salt.

• Let it simmer till the veggies are tender.
• Now add the red curry paste and kaffir lime leaves and mix well.

• Cook till the raw taste goes. Add the paprika and tofu.

• Now add the thick coconut milk and chopped Thai basil.

• Let it simmer for 5 to 7 minutes and that’s it.

The Red Curry paste is ready. Serve hot with rice.

Notes:

• I used white shallots here as I didn’t had the purple ones. If you don’t have shallot use half of regular purple onion.
• Paprika powder is for the color. If you feel its too spicy go with the food color or you can skip that too. The color depends upon the thickness of coconut milk too.
• I didn’t grind kaffir lime along with the paste but added it in the curry directly. You can grind along with the curry paste but make sure you remove the middle stem from the leaf.
• You can add sugar if you want it less spicy or adjust the chillies.
• Cilantro leaves can be used too.
• Cumin, pepper and coriander can be dry roasted but I didn’t do it. I went with the raw taste.
• Galangal is pretty strong and along with lemon grass the flavor is unique and strong. Adjust the proportions according to your taste.

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Vegetarian Thai Red Curry With Tofu

The Vegetarian version of the Thai Red Curry with no shrimp paste or fish sauce but loaded with veggies and Tofu.

Course: rice accompaniment

Cuisine: Thai

Keyword: Vegetarian Thai Red Curry

Servings: 4

Author: Srividhya G

Ingredients

Ingredients

For the Red Curry Paste

• Thai Red Chillies - 2
• Dried Thai Red Chillies - 2
• Peppercorns - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Garlic Cloves - 2
• Shallots - 2
• Lemon Grass - 1 tbsp 1 stalk
• Coriander Seeds - 1 tsp
• Cilantro Stems - 1 tbsp
• Galangal - 1 inch piece

Other Ingredients

• Tofu cubes - 1/4 cup
• Potato - 1
• Carrot - 1
• Green Beans
• Thai Basil - few leaves
• Kaffir Lime Leaves -2
• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Thin coconut milk - 1 cup
• Thick coconut milk - 1 cup
• Dash of paprika
• Salt - 1 tsp to 1.5 tsps. Adjust according to your taste
• Water - 1/4 cup

Instructions

1. Chop the galangal and lemon grass.
2. Grind all the ingredients given under "For Red Curry Paste" coarsely by adding 1/4 cup of water.
3. Chop the tofu into cubes and chop the veggies. I used my curvy knife for these shapes.
4. Now heat the pan/kadai and add oil.
5. Once the oil is hot add the veggies alone and saute for a minute.
6. Now add the thin coconut milk and salt.
7. Let it simmer till the veggies are tender.
8. Now add the red curry paste and mix well.
9. Cook till the raw taste goes. Add the paprika and tofu.
10. Now add the thick coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves and chopped Thai basil.
11. Let it simmer for 5 to 7 minutes and that's it.

Recipe Notes

I used white shallots here as I didn't had the purple ones. If you don't have shallot use half of regular purple onion.
Paprika powder is for the color. If you feel its too spicy go with the food color or you can skip that too. The color depends upon the thickness of coconut milk too.
I didn't grind kaffir lime along with the paste but added it in the curry directly. You can grind along with the curry paste but make sure you remove the middle stem from the leaf.
You can add sugar if you want it less spicy or adjust the chillies.
Cilantro leaves can be used too.
Cumin, pepper and coriander can be dry roasted but I didn't do it. I went with the raw taste.
Galangal is pretty strong and along with lemon grass the flavor is unique and strong. Adjust the proportions according to your taste.