I love curries and this Thai massaman & tofu curry is certainly no exception. As a Thai curry, it’s a bit of an outlier containing quite a different mix of spices to the more common red, green or yellow curries. That’s because it’s from Northern Thailand & therefore comes from a more Muslim tradition.
The curry has deeper notes and is more fully flavoured with earthier notes to it. This lends it to vegetables that might not suit red, green or yellow curries. Potatoes, carrots and other root vegetables work really with this. Also, tempeh or a mock duck style of protein replacement would fit in with the overall taste profile. Of course the usual suspects like peppers, courgettes, fit too, but aubergines are nice as well.
It starts off with a base of ginger, garlic, onions and celery. Then just a case of frying off the massaman spices and adding in the coconut milk. I always like to add in some actual lemon grass as this bumps up the flavour. Maesri brand Thai curry spices are particularly good, and I think they are the best I’ve come across. They are a little hard to find, but you can always order the massaman curry on-line if they’re not available locally. Be aware that like all Thai spices not all are vegan & can contain fish paste though most are vegan
I find it best to make up the base sauce with the spices, coconut milk etc first. You can meanwhile sautee the other veggies in the Actifry and add them all at the same time. This approach works well with tofu or mock meats like Plant Pioneers vegan chickin chunks for instance. That way it’s easy to make sure the veggies aren’t overcooked and still retain some of their crunchiness and texture.
I often serve this Thai massaman & tofu curry with rice or cous cous. But I’ve also served it with smashed potatoes and pan fried polenta. It worked very well with all of them – especially with some freshly made hummus!
Thai Massaman Curry with veggies & Tofu
Ingredients
- 2 whole medium onions
- 4 cloves garlic sliced
- 40 g fresh ginger
- 2 sticks Celery
- 1 whole medium courgettes
- 2 whole medium peppers – 1 green & 1 red
- 2 whole medium carrots
- 8 whole baby corn
- 2 whole green finger chillies.
- 2 whole sticks of lemon grass
- 2 teasps level of veg stock
- 2 whole veg stock cubes
- 50 g of coconut cream 2 ice cubes worth
- 400 g can of coconut milk
- 10 whole Mange tout. optional
- 300 g of white mushrooms
- 400 g firm tofu
- 200 g mock chicken/duck
- 200 g Massaman Curry paste Thai Taste or Maesri
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce
- 3 teasps vegan fish sauce
- 3 teasps flat - palm sugar. so 4 may be 2 much – try it and check next time.
- 30 g of coriander
Instructions
- Slice the onions top to bottom
- begin to sauté on a low heat in a tablespoon of coconut oil
- Peel and slice the garlic, and add
- Chop the ginger finely and add
- Chop the celery in 1cm pieces and add
- add in the chillies
- When all is nice and soft, add the Thai massaman curry paste
- Stir well to distribute.
- add in the baby corn - it's not particularly critical when
- Add in the coconut milk, and creamed coconut or coconut cream
- add in the lemon grass sliced in half and chopped in thirds.
- Add around 400ml of water, the palm sugar, vegan fish sauce, stock powder, stock cubes, garlic & onion powder.
- While you’re doing this, carry on preparing the other veggies – washing, paring etc and chopping into roughly 2cm sized pieces. Saute in a separate pan or the actifry.
- Pan or Actifry all the veggies. I find the carrots and potatoes work well together in the Actifry – around 12 minutes, ditto the peppers and courgettes around 10 minutes.
- If you put the rice on 25 minutes before you think the curry dish will be finished, they should be ready together!
- Also cut up the tofu into 1 to 2 cm sized pieces and Actifry or pan fry with chilli sauce and some soya sauce.
- Also Actifry or pan fry the chicken substitute if you are using that.
- Put the veggies to one side in a bowl, and when the tofu and vegan chicken is done, you can add it to the pan – veggies first, then quickly followed by the tofu & “chicken”.
- then quickly followed by the tofu & “chicken”.
- It then needs around 10 minutes or so longer in the sauce to complete the cooking.
