Thai Yellow Curry with Tofu

I love curry and this Thai yellow curry with tofu is no exception. To be fair it’s more orange than yellow, but it’s definitely not red or green! I generally use a prepared shop bought paste for Thai curries Maesri being the best brand I’ve found. This is because the ingredients can be hard to source, and there’s little benefit in terms of taste. I find it’s better to improve the overall result by adding fresh ginger, lemon grass, vegan fish sauce and palm sugar.

So I start off with a base of onions, ginger, garlic, celery & chillies, to saute. Then it’s add the paste for a short saute. After that, followed on by the coconut milk and some extra water, and simmer that gently. At that point, you can add the lemon grass cut in half, the vegan fish sauce, stocks, onion powder, and palm sugar etc.

Meanwhile, I either pan fry or actifry the other veggies in batches to add to the sauce when it’s nicely cooked. Doing it that way, helps to make sure the veggies aren’t overcooked, and speeds up the whole process. It does add a little extra oil, but if you use an Actifry, the added oil is minimal. Veggies that work well: carrots, baby sweetcorn, yellow or orange peppers, yellow courgettes, white mushrooms, baby potatoes, water chestnuts etc.

Pan frying or Actifrying the tofu and any meat substitute, like vegan chicken chunks in the Actifry is a good plan also. The Plant Pioneers or Linda McCartney chicken substitute work the best as well as “This isn’t Chicken“. I haven’t tried tempeh, because I think it would be too heavy for a Thai yellow curry – particularly a light yellow curry.

Once all the veggies etc are sufficiently cooked and the sauce is nicely integrated, the rest can all be added. Adjust the water content so that it’s reasonably liquid, but not overly so. Then it’s just a  case of a quick simmer to finish the veggies off, add some corriander and serve. I like it with brown rice or whole meal cous cous.

Thai Yellow Curry with Tofu

a traditional Thai curry, but with tofu & vegan chicken substituted for the meat. This uses shop bought paste, but improved with some extra ingredients to boost the flavour.

5 from 1 vote

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Servings 8 people minimum

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 20 g coconut oil can use rapeseed also but coconut is best
• 2 medium onions – cook in large pan with oil.
• 30 g fresh ginger finely chopped a good thumb sized piece
• 5 cloves garlic approx 25g
• 2 sticks celery
• 3 whole finger chillies finger chillies are generally consistent & so easy to judge. You can add 1 or 2 more if you like it hotter
• 200 g yellow curry paste I prefer the Maesri brand
• 400 g coconut milk = one standard can. use full fat
• 50 g coconut cream or creamed coconut 2 ice cubes worth if frozen
• 2 sticks of lemon grass Thai or oriental mini-market
• 2 teasps vegan fish sauce Thai Taste do one
• 1` tbsp palm sugar
• 2 level teaspoons of veg stock
• 2 low salt veg stock cubes
• 1 teasp of garlic powder. optional but adds body
• 1 teasp onion powder optional but adds body
• 2 whole medium carrots – actifry for 8 mins
• 200 g baby waxy potatoes
• 2 medium orange or yellow pepper red or yellow peppers – actifry for 8 mins
• 2 medium yellow courgettes - actifry for 8 mins
• 250 g white mushrooms 1 pack generally - optional ingredient
• 1 500g cartons of tofu firm tofu.
• 150 g baby sweetcorn
• 1 tin of bamboo shoots or water chesnuts
• 30 g corriander` usually a small bag or bunch

Instructions

 

• Slice the onions top to bottom and 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 curry paste
  
• Stir well to distribute.
  
• Add in the coconut milk, and creamed coconut or coconut cream plus the lemon grass sliced in half and chopped in thirds.
  
• Addin the lemon grass cut in half and then 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.
• 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!
• Now is a good time to put the baby corn into the sauce – cut into 3 pieces –– it want’s around 20 minutes total in the sauce to be tender but not over cooked.
• 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”.
  
• It then needs around 10 minutes or so longer in the sauce to complete the cooking.
  

Keyword Tofu,, coconut cream, vegan, savoury, healthy, pretty, tasty, colourful, coconut milk, courgettes, celery

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