This kid-friendly, mild vegan Thai green curry is made with familiar British vegetables and a creamy coconut sauce. Make your own green curry paste, or use your favorite store bought version for a quick and easy dinner option.
I absolutely love curries as a weeknight meal. It's quick and easy to make, comforting, and feeds many with little effort. Some other favorites include my chickpea and halloumi curry or Thai yellow curry with chicken. What I really like about this recipe is that it's packed with veggies. It's incredibly easy to adjust too. This way you can use your favorite vegetables, and it's a great leftover dish to empty the fridge.
My vegetable Thai green curry recipe is actually naturally vegan. Dishes like these are always great for people that are new to meatless or vegetarian cooking, because it's so packed with flavor and textures that you won't really miss the meat.
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How to make your own green curry paste
Making your own curry paste is actually really simple. Chop lemongrass, garlic, shallots, chili, ginger, fresh coriander and dry kaffir lime leaves roughly. Add to a food processor along with lime juice, soy sauce, cumin powder, and a little bit of oil. Process until finely chopped, or add more liquid if you want a completely smooth curry paste. Alternatively, if you don't have a food processor, you can very finely mince all the ingredients with a sharp knife.
It's your choice if you want to give making curry paste a go, of if you just want to buy a jar at the supermarket. Since I am a food blogger, I tend to keep a lot of these ingredients at hand, and it's therefore pretty easy for me to throw together. If you don't want to go out to buy a bunch of ingredients that you're not familiar with, just stick with the store bought version, it's absolutely fine and usually tastes great anyway.
How to make Thai green curry
In this recipe we use vegetables that need to be at least slightly cooked. I prefer to use a non-stick casserole dish with a lid. This allows you to saute the vegetables first, then add the lid and boil them until desired consistency in the liquid.
Start by heating some oil in the dish, and add diced aubergine. The aubergine needs to be pre-cooked until soft, otherwise the consistency and flavor will be off. When the aubergine has softened, add carrot, yellow pepper and broccoli. Stir and cook for a minute or two, then add coconut milk and curry paste. Cover with a lid and cook for a few more minutes. Then, add frozen spinach. Cook until the vegetables has reached the desired consistency. The dish takes 7-10 minutes to cook in total if you prefer your veggies slightly crunchy, or 15-18 minutes if you want them softer. I'm going for the happy middle and finish my curry in 12 minutes.
Vegetables for Thai green curry
You can of course choose to change the ingredients, or use different veg. Curries are perfect for leftovers! I would absolutely love these flavors with more peppers, cauliflower, mangetout, sugar snap peas, baby corn, mushrooms, pak choi, tofu, courgette, chickpeas and sweet potatoes. You could also add cooked meat, or vegetarian meat substitutes.
Tips for making the best vegan Thai green curry
- This curry is very mild, and therefore completely kid friendly. Thai curry tends to be quite spicy, but this is more of a British version of the dish. If you want a spicy version, double up the curry paste! Keep in mind that if you're using a store bought curry paste, the level of spice will vary between different brands, and you might want to be careful if you're worried about the dish being too hot. Just add a tablespoon at a time, and taste as you go.
- Most green curry recipes will ask you to cook the coconut milk and the curry paste for a while before adding the vegetables. This brings out more flavor from the curry paste, and you can do the same with this recipe. However, as the aubergine needs to be cooked before being added to the liquid, I prefer to do the veggies first, then add the liquid to the same pot. The green curry won't be as sharp, but it saves time and washing up!
What to serve with a vegan Thai green curry
Most Thai curries are served with either noodles or rice. If you want to be a bit more creative, you could try it with Cauliflower chicken fried rice, or Thai pineapple fried rice for a vegetarian option. For a light and refreshing alternative, try this Thai cucumber salad.
Storage
You can store this dish in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. You can also freeze and reheat leftover curry, but keep in mind that coconut milk tends to separate when thawed, so although it is perfectly safe to eat, it might be a bit gritty and look a bit funny.
Double the portion of curry paste, and freeze half of it until the next time you want to make a curry. You can then either thaw it beforehand, or even add it straight to your curry from frozen.
Vegan Thai green curry
Ingredients
Curry paste
- 2 green chilies seeds removed
- 2 stalks lemongrass remove the outer leaves, only use the soft middle
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 6 dry kaffir lime leaves
- 3 small shallots or 1.5 regular sized
- 2 cm piece of ginger
- some fresh coriander, stems included
- juice from ½ lime
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Curry
- 800 ml coconut milk 2 tins
- 2 carrots, sliced into thin discs
- 1 broccoli, cut into florets
- 1 aubergine, diced
- 1 yellow pepper
- 50 g frozen spinach
Optional
- 3 tablespoon curry paste unless making the one above
- rice or noodles, to serve
- fresh coriander, lime and chili, to serve
Instructions
- Peel and roughly chop all ingredients for the curry paste. Add to a food processor, and process until very finely minced or smooth. Set aside for later.
- In a large pot, heat up a teaspoon of water or oil, and add diced aubergine. Cook for a few minutes until it softens.
- Add carrots, yellow onion and broccoli. Stir to combine and sautee for 2 minutes, until the vegetables have warmed slightly.
- Pour coconut milk over the vegetables, and add the curry paste. Cover with a lid, and leave to cook for a few minutes. Taste the sauce, and add salt, pepper or more curry paste if necessary. Add the frozen spinach.
- Cook until the vegetables have reached your desired texture. It will need about 4-5 minutes if you want your vegetables a bit crunchy, or about 12 minutes if you want them all really soft and mushy. It's up to your preference!
- Serve with cooked rice or noodles
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