Traditional Vegan Thai Curry Recipes From Scratch

I took a cooking class at The Thai Farm Cooking School in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. The main reasons why I picked this specific school over all the other ones is because they offered the opportunity to veganized everything on the menu and because their farm is fully organic. I had an amazing day, made all of the vegan Thai curry recipe, and met tons of other fun, food-loving travellers! I can’t recommend this day out enough if you happen to be in Chiang Mai.

I just wanted to share some of the veg thai curry recipe I made. For a start, here are the recipes for the three best known Thai curry paste: green, red and yellow. All of those make for a medium spicy curry, so adjust the chillies according to your taste. I do like it hot personally 🙂 These can be made with either just veggies, or you can add tofu or tempeh if you are so inclined (although it’s not very Thai at this point anymore!) These recipes are all adapted from The Chiang Mai Thai Farm Cooking School. Some ingredients might be difficult to find so I’ve added substitutions, but you’d be surprised what you can find in Asian supermarkets. Try having these seitan satay as a side!

If you’re reading this while in Chiang Mai, make sure to check out my Vegan Chiang Mai Guide.

Vegan Thai Curry Recipes

 Vegan Thai Green Curry Paste

2-3 long chillies
1 tbsp. chopped shallots
1 tsp. chopped galangal (subs. with ginger)
1/2 tsp. chopped kaffir lime rind (subs. with lemon or lime)
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tbsp. chopped lemongrass
1 tbsp. chopped krachai (Thai ginseng) (subs. with ginger)
1/4 tsp. roasted cumin seeds
1/4 tsp. roasted coriander seeds
1/4 tsp. salt

Vegan Red Thai Curry Paste

2-3 red dried chillies (soak in cold water about 15 minutes before using)
1 tbsp. chopped shallots
1 tsp. chopped galangal (subs. with ginger)
1/2 tsp. chopped kaffir lime rind (subs. with lemon or lime rind)
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tbsp. chopped lemongrass
1 tbsp. chopped krachai (Thai ginseng) (subs. with ginger)
1/4 tsp. roasted cumin seeds
1/4 tsp. roasted coriander seeds
1/4 tsp. salt

Vegan Yellow Thai Curry Paste

3 red dried chillies (soak in cold water about 15 minutes before using)
1 tbsp. chopped shallots
1 tsp. chopped galangal (subs. with ginger)
1 tbsp. chopped lemongrass
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/4 tsp. roasted cumin seeds
1/4 tsp. roasted coriander seeds
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. yellow curry powder
1 tsp. chopped ginger
1/4 tsp. salt

Other ingredients

2 cups mixed veggies (eggplant (I prefer thai eggplants, but any type will do), squash, cauliflower, broccoli, baby corn, carrot, potato, etc!)
1/3 cup sliced onion
1/2 cup tofu or tempeh (optional)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp. soy sauce
3 kaffir lime leaves (subs. lemon or lime rind)
2 stems sweet basil (horapaa)
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup water

Preparation of the curry paste

Put the ingredients in the mortar and pound until everything is mixed and ground thoroughly into a paste. Alternatively, you can use the blender. Set aside.

Preparation of the vegan Thai curry recipe

Pour the coconut milk in the pot and turn onto medium heat. Stir until oil appears. Add green curry paste, tofu, vegetables, water, sugar, soy sauce and salt and turn the heat up. Stir a little, When everything is cooked, put the sweet basil and lime leaves in.

The traditional Thai curry is quite soupy – a lot more liquid than what we are used to in the West. Enjoy! Ladle on top of plain Basmati rice, or, my favourite, mop it up with sticky rice!

What’s your favourite vegan thai curry recipe?