Red Thai curry

I'm having a relaxing long weekend. I already had yesterday off from work, and today as well. It will be nice to just potter around at home and go to town a bit. Today it's sunny, even though rain was originally forecast, so I think that we will pop over to the street food market today.

Today's recipe is one of my favourites: Red Thai curry with tofu. It's of course a vegan dish, served with sticky jasmine rice on the side. Find my recipe below.

Red Thai curry

Ingredients

200 g tofu

2 onions

1 red romano pepper

2 carrots

2 tomatoes

3 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp palm sugar

1 tbsp miso

¼ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

2 bay leaves

400 ml coconut milk

3 tbsp tomato purée

1 lime

Fresh coriander

1 cup jasmine rice

Method

Cut the tofu into cubes and fry them in a hot pan in oil until they have a crispy and golden brown surface. Set them to side.

Chop the onions, pepper, carrots, tomatoes, garlic and chilli.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan and start cooking the onion until it's soft. Then add the other veggies, garlic and chilli, and cook for a few minutes.

Add the seasoning and the coconut milk, and let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely. Season to taste. Then also add the fried tofu to the mix.

Cook the rice and serve the red Thai curry with it.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Thai noodles

I hope that you all had a nice festive period and are now ready to return to the normal routines and start the new year. I've already been working for three days this week, and it was okay, but now I'm still happy to have this relaxing weekend. It's fairly sunny today, but also a bit chilly, so it's a perfect weather for January.

So how many of you are having Veganuary? I'm not taking part myself, because I have too much cheese left from the Christmas period, but I admire everyone who takes this challenge. There is also a dry January, which I have sometimes done, but I'm not doing it this year. I'm happy to see these initiatives to be quite popular though. I will try to be more healthy and frugal in January otherwise.

I recently made these Thai noodles just as a change to my usual Thai curries with jasmine rice. I used soya spaghetti as the noodles and fennel and red bell pepper as the veggies. It's basically one of my golden Thai curries, but with noodles instead of rice. It was a really nice vegan meal.

Thai noodles

Ingredients

250 g tofu

1 fennel bulb

1 red bell pepper

1 onion

2 cm fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

Vegetable oil

2 tbsp white miso

2 tbsp tomato purée

2 tsp palm sugar

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 vegetable stock cube

1 lime

1 can coconut milk

Soya spaghetti

Method

Chop the tofu into cubes and fry them in vegetable oil. Set them to side and mix them into the curry towards the end.

Also cook the noodles, cool them down and set them to side. They will also be added to the mix later.

Chop the fennel and bell pepper. Also chop the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli finely and start cooking them in a pan until soft.

Add the fennel and bell pepper and fry them for a while. Then add the seasoning and stir it in.

Add the coconut milk and let the curry simmer until the flavours have blended nicely. Add any more of the seasoning to taste.

Add the noodles and tofu to the mix and heat through.

Serve and enjoy!

Have a really nice weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Thai curry with fennel and beetroot tofu

Remember that beetroot tofu I bought in Finland? Well, now dish number one has been made with it. I had two tofu steaks, so I can still cook something else with the other one. It was a really nice firm tofu with a subtle hint of beetroot, and it really added a nice splash of colour on top of that vegan Thai curry. There were some small chunks of beetroot inside of that tofu as well.

I made my pretty basic golden Thai curry with fennel and carrots. I used fresh turmeric for the first time, which was interesting. I think that I'll be buying it much more now. I didn't even manage to colour my whole kitchen yellow with it.

I'm looking forward to more colourful bowls of food towards the spring and summer. Yesterday I saw the first local asparagus appearing on the market. I can't wait to cook with it. 

Thai curry with fennel and beetroot tofu

Ingredients for the curry paste

1 red chilli

1 cloveless garlic

2 cm fresh turmeric

2 cm fresh ginger

1 tomato

1 lemongrass stalk

1 lime's juice

2 tbsp white miso

2 tsp palm sugar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 vegetable stock cube

Other ingredients

125 g beetroot tofu

1 onion

1 fennel bulb

2 carrots

Vegetable oil for frying

400 ml/1 can coconut milk

1 cup Jasmine rice

Method

Make the curry paste first by puréeing all paste ingredients into a smooth paste.

Chop the fennel, carrots and onion.

Cook the onion in vegetable oil until softened, then add the fennel and carrots to the pan.

After a while of cooking, also add the curry paste.

Cook for a couple of minutes, and then add the coconut milk.

Let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Cook the jasmine rice.

Cut the tofu into generous chunks and fry them in vegetable oil.

Serve the curry with the tofu chunks on top and with the rice. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Thai curry with spinach and tofu

How has your week been? It's been quite busy over here, and the weather is still very variable. Last night we had -6 C again, and there is a fierce cold wind out there. It's not quite spring weather yet. I'm fine with this freshness as long as I remember to put enough clothes on. We are heading to town soon, just for a stroll and grocery shopping. Perhaps we will stop by a local brewery on the opposite island for a new beer release and then take the waterbus back home.

Now to this dish. I actually meant to make a golden Thai curry (like this one), but I added slightly too much tomato purée, so the result looked like this, it became a dark red curry. Nevertheless it was very tasty and filling, and this kind of curries are surprisingly easy to make. Have a look below how I made mine. It's all vegan of course.

Thai curry with spinach and tofu

Ingredients

Curry paste

2 cm fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves

2 red chillies

1 lemongrass stalk

1 lime's juice

2 tbsp white miso

2 tbsp tomato purée

2 tsp palm sugar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbsp vegetable stock

Other ingredients

200 g tofu

2 carrots

1 large onion

Vegetable oil for frying

400 ml/1 can coconut milk

1 cup jasmine rice

200 g spinach

Thai basil

Method

Make the curry paste first by puréeing all paste ingredients together into a smooth paste.

Cut the tofu into generous chunks and fry them in vegetable oil until they are golden brown and firm on the outside. Set to side.

Chop the carrots and the onion.

Cook the onion in vegetable oil until softened, then add the carrots to the pan, and after a while the curry paste.

Cook for a couple of minutes, and then add the coconut milk.

Let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Cook the jasmine rice.

Mix the coarsely chopped fresh spinach into the curry just before serving.

Serve the curry with the rice and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Green and golden Thai curry

I'm so happy that I got a "proper" meal cooked for a change. I made a vegan Thai curry, because I just love them, and this one was quite comforting again.

I found some beautiful colourful heritage carrots in the vegetable market, and also bought the other fresh ingredients for this curry there. It's so much fun shopping at a proper vegetable market, but also a bit dangerous, because I want to buy everything around!

This was my first time frying tofu on a gas stove, and it was a great experience (I'm very easily entertained). I got it just the way I wanted, and fast! I also managed to find just the right kind of tofu in the shop. They sometimes come in glass jars in Denmark, which is a bit weird, but this one was in a "normal" packet.

Green and golden Thai curry

Ingredients

Curry paste

2 cloveless garlic
2 red chillies
2 cm fresh ginger
1 lime's juice and a little bit of the zest
1 tbsp white miso
1 tbsp tomato purée
3 tbsp vegetable stock powder
2 tsp palm sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 ½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground cinnamon

Other ingredients

250 g tofu
2 fresh onions with stalks
5 yellow, red and purple heritage carrots
1 pak choi
2 tbsp vegetable oil
400 ml coconut milk
1 cup jasmine rice

Method

Make the golden curry paste by puréeing all paste ingredients together into a smooth paste.

Cut the tofu into generous chunks and fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown and firm on the outside.

Slice the carrots and coarsely chop the onion.

Cook the onion in vegetable oil until softened, then add the carrots to the pan, and after a while the curry paste.

Cook for a couple of minutes, add the coconut milk and let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely. Taste and add any seasoning, if needed.

Cook the jasmine rice.

Slice the pak choi and add it to the curry just a couple of minutes before serving. I also added the green onion stalks at this point.

Serve the curry together with the rice and enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with this month's Eat Your Greens hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen. You all still have a few days time to take part in the challenge, if you have cooked with greens.

Your VegHog

Golden Thai curry

I recently ate a golden curry at a local Thai restaurant, and instantly fell in love with the dish. It was so good, containing different veggies, tofu and spicy coconut milk broth, just wonderful! I've previously only had green and red Thai curries, and obviously love them, but this was one step up.

Therefore I wanted to try to make a golden Thai curry myself, and I must say that my own one was almost better than the one in the restaurant! Well, that may not be true, but I'm sure that this recipe will become a household favourite of ours. I thought that the crinkle cut butternut squash chips also added a nice touch. I so want a crinkle cutter now to make all vegetables that shape! 

Golden Thai curry

Ingredients

Golden curry paste

2 lemongrass stalks

2 cm fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves

2 red chillies

1 lime's juice

1 tbsp white miso

1 tbsp tomato purée

2 tsp palm sugar

1 tsp white pepper

½ tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbsp vegetable stock

Other ingredients

280 g tofu

300 g crinkle cut butternut chips

2 carrots

1 large onion

Vegetable oil

400 ml coconut milk

1 cup jasmine rice

Method

Make the golden curry paste by puréeing all paste ingredients together into a smooth paste.

Cut the tofu into generous chunks and fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown and firm on the outside.

Cut the carrots into about 2 cm long sticks and coarsely chop the onion.

Cook the onion in vegetable oil until softened, then add the carrots to the pan, and after a while the curry paste.

Cook for a couple of minutes, add the coconut milk and let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Bake the butternut squash chips in the oven until done and add them to the curry.

Cook the jasmine rice and serve together with the curry and enjoy!

I want to share this dish with Jacqueline's cooking challenge Meat Free Mondays for the National Vegetarian Week.

Your VegHog

Fennel and cauliflower Thai curry

After the festive season I mainly want to eat clean and light food, which is often vegan. I also appreciate international flavours very much after the typical roast dinners. I'm sure I'll have more roasts again, if the weather gets seriously cool over here. However yesterday I made a nice fragrant vegan Thai curry to celebrate the long weekend off work. It was a lovely dish and I had the rest of it for lunch today.

Can you believe it that I used fennel in my cooking for the first time? I have of course eaten it sometimes, but it just isn't something I grew up with, so I never bought it. I was inspired to make this dish, after I saw Shaheen's gorgeous recipe for a Green Coconut Soup with Fennel. It looked so nice that I simply had to buy some fennel and try cooking with it.

I thought that fennel would be nice in a Thai style green curry together with cauliflower. I added spinach and broad beans as additional greens and protein. Before I started cooking, I consulted the internet a bit, and found this video: How to cut fennel. That guy surely knows his fennel! So after all of this, I managed to cut and cook my fennel just fine. I was quite keen on it, so there may be many more fennel dishes.

Fennel and cauliflower Thai curry

Ingredients

Thai green curry paste

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

2 cm fresh ginger

1 large green chilli

Bunch of fresh coriander

½ lime's juice

2 kaffir lime leaves

Other ingredients

1 small cauliflower

1 fennel

2 tbsp vegetable oil

50 g spinach

160 ml coconut cream

½ cup frozen broad beans

2 dried lemongrass stalks

Fresh coriander

1 cup jasmine rice

Method

Purée the ingredients for the curry paste.

Slice the cauliflower and fennel.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan and start cooking the sliced cauliflower and fennel. Cook them until they get slightly browned and softer.

Then add the curry paste to the pan and cook for a few minutes more. Also add the frozen broad beans and soon after the coconut cream and the lemongrass stalks. Remove the lemongrass stalks before serving.

Let simmer until everything is cooked nicely.

Cook the rice to serve on the side.

Add the spinach and fresh coriander to the curry just before serving.

Enjoy!

This recipe is my Eat Your Greens entry for January. Shaheen is hosting the event this month.

Your VegHog

Pulled oats with Thai flavours

Last month I wrote about a new Finnish protein product, Nyhtökaura – Pulled Oats, and now I have another vegan recipe to share with you that was made with the kaffir lime, sesame and ginger flavoured Pulled Oats. I made a Thai green curry type of a paste with nice coconut creamy jasmine rice on the side and added some carrots and spring onions to the dish. This was a very good dish, the Pulled Oats got the seasoning they needed and I really liked the rice with it. I only wish I could have the Pulled Oats more often. Maybe next time at Christmas.

Ingredients

Paste

2 garlic cloves

1 large green chilli

2 cm fresh ginger

3-5 kaffir lime leaves

Handful of Thai basil leaves

Handful of coriander leaves

Other ingredients

2 carrots

3 spring onions

1 onion

250 g Pulled Oats with kaffir lime, sesame and ginger flavour

Splash of soy sauce

Vegetable oil for frying

1 cup jasmine rice

160 ml coconut cream

1 garlic clove

0,5 cm fresh ginger

2 dried lemongrass stalks

1 tsp palm sugar

0,5 cups cashew nuts

Method

Grind the paste ingredients into a smooth paste.

Cut the carrots into short sticks and the spring onions into rings. Chop the onion finely.

Start cooking the carrots, spring onion and onion in a hot pan. After a while add the Pulled Oats and soy sauce. Finally add the green curry paste and cook some more.

Cook the rice and in a separate pan infuse the coconut cream with the finely chopped garlic and ginger by simmering at low heat. Also add the lemongrass stalks, palm sugar and coarsely chopped cashew nuts. Remove the lemongrass stalks before serving.

Serve the Pulled Oats and vegetables with the rice and enjoy.

Your VegHog

Thai red lentil soup

I made a warming yet summery light vegan red lentil soup with Thai flavours. The recipe is from Yotam Ottolanghi's vegetarian cookbook Plenty More (p. 100-101) and it has also been published in an older Guardian article The new vegetarian: Thai red lentil soup. In the recipe in the book there's an addition of aromatic homemade chilli oil as finish on the soup, which makes such a warming and nice addition. There are also crunchy sugar snap peas on the top of the soup to add a different texture to it and to make it more interesting. I made my own red curry paste for this soup (similar to this one). 

The soup recipe on the web page is pretty much the same as in the book, so I am not going to repeat it here, but I will write the chilli oil ingredients below, as I think that it can make a wonderful addition to many dishes.

Chilli-infused oil

180 ml sunflower oil

1 shallot

1 garlic clove

1 tsp ginger

½ red chilli

½ star anise

2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp tomato purée

Zest of ½ lemon

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the finely chopped shallot, garlic, ginger, chilli, star anise and curry powder and fry at low heat for five minutes.

Add the tomato purée, the remaining oil and lemon zest. Simmer for 30 minutes. Let cool and strain through a muslin.

As this dish is quite legume-centric I would like to share this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #96 June Edition 2016 hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Have a good weekend all!

Your VegHog

Thai red curry with tofu and coquina squash

Are you all having a nice and relaxing Sunday? I certainly hope so. I've been a bit stressed at times today, trying to plant things on the balcony, cooking, dreading tomorrow's working day etc, but it's not that bad. Now I've sat down with a can of craft cider and am planning to chill for the rest of the evening. I also wanted to share a vegan recipe still with you tonight.

Thai red curry with tofu, what a wonderful wonderful thing! I just love it and now made one myself.

I used red bell peppers, carrots and a coquina squash as vegetables in this curry and it was a very nice combination with the fragrant Thai red curry paste. Then the chewy tofu, coconut cream and fresh coriander, ah just beautiful. Here's my recipe.

Thai red curry paste:

2 onions

4 cloves garlic

2 large red chillies

1 cm fresh ginger

3 kaffir lime leaves

1 lemongrass stalk

Juice of ½ lime

Pinch of smoked paprika

Pinch of ground turmeric

Handful of Thai basil

Handful of fresh coriander

Other curry ingredients:

250 g tofu

1+1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 red bell pepper

1 small coquina squash or ½ of a large one

2 purple carrots

1 tsp palm sugar

160 ml coconut cream

2 tsp vegetable stock powder

Thai basil to taste

Fresh coriander to taste

Soy sauce to taste

1 cup jasmine rice

Method:

Make the Thai red curry paste first by puréeing the paste ingredients together.

Cut the tofu into chunky cubes and fry them in hot vegetable oil until firm.

Chop also the vegetables into cubes and start cooking them in vegetable oil.

Add the palm sugar and the red curry paste and keep cooking for a few minutes more.

Add the coconut cream, lemongrass stalks, vegetable stock powder and let simmer until the vegetables are cooked nicely.

Season the curry with soy sauce, Thai basil and coriander to taste. Also sprinkle some more lime juice on the top, if needed.

Cook the jasmine rice and serve it together with the curry.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Thai rice with spiced cashews

It's time for the final post for The VegHog's Cheap Eats Week. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a cheapskate for a week and it has been nice to have a theme week again after a while. I hope that I was able to give a couple of tips how to cook economically and I thank you for all your comments.

In the beginning of the week I promised you one recipe from the cookbook for budget vegetarian cooking Veggienomics by Nicola Graimes. This is a recipe for a Thai rice with spiced cashews (p. 80) and I'm posting here my slightly altered version. I just had to add spice infused coconut cream, as it made such a lovely addition to this. I guess this recipe only becomes cheaper, if you already have some of the sauces and spices in your basic larder.

I halved or reduced the ingredient amounts a little, as was only cooking for two.

Ingredients

Thai rice

200 g Thai jasmine rice

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 spring onions

1 pak choi

1 lemongrass stalk

1 red chilli

3 garlic cloves

Fresh ginger (similar amount to garlic)

1 tbsp soy sauce

Juice of ½ lime

½ tsp palm sugar

Fresh Thai basil leaves

Cook the rice. It will be added to the pan later for frying, so it can cool down in the meanwhile.

Chop the spring onions and pak choi. Chop the lemongrass, chilli, garlic and ginger finely.

Start cooking the chilli, garlic, ginger and lemongrass in oil.

After they have softened add the spring onions and pak choi. Only stir fry these briefly and then add the rice and soy sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and fresh Thai basil.

Spiced cashews

50 g cashew nuts

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

½ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp chilli flakes

Sprinkle of lime zest

Pinch of black pepper

Pinch of salt

Pinch of palm sugar

Toast the cashews in the oven until browned slightly.

Mix the dry ingredients for the coating and then add the lime zest, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Coat the cashews with the spice mix and return to the oven for a few minutes.

Serve the cashews with the rice.

I made my own addition, a coconut cream sauce with Thai spices, on the side by using a little of the garlic, ginger, chilli, lemongrass, Thai basil and spring onion chopped for the rice and letting it slowly simmer and infuse with the flavours. In the end I poured it onto the rice.

Have a nice week!

Your VegHog

Harlequin squash, lentil and carrot soup with Thai flavours

I really adore spicy Thai flavours in a soup (and other dishes!) and felt like it was time to cook such a soup again. It has still been fairly chilly here, which is weird, as it's soon March. Well I'm not complaining, because I still have the excuse to cook wonderful winter food.

So I have made similar soups to this many times, but once again I altered the recipe slightly. I used harlequin squash as the main ingredient, but also added carrots and red lentils to the soup to give it a bit more substance. This was such a comforting soup also due to the fragrant fresh Thai basil and coriander and here's how it was made.

Ingredients

2 onions

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 red chillies

4 garlic cloves

2 cm ginger (roughly same amount as garlic)

1 harlequin squash

1 l vegetable stock

½ cup red lentils

4 carrots

1 lemongrass stalk

3 kaffir lime leaves

160 ml coconut cream

Juice of ½ lime

Soy sauce to taste

1 tsp palm sugar

Handful of Thai basil

Handful of fresh coriander

Method

Chop the onions and cook in vegetable oil until they are soft.

Add the finely chopped garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for about one minute more.

Cut the harlequin squash into cubes and the carrots into slices and add them into the pan.

Sauté them for a while and then add the vegetable stock followed by the lentils.

Add the finely chopped lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.

Let the soup simmer under the lid at moderate heat.

After a while also add the coconut cream into the soup.

Season the soup with lime juice, soy sauce and palm sugar.

Chop fresh coriander and Thai basil and add them to the pan towards the end.

Once the squash, carrots and lentils are soft, purée the soup and taste if any more seasoning needs to be added.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Your VegHog