This homemade green curry paste is bursting with flavor from fresh lemongrass, green chilis, galangal, and Makrut lime leaves. These fragrant, authentic seasonings make it possible to have restaurant-style Vegan Thai Green Curry at home. The best part is you can make your green curry paste as mild or spicy as you like, and it will still infuse your recipes with intense deliciousness.
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🏆 Top tip
Smash the bulb end of lemongrass to release natural oils before mincing it.
⭐ Why it works
- Vibrant green - color from all-natural ingredients.
- Recipe ready - shallots and garlic are sauteed before grinding the curry paste, so you won't need to cook off the sharp raw onion taste before using it in recipes.
- Freshness - off the charts. Full and aromatic seasoning.
- Vegan fish sauce - takes the place of dried shrimp for true Southeast Asian flavor.
- Blends - easily in all sorts of recipes.
- Freezer friendly - use right away and store extra in the freezer for easy meals.
📋 Ingredients
- Lemongrass - is a must for its unique citrusy taste and full aroma.
- Shallots - are sometimes called baby onions and go by different names in different regions. Look for small, golden, or grey to pink-colored oval alliums with dry papery skins.
- Makrut lime leaves - have an amazing floral taste and have no substitute. Look for fresh or frozen leaves, sometimes called kaffir lime, in large grocery stores and Asian or farmers' markets. Omit if necessary.
- Lime zest - Fresh Makrut lime peel is magic! Substitute plain lime peel if you aren't able to find Makrut peel.
- Galangal - is also hard to substitute. However, if you must, use ginger root.
- Cilantro - bunches with roots still attached are a plus, be sure to include them.
- Vegan fish sauce - makes a big difference in the authentic taste of this vegan green curry paste.
- Green chili - start with jalapeno and substitute with sweet green pepper for the mildest recipe or hotter green chilis for fiery Thai curry paste. All add beautiful color.
- Dry spices - add depth, complexity, and even more aroma to the curry paste recipe.
🔪 Steps
- Slice garlic and chop shallots finely.
- Saute shallots and garlic to cook off their raw taste.
- Mince lemongrass, zest lime peel, and slice galangal and Makrut leaves.
- Blend prepared ingredients with peppers of choice and the remaining seasonings.
🥄 Why Homemade
It's understandable if you are questioning why to make green curry paste from scratch when there are a wide variety of products available at the store. But let me explain why I always make enough to freeze some for later.
Simply put, the difference in taste between this vivid green condiment and the dull seasonings vacuum-packed in jars or tins is night and day.
Plus, being able to decide for yourself how mild or spicy you want your finished vegan green curry paste to be makes this easy recipe so worthwhile.
🌱 What is galangal?
Galangal is used as a root spice and is an essential ingredient in authentic Southeast Asian cuisine. It comes from the same plant family as ginger and turmeric but has reddish brown skin and whiter flesh.
It has a crisp texture when young and can be fibrous and harder to cut than its cousins when it's older. However, its special qualities in the kitchen make up for any extra work peeling or slicing it.
To me, galangal is more intense aromatically than ginger. At the same time, its flavor with hints of citrus and pine is more flowery and less bitter than ginger.
I look at it this way. You can substitute raisins for chocolate chips in a cookie recipe. The raisins may be good, but they won't make chocolate chip cookies. So do yourself a favor and find galangal whenever you can.
🌶 Choosing chilis
This is really the fun part of the recipe. Tailor the heat to your palate by choosing the variety of peppers and including the seeds or not.
Here's a guideline to help you decide. This range will take you all the way from basically no heat at all to forehead-sweating, fiery, green curry paste.
- Extra mild- Use sweet green bell peppers exclusively.
- Mild - Use jalapeno peppers but remove the seeds first.
- Medium spicy - Use Serrano peppers and include the seeds.
- Spicy - Use 2 parts Serrano peppers and one part Thai green chilis.
- Extra spicy - Use as much Thai green chili as you like and include all the seeds.
🍲 How to use
The obvious benefit of fresh vegan green curry paste is being able to make stunning Vegan Thai Green Curry at home. But there are a number of additional uses for this delicious, colorful seasoning. Here are just a few suggestions:
- Fried rice - The simplest rice fried in a little oil with or without vegetables is so tasty with a spoon of green curry paste stirred in at the end.
- Soup - Coconut-based, creamy, and noodle soups take on a real kick with a small spoonful swirled on top.
- Stir-fry - Replace your usual sauce and invent a whole new meal by thinning this paste with broth or coconut milk and adding it at the end.
- Collard wraps - Spread it as is inside a wrap with baby corn, shredded carrot, shiitake mushrooms, and seasoned tofu.
- Dynamite dip - Use as a dipping sauce for vegan mock chicken served with rice.
👩🏻🍳 Expert tips
- Galangal leaf - If you have it available, add galangal leaf as listed in the recipe card for even brighter color and fragrance.
- Lemongrass - Full instructions are in the recipe card on prepping this essential herb before grinding the recipe.
- Green chilis - Use the guideline above in this post and in the recipe card to select the variety of peppers just right for your palate.
- Blend - thoroughly in a high-speed machine like a Vitamix or powerful blender with sharp blades. You want the finished recipe to be soft and smooth without coarse bits.
- Freeze - I recommend freezing any paste you don't use right away in an ice cube tray with a lid or small containers. Then it's a breeze pulling out just what you need for future meals.
💭 FAQ
Historically in Thailand, the green curry was always hotter, especially in the southern regions due to the inclusion of fiery Birds Eye chilis. Now that curries have become popular in restaurants worldwide, there isn't a rule of thumb that makes red or green curry consistently hotter. Instead, both red and green curry can be made more or less spicy by incorporating different varieties of chilis and adjusting the amount. Thai restaurants will often give guests a choice on how spicy their curry is, whether it is red or green.
Green curry paste is traditionally made with green chilis, shrimp paste, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, peppercorns, Makrut lime leaves, lime zest, cumin seeds, and dry spices. All the ingredients are naturally vegan except shrimp paste which can be left out or, better yet, substituted with vegan fish sauce.
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Green Curry Paste - Mild or Hot
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tsp. oil neutral-tasting
- 1 cup shallots finely chopped
- 2 TB garlic sliced
- ¼ cup lemon grass finely minced
- 2 TB galangal
- 2 TB fresh galangal leaf sliced, optional
- 4 TB Makrut lime leaves formerly called kaffir
- 1 tsp. Makrut lime zest or substitute plain lime zest
- 1 TB coriander seed
- 1 tsp. cumin seed
- ½ tsp. ground white pepper
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 cup cilantro leaves chopped with stems
- 2 TB vegan fish sauce
- ½ cup green peppers sweet bell, jalapeno, Serrano, or Thai as desired
Instructions
Prep garlic and shallots
- Chop shallots into fine dice and slice the garlic.
Fry garlic and shallots
- Heat oil in a small pan over medium heat. Saute shallots and garlic until softened and no longer raw, about 5 minutes. Don't let the mixture brown. You just want to cook off the sharp, raw flavor and bring out the sweetness of the garlic and shallots.
Prep lemongrass
- Take stalks of lemongrass and slice off both ends to leave 4-inch sections. Slice a thin slit lengthwise down the stalk and peel away the tough outer layers. Smash the bulb end of the lemongrass to release aromatic oils and mince the entire piece to a fine texture.
Prep Makrut leaves, lime zest, galangal and peppers or chilis
- Peel galangal and slice it thin along with the Marut leaves. Zest the peel of Makrut lime or plain lime. Chop your selected peppers coarsely and remove the seeds if desired. Leave the seeds in Thai peppers and use them whole.
Make green curry paste
- Place all the prepped ingredients in a high-speed blender with the remaining dry spices, cilantro, and vegan fish sauce.
- Process in a powerful blender until very smooth and soft.
Store
- Freshly made vegan green curry paste is best used right away but lasts for 3 days in a covered container in the refrigerator.
Freezing
- This vegan recipe freezes beautifully. I like to transfer it to an ice cube tray with a cover just after it's made. Then it freezes into handy portions for future use.
Notes
- Extra mild- Use sweet green bell peppers exclusively.
- Mild - Use jalapeno peppers but remove the seeds first.
- Medium spicy - Use Serrano peppers and include the seeds.
- Spicy - Use 2 parts Serrano peppers and one part Thai green chilis.
- Extra spicy - Use as much Thai green chili as you like and include all the seeds.
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