Thai Green Curry with Spring Vegetables
This Thai Green Curry with Spring Vegetables is a delicious and healthy dish that is perfect for a weeknight meal. The curry is made with a flavorful green curry paste, coconut milk, and fresh spring vegetables, and it is served over brown basmati rice.
This Thai Green Curry with Spring Vegetables is a delicious and healthy dish that is perfect for a weeknight meal. The curry is made with a flavorful green curry paste, coconut milk, and fresh spring vegetables, and it is served over brown basmati rice.
- 1/2 cup water
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup brown basmati rice rinsed
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil or olive oil
- 1 small white onion diced
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger (about a 1-inch nub peeled and chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1/2 bunch asparagus tough ends removed and sliced into 2-inch long pieces (to yield about 2 cups of prepared asparagus)
- 3 carrots peeled and sliced on the diagonal into 1/4-inch wide rounds (to yield about 1 cup sliced carrots)
- 2 tablespoons thai green curry paste
- 1 can (14 ounces) coconut milk (i used full-fat coconut milk)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons coconut sugar or turbinado (raw) sugar or brown sugar
- 2 cups packed baby spinach roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce* (i used reduced-sodium tamari)
- garnishes: handful of chopped fresh cilantro and red pepper flakes, to taste
- Carbohydrate 94.95798248625 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 3.19309713875 g
- Fiber 10.2306998689995 g
- Protein 12.88039754375 g
- Saturated Fat 0.65388404625 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (464g)
- Sodium 175.913452314503 mg
- Sugar 84.7272826172505 g
- Trans Fat 0.3810742846875 g
- Calories 450 calories
Step-by-step
- To cook the rice, bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the rinsed rice and continue boiling for 30 minutes, reducing heat as necessary to prevent overflow. Remove from heat, drain the rice and return the rice to pot. Cover and let the rice rest for 10 minutes or longer, until you're ready to serve.
- Warm a large skillet with deep sides over medium heat. Once it's hot, add a couple teaspoons of oil. Cook the onion, ginger and garlic with a sprinkle of salt for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the asparagus and carrots and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the curry paste and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes.
- Pour the coconut milk into the pan, along with 1/2 cup water and 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the carrots and asparagus are tender and cooked through, about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Once the vegetables are done cooking, stir the spinach into the mixture and cook until the spinach has wilted, about 30 seconds. Remove the curry from heat and season with rice vinegar and soy sauce. Add salt and red pepper flakes (optional), to taste. Divide rice and curry into bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, if you'd like.
Thai green curry paste relies on fresh green bird's eye chilies pounded together with lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime leaves, and garlic, forming a vibrant base that predates the commercial pastes commonly imported today. Traditional central Thai versions traditionally favor a looser, soup-like consistency rather than the heavy, reduced sauces popular in Western adaptations. Cooks frequently ruin this balance by boiling the coconut milk too aggressively, which breaks the emulsion and causes the natural fats to separate into an oily slick. Frying the curry paste directly in a small amount of oil for two minutes before adding liquids releases the fat-soluble aromatics trapped inside the lemongrass and galangal fibers. Maintaining a gentle simmer prevents the delicate asparagus and carrot slices from turning into mush before the starches hydrate. Brown basmati rice requires a full thirty-minute boil followed by ten minutes of covered steaming off the heat to achieve separate, tender grains without scorching the bottom of the pot. Vinegar and soy sauce added at the very end sharpen the rich coconut base.
