Thai green curry paste, a simple and quick fragrant curry paste that can be used as a flavoursome base for a curry recipe. With easy to source ingredients and no need for a pestle and mortar.
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🌶 Homemade paste
Most curry recipes will call for some kind of paste, whether thats homemade or out of a jar grabbed off the supermarket shelf. Theres nothing wrong with the latter - the opposite is true. Sometimes a jar of paste and a packet of microwave rice are just the ticket on a busy weekday night. I even don't mind going for a Pad Thai meal kit if I'm super busy and its getting late. That said, if I have the time and where-with-all to get out my blender and chop up a few ingredients, then I most certainly will.
If we're talking Thai green curry and its a weekend, then I just have to have it with my own homemade paste. The same is true if its a Thai red curry, chicken panang curry or Massaman curry, if theres time then I definitely want to be whipping up a Thai red curry paste, Thai yellow curry paste or Massaman curry paste. Not only does it taste amazing but the fragrant aromas that fill the kitchen are just too good to miss. And I do think theres nothing better than spending time in the kitchen on a Saturday - with a glass of vino of course!
🥄 How much paste to use in a curry?
If its out of a jar, a tablespoon or two . If its homemade then its up to you. One of the great things about making your own curry paste is that you are in complete control. The ingredients, the flavours, the heat from the chillies, the sweetness from the basil, the tang from the ginger. Its all up to you. Even the amount! When I make paste - I make it in bulk. Mainly because I want to freeze some for another day, but also because I want a lot to go in my curry recipe. I want all the heat and flavour but I also want the thicker texture provided by the paste.
👩🏻🍳 Recipe inspiration
Ive based this recipe on curries I made in 2012 in Thailand when attending the Siam Rice cookery school in Chang Mai, Northern Thailand.
On this cookery course I had access to a traditional Thai food market and used fresh, whole spices. I can’t say its always convenient to get out a pestle and mortar and grind whole spices into powders. Nor is it always possible to get hold of all the traditional Thai ingredients that I used in Thailand. However, It is possible to closely match ingredients and of course use pre ground spices for this paste recipe and for the actual Thai red curry dish, which is what I have done for this recipe.
🥘 What you will need to make this recipe
- 100g Shallots finely chopped
- 2 Cloves garlic minced or finely chopped
- 10g piece of fresh ginger peeled and roughly chopped
- 10g Green finger chillies or standard green chillies – deseeded and chopped
- 10g Red chilli deseeded and chopped
- 1 Stalk of fresh lemongrass outer leaf removed and then roughly chopped 10g
- 30g of Fresh coriander stems and leaves roughly chopped
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- Juice of half a lime
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Few splashes of fish sauce
- 20ml of tap water if needed during blending the paste
🔪 How to make this recipe
- Set up a small blender or smoothie maker. Then add chopped shallots, finely chopped garlic, and finely chopped ginger.
- Next add chopped chillies and roughly chopped lemongrass. For Thai green paste the chillies should be mainly green chillies, but I also like to add in a bit of red.
- To this add fresh coriander leaves and stems, and a teaspoon of ground coriander.
- Then add a dash of fish sauce, a good glug of oil and a squeeze of lime juice.
- And then blend until smooth.
- Add the paste to hot pan. Save any leftover paste in sealable containers and refrigerate or freeze.
♨️ Is this curry paste hot?
Out of all the Thai currys, Thai green is the hottest - despite the belief that Thai red curry is the hotter of the two. This is mainly down to the chillies used. Green chillies (particularly green birds eye chilli peppers) tend to be hotter than red. So whether the paste is hot or too spicy for you, is dependent on the ingredients used and the amounts. If you like it spicy add plenty of small green chillies. If not, add less and go for a bigger sized chilli pepper. If a milder curry is much more your thing then a milder type of Thai curry, such as Panang curry, or Massaman curry, or even a yellow curry, might be a better option. Or for a Indian style curry why not try making up a fish biryani or homemade tikka masala paste for a chicken tikka masala curry.
📖 What is the difference between Thai green and Thai red curry paste?
The main difference between Thai green and Thai red curry paste is the colour and the heat, both of which come from the type of chillies used. Substituting one paste for other will ultimately dictate the type of curry you end up making.
💭 Recipe tips
Blending paste: Use a small blender to make the Thai green paste. If the ingredients don't blend together easily then add a bit of water or olive oil to help get it going.
Storage: Once made and stored in sealable containers or jars, Thai green paste can be kept in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Make in advance: Curry pastes are great to make in advance as they store easily and can be used directly in whatever curry you are making as soon as you are ready to make it. I like to batch make my curry pastes and then split into small containers - each container has enough to make one curry for 4 people. these can be stored in the fridge or freezer (see above) and then called upon when needed. Frozen paste can be microwaved for a minute or 2 and ready to use right away.
Scaling this recipe: the ingredients for the recipe will make around 8 tablespoons of Thai green paste. To make more just increase the amounts of ingredients. Doubling the ingredients will produce 16 tablespoons.
🍛 Other curry paste recipes you might like to try:
📖 Recipe
📋 Thai green curry paste
Ingredients
- 100 g Shallots finely chopped
- 2 Cloves garlic minced or finely chopped
- 10 g piece of fresh ginger peeled and roughly chopped
- 10 g Green finger chillies or standard green chillies – deseeded and chopped
- 10 g Red chilli deseeded and chopped
- 1 Stalk of fresh lemongrass outer leaf removed and then roughly chopped 10g
- 30 g of Fresh coriander stems and leaves roughly chopped
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 0.5 Juice of a lime
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Few splashes of fish sauce
- 20 ml of tap water if needed during blending the paste
Instructions
- Set up a small blender or smoothie maker. Then add chopped shallots, finely chopped garlic, and finely chopped ginger.
- Next add chopped chillies and roughly chopped lemongrass. For Thai green paste the chillies should be mainly green chillies, but I also like to add in a bit of red.
- To this add fresh coriander leaves and stems, and a teaspoon of ground coriander.
- Then add a dash of fish sauce, a good glug of oil and a squeeze of lime juice
- And then blend until smooth.
- Add the paste to hot pan to begin your Thai green curry recipe. Save any leftover paste in sealable containers and refrigerate or freeze.
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