Homemade Thai red curry paste, full flavoured and whipped up in 10 minutes. Use straight away in the base of a lovely homemade Thai curry or jar up and keep in the fridge or freezer until its needed.
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Not only is this recipe the base for making a tasty, Thai red curry but its also the starting point for making Thai yellow paste, Massaman curry paste, Massaman curry, Panang curry and Jungle curry. So all the more reason to make plenty of this amazing paste. Thai green curry made with my homemade Thai green curry paste recipe, is also a great option for making your own Thai curry at home.
👩🏻🍳 Recipe inspiration
My recipe for this full flavoured Thai red paste is based on a recipe from Siam rice cookery school in Chang Mai, Thailand. Ben and I attended the cookery school when we were travelling in 2012, and had an amazing time learning about Thai ingredients and making authentic Thai curries. Some of the ingredients we used aren’t your everyday supermarket foods but with the help of Thai taste ingredient company, I’ve been able to get hold of jarred alternatives of the fresh stuff that we used in Thailand.
🥘 Ingredients for this recipe
To make around 8 tablespoons of this Thai red paste recipe you will need:
- 75g shallots
- 3 large red chillies
- 2 tbsp Garlic paste (or 3 fresh garlic cloves finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp Galangal paste(Or ginger paste/fresh ginger finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp Lemon grass
- 1 tbsp Kaffir Lime Leaves
- Splash of Fish Sauce or Vegetarian Fish Sauce
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tbsp oil
- Tap water to help blend if required
🔪 Step by step instructions
- Add all the ingredients (apart from the water) to a small blender or smoothie maker (I used a nutribullet blender).
- Blend on high until smooth. If the blender struggles to combine the ingredients initially, add a little water to help loosen. Keep adding water a bit at a time until the paste starts to blend together.
- Transfer the paste to a small dish ready to add to the base of your Thai red curry.
🌶 Thai pastes
Yellow curry paste, massaman curry paste, panang curry (Phanaeng), and jungle curry are all made from Thai red paste. So once you’ve made plenty of red paste, half can be used to make a delicious Thai red curry and the rest can be divided up and used as the starting point for making the other curries and curry pastes.
🍛 Which Thai curry is the mildest?
Thai Yellow or Massaman curry are the mildest Thai curries. When made with the smaller finger green chillies, Thai green curry is usually the hottest of the Thai curries. This is followed by Red Thai curry, Panang curry, then Massaman and Thai yellow curry. This makes a lot more sense when you start to make the pastes for these curries and see that one paste goes into making another and so spiciness is diluted by the addition of further ingredients.
💭 Recipe tips
Can you freeze Thai red paste?: Yes Thai red paste can be stored in a jar or sealable container and then kept in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up 3 months. Defrost thoroughly before use.
Alternatives: For an alternative why not try making your own Thai yellow curry paste, Thai green curry paste, fish biryani, red lentil tarka dahl or even a Tikka masala paste to go into a full flavoured tikka masala curry.
What is the difference between red curry paste and green curry paste?: Green curry paste is made using green chillies and plenty of fresh coriander, whereas red curry paste uses red chillies. The smaller, hotter green chillies tend to be used in Thai green pastes in Thailand and so Thai green curry is usually hotter than red.
📖 Recipe
📋 Thai red curry paste
Ingredients
- 3 large shallots finely chopped (or 6 small – 75g)
- 3 large red chillies finely chopped (50g)
- 2 tbsp garlic paste or 3 garlic cloves chopped (I used Thai Taste garlic paste)
- 1 tbsp Thai galangal or chopped fresh ginger (I used Thai Taste galangal paste)
- 1 tbsp chopped lemongrass (I used Thai taste lemongrass)
- 1 tbsp kaffir lime leaves or kaffir lime peel (I used Thai taste chopped kaffir lime leaves)
- Splash of fish sauce
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tbsp oil
- Tap water if needed
Instructions
- To make this simple Thai red paste, add all the ingredients (apart from the water) to a small blender or smoothie maker (I used a Nutribullet blender).
- Then blend on high until smooth. If the blender struggles to combine the ingredients initially, add a little water to help loosen. Keep adding water a bit at a time until the paste starts to blend together.
- Transfer the paste to a small dish ready to add to the base of your Thai red curry. Alternatively place inside a sealable jar or container and keep in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Thai red paste can also be used to make Thai yellow paste and jungle curry. Once you have made Thai yellow paste, this can then be used to make panang curry and massaman paste.
