Matt Preston draws on culinary styles from around the globe to create his delicious dishes, and this nuanced veggie Thai Green Curry is up there with his best of them. It is from his recent book More (Plum). Give this exotic, healthy dish a go!
Chicken? Who needs chicken?
Serves: 4 Prep: 15 mins Cooking: 30 mins
Ingredients
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 large onion, cut into wedges
1/4 cup homemade green curry paste (see below) or 2 tablespoons store-bought paste
400 ml can coconut milk
2 kaffir lime leaves
250 ml (1 cup) vegetable stock
3 Lebanese eggplants, thickly sliced diagonally
230 g can sliced bamboo shoots, drained and cut into small matchsticks
150 g green beans, trimmed and halved diagonally
1 tablespoon vegan fish sauce or regular fish sauce if you are okay with it
2 teaspoons coarsely grated palm sugar or caster sugar
juice of 1⁄2 lime
steamed jasmine rice, to serve
Green Curry Paste
2 coriander sprigs, leaves picked, stalks and roots cleaned and coarsely chopped
6 long green chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
2 Thai green chillies, finely chopped 4 Asian shallots, cut into chunks
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
2 Thai basil sprigs (save the leaves to serve)
2 lemongrass stalks, white part only, finely chopped
2 cm knob of galangal, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted
2 teaspoons white peppercorns
Method
To make the curry paste, place all the ingredients in a blender and blitz to a paste. Add a few tablespoons of water to help loosen it a little but it’s fine if it’s a bit fibrous and chunky. (You could be very old school and do this in a mortar and pestle but that can be quite a laborious process.)
Heat the coconut oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat, add the onion and stir-fry for 2–3 minutes or until softened slightly. Add the curry paste and stir-fry for 1 minute or until aromatic.
Add the coconut milk and kaffir lime leaves to the wok or pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the oil comes to the surface. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Add the eggplant, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender.
Add the bamboo shoot, beans, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice to the curry and cook for 3–4 minutes or until the beans are tender crisp.
Serve the curry with jasmine rice and topped with the reserved Thai basil leaves.
