Vegan Thai Curry Pasta

As you can see, curries are on my mind these days and i am literally combining them with anything in sight 😛 I have had my fair share of curries with naans, rice, bread, samosas, tikkis and what not…and now this time i am moving beyond the comforts of Indian cuisine and racing on to the world of pastas 🙂 Turns out.. if you choose a curry base wisely, you can convert humble pasta into a very innovative and totally decadent dish !! You don’t believe me ?? Well, check one snazzy pairing right here – Thai Curry Pasta

I still remember the first time i tasted Thai curry and i have a very sweet memory attached with it 🙂 I had never tried Thai cuisine before marriage and it was our first outing after marriage. My husband wanted to surprise me with a new cuisine and decided to order Thai for the evening. I remember being skeptical before trying my first bite of Thai curry and then totally falling in love with it.

Thai Curry Paste

Did u know that an authentic Red thai curry paste has shrimp paste in it? I somehow always assumed that thai curry paste was vegan 🙁 My take – always read the ingredient list to make sure, don’t assume. Good thing is that i always read ingredients (i have had my share of products thrown in trash without even opening because of ingredients i don’t consume). I prepared my version of red thai curry paste using this video.

Thai Curry Lentil Pasta

Thai curry Lentil Pasta

Servings: 4
Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: medium
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thai-curry-pasta

Ingredients

dried Pasta of your choice (i used Modern Table Meal’s Lentil Confetti) – 1 10oz pack / 250 gms
oil – 1 tablespoon
Tofu – 100 gms ,cut into 1 inch cubes
baby corn – 1/3 cup ,cut lengthwise into thick sticks
Bell peppers – 1/3 cup ,cut lengthwise into thick sticks
light – 50 ml ,soy sauce
salt – 1/2 tsp
sugar- 1 tsp
lime juice – 2 tsp
coconut milk (low-fat) – 200 ml
10-12 mushrooms – halved
5-6 fresh basil leaves – finely chopped
ginger – 1 inch ,grated
fresh coriander –1 tsp , finely chopped
roasted peanuts – roughly chopped for garnishing (optional)

Thai curry paste – 1 tablespoon

This will yield about 1 cup of paste which can be used for making the red thai curry again.

8-9 Whole dried red chillies
onions – 2 medium ,chopped
2 tsp each of lemongrass & coriander
cumin seeds – 1 tsp
grated ginger – 2 tsp (preferable to use galangal but i used ginger itself)
minced garlic – 1 tsp
lime juice – 2 tsp
Zest of 1/2 lemon
oil – 2 tsp

Method

Thai curry paste –

Marinate the whole dried red chillies in 1/3 cup of hot water for about 1/2 hour and then remove from water and mix with other red curry paste ingredients.
Grind all the ingredients into a smooth paste.
Now in a pan, take oil and bring to medium hot. Add the curry paste and cook till the oil starts to separate (will take about 7-8 minutes on simmer). Remove from heat and keep aside. The paste can be refrigerated for about a month or frozen for 3-4 months.

For Pasta

Use the instructions on the back of the package of the pasta and boil the pasta to al-dente. Once boiled, drain the extra water and reserve half cup of the pasta broth.

For Red Thai Curry

Marinate the tofu cubes in 1 tsp soya sauce, lime juice and and sugar for about 10 minutes.
Now, take a pan and add 2 tsp oil to it. To this, add the red curry paste, mushrooms and ginger and fry for about 2 minutes.
Now, add in the coconut milk and 1/2 cup pasta broth water and bring to boil (the consistency should be soupy). To this, add all the vegetables and cook till the vegetables are tender.
Meanwhile, drain the tofu cubes, pat dry and pan fry in 1 tsp oil till light golden.
Now, add these tofu cubes, basil, sugar, soya sauce, lime juice, chillies and coriander and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Red Thai curry is ready.

Once the red thai curry is ready, toss in the cooked pasta and combine well. The sauce may look runny but let the pasta rest for about half an hour to soak the sauce up before serving.

So what do u think? Isn’t that scrumptious !

The smooth coconut curry sauce works great with pasta. I have used a Lentil pasta for this dish, making it protein rich and really satisfying. This dish has it all – smooth, silky sauce, sweet-spicy curry notes and loads of veggies coming together to create a harmonious and totally addictive dish !! If you thought Thai curry only works well with rice, think again because this dish does justice to both, pasta and the curry ! The only thing to keep in mind is – BALANCE ! Do not use too much curry paste or else the pasta looses its own flavor.. what you need is that hint of curry in pasta.