Green Pea Curry

green pea curry
From Stonesoup
serves 2

I used to make my own Thai curry pastes from scratch but these days I find the commercial ones are good enough not to bother with the DIY option any more. So don’t feel guilty about using a paste from the supermarket. Although if I was cooking this for a Saturday night dinner party I would go to the extra effort.

I like serving this in big bowls with spoons for scooping the sauce but you could equally serve on a bed of steamed rice or cauliflower ‘rice’ (finely grated raw cauli). For a more authentic flavour use fish sauce to season rather than just salt.

3-4 tablespoons Thai green curry paste
1 can coconut milk (400mL or 1 1/2 cups)
2 handfuls frozen peas
2 handfuls snow peas, trimmed
300g (10oz) firm tofu, chopped

1. Heat a medium saucepan on a medium high heat.

2. Add the curry paste and cook for 30 seconds before adding the coconut milk. Stir.

3. Add the peas, snow peas and tofu. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

4. After 5 minutes check that everything is hot and cooked to your liking. Taste and season.

VARIATIONS
pantry recipe – replace the snow peas with extra frozen peas and you have a great little pantry recipe.

carnivore – replace the tofu with finely sliced chicken breast or steak. After the initial 5 minutes, simmer uncovered until the meat is cooked to your liking. Depending on how finely you’ve sliced your chicken or steak it may take from another 2-5 minutes.

vegetarian / vegan – make sure you use a curry paste with

more fragrant – add a few finely shredded kaffir lime leaves or serve with a big handful of fresh herbs such as basil, Thai basil, mint or coriander (cilantro).

different veg – replace peas and / or snowpeas with zucchini (courgettes), sugar snap peas, broccoli, broccolini, asparagus, broad beans, finely sliced eggplant (aubergine), Thai eggplant, capsicum (bell peppers), cauliflower or bok choy. Adjust the cooking time to suit the veg – most will be fine in the 5 minutes but some may need a little longer.