A vegetarian thai green curry is packed with flavour and ready in just 30 minutes. Just fry up your vegetables, add in the curry paste and some coconut milk to give it that lovely creamy texture and serve with fresh coriander and lime. This green thai curry recipe is also suitable for vegans and is gluten and dairy free.
I've used a store bought green curry paste as I try to make all my recipes as straightfoward as possible. If you do want to make you own thai green curry paste, I've incuded a very simple recipe in the recipe card using basic ingredients that are widely available. You might also like my Thai Green Fish Curry or Thai Red Prawn Curry.
Recipe Tips and Variations
- A curry is a great way to use up leftover vegetables. A veggie thai green curry needs veg that cook quickly. I've included red onion, aubergine, red pepper, mangetout, carrots and spinach. Other vegetables that you could also use include green beans, sugar snap peas, bok choy or pak choi, baby corn, mushrooms, broccoli and spring or green onions.
- When it comes to the green curry paste, there are many different varieties and strengths available. I've used two tablespoons as a guide in this recipe, but do taste it and add more if you'd like to. Many curry pastes are vegetarian, but you might like to check the ingredients to make sure they don't include fish sauce for example if you're looking to keep this 100% vegetarian.
- Coconut milk adds a real creamy texture to the sauce. A green thai curry sauce is not quite as thick as many Indian curry sauces. Using a low fat coconut milk will give a runnier texture than a full fat version, but will still have lots of flavour.
- I've added fresh spinach leaves to the curry. Fresh spinach needs hardly any cooking. Frozen spinach has a much higher water content so will water down the creamy sauce.
- You can serve a veggie or vegan thai green curry with rice, noodles or quinoa. A fragrant rice such as jasmine rice goes well with thai dishes.
How to make it
Step 2 
Step 4 
Simmer in the pan 
Add the spinach
- Put the rice on to cook as per the packet instructions
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the onion, aubergine and pepper over a medium heat for about 5 minutes.
- Add the thai green curry paste, stir and fry for 2 minutes. If you are making your own, blitz all the ingredients together in a food processor until you get a paste.
- Add the mangetout, carrots, coconut milk and vegetable stock and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Stir in the spinach leaves one handful at a time and cook until the leaves have wilted which will take around 2 minutes.
- Serve the vegetable thai curry together with the rice, a sprinkling of fresh coriander leaves and a wedge of lime. A diced red chilli will add extra spice, but this is optional.
Sustainability
You can use a range of vegetables in a green thai curry and it's a great opportunity for using up leftovers. Using vegetables in season and that are grown locally can help reduce your carbon footprint. If possible always try to buy vegetables loose without any plastic packaging. Coconut milk, limes and rice are all available as Fairtrade products. Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.
Storage
You can store a vegetable thai green curry in the fridge for 2 - 3 days. It doesn't freeze so well as the coconut milk splits and has a slightly grainy texture when frozen. This doesn't mean that it isn't safe to eat, but the texture will not be as good.
Vegetarian Thai Green Curry
Ingredients
- 300 g basmati rice organic, fairtrade
- 2 tablespoon groundnut oil organic
- 1 red onions organic, peeled and diced
- 1 aubergines organic, diced 1cm cubes
- 1 red peppers orgnanic, deseeded and diced
- 2 tablespoon thai green curry paste organic
- 75 g mange tout organic, sliced lengthways
- 3 carrots organic, peeled and sliced into discs
- 400 ml coconut milk organic, fairtrade
- 200 ml vegetable stock organic
- 150 g spinach leaves organic
- 1 limes organic, fairtrade, cut into wedges
Home-made curry paste (optional)
- 20 g fresh ginger organic, peeled and grated
- 2 garlic cloves organic, peeled and crushed
- 1 tablespoon lemon grass organic, outer leaves removed, finely chopped
- 1 red chillis organic, deseeded and finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon ground nut oil organic
Instructions
- Put the rice on to cook as per the packet instructions
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the onion, aubergine and pepper over a medium heat for about 5 minutes.
- Add the curry paste, stir and fry for 2 minutes. If you are making your own, blitz all the ingredients together in a food processor until you get a paste.
- Add the mangetout, carrots, coconut milk and vegetable stock and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Stir in the spinach leaves one handful at a time and cook until the leaves have wilted which will take around 2 minutes.
- Serve the curry together with the rice or noodles and a wedge of lime.
Notes
Tips
- A curry is a great way to use up leftover vegetables. Use ones that cook quickly. I've included red onion, aubergine, red pepper, mangetout, carrots and spinach. Other vegetables that you could also use include green beans, sugar snap peas, bok choy or pak choi, baby corn, mushrooms, broccoli and spring or green onions.
- There are many different varieties and strengths of green curry paste available. I've used two tablespoons as a guide in this recipe, but do taste it and add more if you'd like to. Many curry pastes are vegetarian, but you might like to check the ingredients to make sure they don't include fish sauce for example if you're looking to keep this green thai curry 100% vegetarian.
- Coconut milk adds a real creamy texture to the sauce. A thai green curry sauce is not quite as thick as many Indian curry sauces. Using a low fat coconut milk will give a runnier texture than a full fat version, but will still have lots of flavour.
- I've added fresh spinach leaves to the curry. Fresh spinach needs hardley any cooking. Frozen spinach has a much higher water content so will water down the creamy sauce.
- You can serve a vegetable thai curry with rice, noodles or quinoa. A fragrant rice such as jasmine rice goes well with thai dishes.
Storage
Store in the fridge for 2 - 3 days. It doesn't freeze so well as the coconut milk splits and has a slightly grainy texture when frozen.Nutrition per serving
The Nutritional Values are computer generated estimates based on industry standards and are provided as a helpful guide only.
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!