The fresh vegetables in a rich green curry sauce make this dish not only healthy but intensely tasty. Wonderfully textured egg noodles encourage serving a few more spoonfuls of that delicious sauce.
Most Thai inspired green curry recipes keep the curry sauce very simple. They consist of just the paste (chilli, ginger, lemongrass, etc.) and coconut cream. The character comes from the other ingredients. In this dish, it is the diversity of flavours and the cooking methods contributed by the range of vegetables selected.
Other vegetable curries on delectabilia are worth checking out as well. This Vietnamese style roast vegetable and chickpea curry exhibits a more South Asian influence. Inspired by North Asian curries, this mushroom curry on udon noodles has the sweeter character of Japanese curry.
As a vegetable green curry, the quality and range of vegetables is key to the success of this dish. Apart from the frozen peas, the vegetables selected were all very fresh. The baby carrots were so sweet and delicate, the snow peas so crisp, and the mushrooms so earthy. Try to get fresh baby corn, the canned variety is significantly inferior.
Cooking all the vegetables being together in the curry sauce would make a rather homogenous tasting dish. Instead, the vegetables are cooked separately using techniques that bring out the best in each. The rich vegetable stock helps the curry sauce to integrate all these flavours. The flavours harmonize into a truly satisfying and healthy meal.
One last defining ingredient… the seaweed (wakame, wild nori, or similar) adds a hint of the seaside.
Vegetable green curry on egg noodles
Ingredients
Vegetable stock
Assorted vegetables, for example…
- 1 onion
- 2 stalks celery
- 2 leeks
- 1 large carrot
- 1 red pepper
- 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
- 10 g butter
- 5 cups water
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- Offcuts from other vegetables in the case of this recipe, the mushroom stalks, basil stalks, and snow pea tips.
Green curry
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 red peppers
- 150 g baby carrots
- 150 g button mushrooms
- 150 g shiitake mushrooms
- 150 g snow peas
- 150 g baby corn
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 cup karengo or wakame shredded
- 400 ml coconut milk (1 can/tin)
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce (or fish sauce if not strictly vegetarian)
- 2 Tbsp Thai green curry paste
- 400 g egg noodles
- 2 tsp salt
Basil leaves for garnish
Instructions
Vegetable stock
- Coarsely dice the onion, celery, leeks, carrot, and pepper
- Sauté diced vegetables in the olive oil and butter, until the onion and celery has softened.
- Add the water, bay leaf, pepper and salt, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Add other vegetable offcuts like mushroom stalks, basil stalks, parsley stalks, and snow pea tips.
- Simmer for 1 hour.
- Strain stock through a fine strainer.
- Set side 2 cups of stock for this recipe, and freeze the rest for next time.
Egg noodles
- Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add 2 tsp salt.
- Plunge the egg noodles into the boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes (or as indicated on the package) then drain.
- Refresh under cool water, drain, and set aside.
Green curry
- Wash, trim, and roast the red peppers for 30 minutes at 200 degC.
- Finely chop the onion and garlic.
- Chop the roasted garlic into 10cm x 10cm pieces.
- Wash and trim the baby carrots, mushrooms, snow peas, and baby corn.
- Quarter the mushrooms and sauté in 1 Tbsp oil until the moisture have evaporated and the mushrooms are starting to brown. Set aside.
- Sauté the baby carrots and baby corn in a splash of oil until the corn just starts to brown. Set aside.
- Sauté the snow peas for a minute or two. They should still be crisp. Set aside.
- Sauté the onion until transparent. Add the diced garlic and sauté for a couple more minutes.
- Add the green curry paste to the onion and sauté until fragrant.
- Add the coconut cream and stock and allow to come up to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Add the baby corn and carrots, red peppers, the mushrooms, fish sauce (or soy sauce), karengo or wakame, and frozen peas.
- Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the snow peas and simmer for a couple more minutes before serving.
- Reheat the noodles in hot water for a few seconds, drain, then serve the vegetable curry over the noodles.