This Thai inspired tofu and vegetable coconut curry recipe is ALWAYS amazing. Tofu is cooked in coconut milk, green curry paste, and vegetables to create a comforting and flavorful vegetarian dish.
My Favorite Green Curry Blends For Tofu
Popular brands of green curry paste are Maesri, Mae Ploy, and Thai Kitchen.
Thai kitchen is usually available in most grocery stores (Publix, Harris Teeter, Kroger, Safeway, Whole Foods).
But hands down, my favorite curry brand for tofu coconut curry is Maesri. It is available online but is more affordable at your local Asian store. Mae Ploy comes in second.
Both brands have several different kinds of curry as well. They are all delicious and leftover curry paste can be frozen for later.
Like curry? Try these recipes: Mashed Eggplant Curry and Rice, (vegetarian) Curry Cauliflower Rice with Cashews (vegetarian), Or Indian Curry Chicken and Rice.
How To Spice Up or Cool Down Tofu Coconut Curry
Make green curry extra spicy by adding extra curry paste, hot chile flakes, or sriracha sauce.
Cool down a too spicy green curry by using less paste or or adding more coconut milk or broth. Or just skip the curry and it would be a more coconut and broth based coconut bowl.
Substitutions and Variations For Tofu Coconut Curry
This tofu coconut green curry recipe is versatile. It can be cooked with chicken, shrimp, beef, or extra vegetables.
Use any vegetable that you have around for tofu coconut curry: broccoli, carrots, peppers, peas, etc...
Frozen vegetables (broccoli, peas, etc...) also work if you're trying to make the recipe a bit easier.
Tearing up the kaffir lime leaves releases more flavor. Kaffir lime leaves can be pretty expensive and hard to find. Don't have them and/or don't want to buy them? Cool - zest a lime (before juicing) and use that instead.
Don't have fresh tomatoes on hand? Use ~ 1 cup (10 ounces) canned/diced tomatoes with juices.
Use any herb as a garnish or omit the garnish. Some ideas include: mint, basil, cilantro, parsley, chives, green onions.
A Word on Tofu For The Coconut Curry
Most people don't like tofu because of the soft texture.
Mitigate this by buying extra firm tofu. Push on the package before buying it to check. Buy the firmest tofu you can find.
Want even crunchier tofu? Dust the cubed tofu in cornstarch before cooking.
Things In My Kitchen:
- Teak cutting board - Sustainably harvested, easy on knives, got the juice grooves, and pretty.
- Maesri Green Curry Paste - This is my favorite curry paste brand. It is more affordable if you have a local Asian grocery store.
- Kaffir Lime Leaves - If you can't find these, then use lime zest in a pinch.
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Tofu Vegetable Coconut Curry
EatSimpleFood.com
This Thai inspired tofu and vegetable coconut curry recipe is ALWAYS amazing. Tofu is cooked in coconut milk, green curry paste, and vegetables to create a comforting and flavorful vegetarian dish.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Thai
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 1lb extra firm tofu, cubed
- 3 tablespoon soy sauce / tamari, divided (regular soy sauce or gluten free)
- ~1 ½ Tbsp peanut oil
- 1 cup onions, diced
- 4 kaffir lime leaves, torn in half
- 1 tablespoon sugar - omit if you are sensitive to sweetness
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ + tablespoon green curry paste (red curry paste works too)
- 2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1 ½ cups diced fresh tomatoes
- ½ cup vegetable broth or water
- 27 ounces (~ 2 cans) coconut milk
- 2 cups of chopped veggies - (pictured is red pepper, broccoli, and carrots)
- ⅓ cup cilantro, chopped - optional as garnish
- ½ cup green onions or chives, sliced -optional as garnish
- 5 cups cooked rice
Instructions
- Marinate cubed tofu with 2 tablespoon soy sauce for ~30 minutes, turning once or twice to coat. (Skip the marinating if you don't have time and just throw it all in the pan together).
- Bring a large pan to medium high heat (I prefer non stick for tofu) and add enough peanut oil to lightly coat the bottom of a pan. Throw in the marinated tofu and cook ~ 3-5 minutes or until edges have a hint of crispiness. Set aside on a plate.
- Add a very light layer of peanut oil a larger shallow pot or pan (medium high heat) and add onions and cook ~ 3-5 minutes or until translucent and tender (not brown).
- Add lime leaves, sugar, salt, green curry paste and stir until it's fragrant and forms a paste.
- Add lime juice, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, tomatoes, vegetable broth, and coconut milk.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered ~ 20 minutes. Taste the curry and add sea salt and more green curry paste to taste.
- Add veggies of your choice. If you like al dente veggies then cook a couple minutes. If you like soft veggies cook until desired tenderness. Add tofu to the sauce in the last couple minutes or use it as a garnish on top if you crisped it up.
- Serve over cooked rice and garnish with cilantro and green onions. Happy Eating! Beckie
Notes
- Don't have green curry? No problem, just leave it out or add a ground curry instead.
- Tearing up the kaffir lime leaves releases more flavor.
- Don't have kaffir lime leaves? Zest the lime instead (before juicing!).
- Want crunchier tofu? Dust the cubed tofu in cornstarch before frying.
- Don't have fresh tomatoes on hand? Use ~ 1 cup (10 ounces) canned/diced tomatoes with juices.
- Use any vegetable you have on hand in your fridge. Frozen vegetables also work if you're trying to make the recipe a bit easier.
- Use any herb as a garnish. Some ideas include: mint, basil, cilantro, parsley, chives, green onions.
What My Man Says
"When I made this recipe, the suggested 2 tablespoon of soy sauce to marinate the tofu didn't seem quite enough to me, and I used 4+ tablespoon instead. After marinating the tofu I strained it and used the soy sauce in the recipe."
"We didn't have (or I couldn't find) kaffir lime leaves, so I substituted lime zest from the lime for the fresh lime juice per Beckie's tip below, and it worked out well."
"And whoops, I'm not sure how, but I completely forgot about the vegetable broth. But in the end it tasted good and the sauce wasn't too thick."
"Probably a bit unorthodox, but we had some arugula that needed to be eaten, so I put a bed of arugula on the bottom of our bowls below the rice and curry, and it worked with the rest of the dish."
You May Also Like
If you like the flavors of this Veggie Green Curry then you may also like these similar recipes with a bit of tang and / or the richness of coconut:
Serving Suggestion
Why not make a whole Asian inspired meal by serving this Tofu and Vegetable Green Curry recipe with any of these complimentary appetizers, salads, and side dishes:
We made this tonight and it was outstanding. Coating the tofu and frying it in the non-stick casserole gave it a wonderful browned, crispy edge. The sauce was plentiful even without the stock, in part because I didn’t drain the can of diced tomatoes. And even though the flavorings were few in number, they blended perfectly. The dish really shows off the quality of the curry, and I could imagine using even a bit more next time. We will definitely make this again!
Plus: we have at least 2 and maybe 3 dinners from this recipe!
Thanks for the comment Tom! This is one of our favorite dishes so I'm glad y'all like it too :). That makes sense on the broth / water. FYI - this freezes well if you don't get round to eating it right away. Cheers!