Very Green Curry

Very Green Curry

Last night I made some (almost vegetarian) curried noodles. By chance I ended up having a lot of green vegetables in the refrigerator, so I tried using green curry paste, which I don't have a whole lot of experience. It was quite good, except there wasn't quite enough liquid for the ridiculous amount of vegetables I put in. Leftovers today!

Recipe (Probably serves around 5-6 people):
Rice noodles (medium width, like you would use for pad thai)


In a big bowl, soak a bunch of these (I use half to three quarters of a 14oz. package, and have plenty) in hot water in a bowl. To get to the right consistency should take 10 minutes or so. They should be just a bit firmer than the way you actually want to eat them - they'll cook a tiny bit more later. Drain them when they're done. While they're soaking, move on to:

Dried shiitake mushrooms (a few per person)

3 cups or so quite warm water

Put these in a bowl so that the mushrooms are more or less submerged. Let them sit while you do other things. Every once in a while, check that the entire mushroom is getting wet. (If you want, use fresh mushrooms and add in some vegetable broth where you'll add in the water later on.) They should start to smell amazing! We'll use the water as the base of the curry.

1 can coconut milk

3-4 Tbsp. green curry paste
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed
1 Tbsp. dried basil

On medium-low heat, heat the coconut milk in a dutch oven or large saucepan until it's bubbling a bit. Add in the curry paste and mash it around until it's all mixed into the coconut milk. Add in the onion, garlic, and basil, and cook another 5 minutes.

1 Tbsp. fish sauce if and only if there are no vegetarians eating (other you can put in some soy sauce)
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 diced carrot (Preferably find a green substitute for this, to go along with the theme of the recipe.)
12-ish small Brussels sprouts, with the base and outer leaves removed
3/4 cup green beans, chopped into 2-inch pieces
3/4 cup zucchini, chopped into nice little bite-size pieces
Lime juice to taste (Don't be shy with the lime juice)

Remove the stems of the soaked mushrooms (they're really chewy otherwise; I neglected to do this last night). Add in the mushrooms and the water they were soaking in, with the brown sugar and the fish sauce. Heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes or so, then add the Brussels sprouts. Simmer another couple minutes, add the green beans, simmer another couple minutes, add the zucchini, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add in the lime juice and turn off the heat.

To serve: Put some rice noodles in the bottom of a soup bowl, and ladle the curry into the bowl, submerging the rice noodles. This will soften the noodles the rest of the way. Eat!