Thai Green Curry Paste Recipe

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This Thai green curry paste will make your next Thai curry awesome!

If you’re looking for a delicious and authentic Thai green curry paste recipe, you needn’t look any further! Of course there are good thai green curry pastes available at supermarkets but they can’t compete with what you can make at home.

It’s the pounding of all those delicious ingredients that makes this green chilli paste recipe the best there is. That and all those ingredient of course.

By pounding the ingredients in a pestle and mortar, you release their natural oils slowly into a paste. As a result, those flavours come to life. When I was in Bangkok, I tried Thai green curry at street stalls and restaurants and the quality often varied a lot.

This Thai green curry paste recipe is my favourite blend!

Why this authentic green curry paste recipe is one to try.

These days most Thais don’t have the time to prepare their own green curry paste recipe in a pestle and mortar. Those that do make their own will often use a blender or food processor and even more will simply go out and purchase processed pastes at the market.

With their busy work lives, spending a half hour making a green curry paste just doesn’t make much sense.

I have made this green curry paste recipe many times both in a blender and also pestle and mortar. By simply blending the ingredients, you WILL LOSE flavour but it will still be worth making. For this reason, I recommend spending some time pounding with a pestle and you will love the results.

That said, you could also pound the ingredients in a pestle and mortar to start and then finish it all up in a blender when your arm starts getting tired. You will still get a superior paste from this very authentic green curry paste recipe. 

Toast the whole spices until warm to the touch and fragrant but not yet smoking.

Grind the whole spices in a pestle and mortar and then transfer to a bowl. Stir in the ground white pepper.

Place all the aromatic ingredients in a pestle and mortar and pound to a paste.

Once pounded to a paste, stir in the shrimp paste and ground spices and pound for another five minutes to combine.

Your Thai green curry paste is ready to use!

If you decide to try my Thai green chicken curry but decide against making Thai green curry paste recipe,  be careful! That recipe is for homemade curry paste. If you use shop bought, it is often a lot saltier and spicier.

Just add it to taste! Start with two or three tablespoons of shop bought paste and then adjust to taste. 

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Yield: 1 cup

Thai Green Curry Paste

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Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1½ tsp white pepper
• 15 green bird's eye chillies - roughly chopped - More or less to taste
• 8 cloves garlic - smashed
• 3 small shallots - roughly chopped
• 10 Thai sweet basil stalks - 1 tbsp
• 5 coriander (cilantro) stalks - ½ tbsp
• 1 thumb sized piece of galangal - thinly sliced
• Zest of ½ lime
• 5 kaffir lime leaves - fresh or frozen
• 2 stalks lemongrass - about 4 generous tbsp
• 1 tsp shrimp paste

Instructions

1. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and toast the cumin and coriander seeds until warm to the touch and fragrant but not yet smoking. Transfer to a pestle and mortar to cool a little and then pound into a fine powder. Transfer this powder to a plate and add the white pepper. Set aside.
2. Now add the remaining ingredients up to and including the lemongrass and start pounding. It will take you about 20 minutes to pound the paste until it is smooth. If you're feeling lazy, you could blend the paste after the first ten minutes of pounding but the flavour won't be as intense.
3. Stir in the shrimp paste and ground spices and pound some more to incorporate it into the paste.
4. This paste can be kept in an air-tight container in the fridge for about a week and it can also be frozen for up to three months.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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  The Curry Guy Thai Cookbook
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  The Curry Guy Easy Cookbook
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  The Curry Guy Cookbook
• 
  Waring Spice Grinder
• 
  I.O.Shen Chefs Knife
• 
  Pestle and Mortar

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 45Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 68mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 1g

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It is worth noting that you will not achieve the fine paste you can purchase at shops if you use a pestle and mortar. You will always see small bits in your Thai green curry paste but that is authentic and the bits cook down into a smooth sauce! When you cook the curry, you won’t notice anything other than the magnificent flavour.

I hope you enjoy this Thai green curry paste recipe. I make it often and rarely go back to shop bought unless I’m in a real rush. If you do try it, please let me know what you think in the comments.