Vegan Khao Soi - Six Hungry Feet- Recipes - Thai Food

How To Make Homemade Curry Paste For Khao Soi

For our Vegan Khao Soi, the curry paste to use is the red curry paste. We make our paste for Khao Soi really similar to the paste we make for our Thai Red Curry.

The store-bought curry paste that you can buy in supermarkets or even online is good enough if you want to make a quick curry at home but there is nothing like homemade curry paste.

Ingredients

• Dried bird-eye chillies. You can use larger chillies as well. This is the main ingredient to give the curry paste a red colour. In order to be able to use more chillies without the paste being too spicy, the chillies will need to be deseeded. Using gloves, cut the chillies down the side with scissors, remove the seeds and leave them soaking in water for around 10 minutes. .
• Lemongrass stalks. Lemongrass will give your curry proper Thai fragrance and flavour. To make your curry paste, the best part to use is the bottom part. When you slice it, it has a purple colour inside. Save the green top part for other Thai dishes such as Coconut Curry Soups.
• Shallots. We use finely chopped French shallots for our curry paste but white or red onion can be used as well. If you have easy access to Asian shallots, they are the right ones for curry pastes.
• Galangal. Traditionally, the curry paste is made with galangal. This ingredient may be a bit challenging to find if you are not in Asia. We can find it at an Asian supermarket close by. They have it frozen so it's perfect as we can keep it in the freezer and use it as we need it. If you cannot find galangal, you can use ginger.
• Kaffir lime leaves. Remove the stalk, and finely chop the lime leaves to add to your curry paste.
• Garlic.
• Miso paste. We know! Miso paste is Japanese, so why are we using it in a Thai curry? Well, we tried different ingredients to substitute the prawn paste that goes in curry pastes. Prawn paste gives saltiness and umami flavour to the curries, and that is exactly what miso paste does too.
• Spices. For the curry paste we use fresh turmeric, cumin, toasted and grounded coriander seeds and sea salt.

Step-by-step Method

To make the curry paste, you can use a food processor (make sure you are making a big enough batch, otherwise it won't work), a mortar and pestle or a hand blender.

We use the small food processor of our hand blender, you can find it on amazon. It works amazingly when making curry paste, pesto, or other dips and sauces.

To prepare the curry paste, simply add all the ingredients into your food processor or blender jug and blend until you have the right paste consistency.

If the mixture is too dry, you can add some water used to hydrate the chilis, just enough to give the mixture the right consistency.

If you end up with a mixture that is too wet, you can add a little bit more cumin and coriander powder.

The curry paste can be frozen, and it will last for months in the freezer, or you can keep it in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.