Vegan Thai-inspired pad ped! This red curry stir fry is made with eggplant, snap peas and tofu smothered in red curry coconut sauce and dressed with whole peppercorns and fresh basil.
Every now and then, or actually pretty often, I go out to the store and buy a bunch of ingredients to make a recipe, and then I forget about one (or more!) of them when I actually go to make the recipe. I guess that's one of the hazards of making up your own recipes and not having a book remind you to use all of the ingredients.
Anyway, that's why my pad ped doesn't have any cherry tomatoes in it. I'm pretty sure authentic pad ped has cherry tomatoes. At least every version I've ever had does.
So I went out and bought a pint of cherry tomatoes, which was kind of thoughtless to begin with because I still had a couple of ripe cherry tomatoes on my plants out back. And then when I was doing the dishes I glanced over to see my lonely little carton of cherry tomatoes staring at me. Oops.
If you want a more authentic dish, go ahead and throw some cherry tomatoes in towards the end. But I look at it this way: it was still delicious, and by forgetting an ingredient I inadvertently simplified the recipe. We all like simpler recipes, right?
And this recipe is pretty darn simple. Curry paste supplies most of the flavor, but I did include a little extra garlic and ginger, because garlic and ginger are two of my favorite things. The sauce is a super simple mix of red curry paste and coconut milk. And because there's a huge variation in the heat level of red curry paste, you can make it as hot as you like.
The peppercorns add some additional little bursts of spiciness, and basil rounds everything off. I got a big delicious bunch of fresh Italian basil from the produce market, but if you can get your hands on some Thai basil, use that! I planted some in the backyard this year, but didn't have the same luck with that as I did with my cherry tomato plants.
Tofu & Eggplant Red Curry Stir-Fry (Pad Ped)
Vegan Thai-inspired pad ped! This red curry stir fry is made with eggplant, snap peas and tofu smothered in red curry coconut sauce and dressed with whole peppercorns and fresh basil.
Ingredients
- ½ cup full fat coconut milk
- 2-4 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 7 ounces extra firm tofu, drained, pressed and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 small (¾ pound) eggplant, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup snap peas
- 2 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced*
- 2 tablespoons whole peppercorns
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves
- Salt, to taste
- Cooked rice, for serving
Instructions
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Stir the coconut milk, curry paste, soy sauce, and maple syrup together in a small bowl.
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Coat the bottom of a large skillet with 1 tablespoon of oil and place it over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the tofu in an even layer. Cook for about 10 minutes, flipping once or twice to get browning on multiple sides. Remove the tofu from the skillet and transfer it to a plate.
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Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and ginger. Sauté for about 1 minute, until very fragrant. Add the eggplant. Cook for about 5 minutes, until it begins to brown and soften.
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Raise the heat to high and add the snap peas to the skillet. Stir fry for about 2 minutes, until tender-crisp. Return the tofu to the skillet and add the coconut milk mixture, kaffir lime leaves, and peppercorns. Flip a few times and cook about 1 minute more.
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Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the basil. Taste test and season with salt to taste. Adjust any other seasonings to your liking.
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Divide onto plates and serve with rice.
Recipe Notes
*I usually use jarred kaffir lime leaves. About 1 tablespoon should do it for this recipe. You can also buy them dried. If all else fails, substitute a few dashes of lime juice and some zest. The flavor will be a bit different, but still tasty.
I'm getting everything ready to go now-mise en place- but I don't know when to add the garlic and ginger. I'm guessing with the peas?
Oops! Sorry about that! They go in right before the eggplant, but I think if you added them with the peas they should be fine - just a bit more intense in flavor.
Thanks, it was delicious! I think I will add a bit of Thai chili next time.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!!
Can I substitute curry for the curry paste?
The flavor will be totally different if you use curry powder, but it might work. :) If it seems like it's missing something try adding a little lime juice or extra soy sauce!
.😋😋😋😋 ABSOLUTELY DELISH! Added some red pepper and dried crushed chilli, served with udon noodles. Definitely be added to my favourite recipes.
Yay! I'm so happy to hear that!
Love this!!! Made it a number of times already and keep coming back! Wondering if it can be modified to be cooked in an Instant Pot? Any ideas? :)))
So glad you like it! I'm afraid I don't have much experience working with the instant pot (it's on my 2020 list though), so I'm not sure.
Any suggestions on best Thai red curry paste to use? I've used the Thai Kitchen red curry paste several times and it just seems very bland, and not spicy at all despite the label of "hot". I loved this recipe though, great veggie choices! Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it! I find Thai Kitchen to be pretty bland as well. Have you tried Maesri? It's vegan and much more flavorful. Amazon usually has it.