Pan-seared portobello slabs are simmered in a rich sauce of coconut milk, peanut butter and red curry to create this succulent vegan remake of a Thai classic.
I totally cheated with this one, but that's okay. Let me explain.
Have you had panang curry before? It's delicious. Much like red curry, but better. (Yes, that's possible.) I wanted to create a vegan version for the blog for a while, I've never come across a commercial brand of panang curry paste, and I'm guessing that if one is out there, it probably isn't vegan. And while I am a fan of whipping up DIY curry pastes as fun little projects when I have the time, it's nice to know I can rely on something easy and store-bought.
I always kind of wondered if I could pull it off with red curry paste, but I thought that would be cheating. Then I happened to see a comment on this recipe dealing with that very question. I took that as an invitation to go ahead and do as I pleased.
What I ended up doing for my cheater's portobello panang curry is pretty simple. Red curry + full fat coconut milk + peanut butter. And a few other seasonings to boot, but that's pretty much it, and it was just fine by me. Tasty as heck, in fact, and yes, between all that peanutty and coconutty goodness, pretty darn rich, but so worth it. Since beef panang curry seems to be a big thing, went and included some big fat meaty portobello mushrooms in lieu of the tofu and/or mixed veggies I might normally be inclined to go with in a Thai curry. If you're more of a tofu and veggies type of person, be my guest. This sauce would taste good on just about anything.
Portobello Panang Curry
Ingredients
- 1-14 oz. can full fat coconut milk
- 2-4 tbsp. vegan red curry paste to taste
- 2 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
- 2 tbsp. maple syrup
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari or to taste
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 4 large portobello caps stemmed, cleaned and cut into ½ inch thick strips
- 1 red bell pepper sliced into strips
For Serving
- cooked jasmine rice
- ¼ cup chopped roasted peanuts
- 2 scallions chopped
- ½ cup fresh basil leaves loosely packed
Instructions
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Whisk coconut milk, curry paste, peanut butter, maple syrup and soy sauce together in a medium bowl. You can warm the mixture up a bit if needed to fully blend.
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Coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil and place over medium heat. Working in batches if needed, add portobello strips in a single layer and cook until browned on bottoms, about 5 minutes. Flip and cook 5 minutes more.
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Add coconut milk mixture and bell pepper. Raise heat and bring to a simmer. Lower heat and allow to cook, stirring occasionally, until peppers and mushrooms are tender, 10 minutes.
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Divide rice onto plates and top with mushroom mixture. Sprinkle with scallions, basil and peanuts. Serve.
Recipe Notes
As far as vegan curry paste options go, Maesri is my favorite. This time around I used Thai Kitchen though, just because it's milder, which I think works better for this type of curry.
Nutrition information does not include rice.
Love panang curry, and LOVE the meatiness of the mushrooms in this, yummy!
Just made this tonight with only 1/2 the coconut milk and it was delicious!!!
Great idea, love all the recipes I try of yours
I love this recipe! You need to write a book - I have tried so many vegan bloggers recipes with mixed results. Your recipes are consistently the most consistent...and delicious! :) Thanks for all you do!
Is there a way to reduce the amount of coconut milk in this recipe without sacrificing that special panang flavor? I am trying to make this healthier because I love it so much!!
It's a very saucy dish, so you could probably get away with cutting back on all of the sauce ingredients listed in step 1 by a third to a half. Another option is to try using light coconut milk or even cut it with some almond milk. :) I hope you enjoy it!!
This is such an easy fix, liked y almost everyone, - Just made it two nights in a row for two different sets of pop-up guests.
I was running low on bell pepper the second night, added a couple of hand fulls of spinach last minute of cooking for wilting.
Also added a generous sprinkle of lemon juice at serving.
Love it!
Thank you for a fantastic recipe!
Spinach sounds like a delicious addition! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Mette!
FYI Maesri makes a panang curry paste. Also available on amazon, and ingredients are listed there. Only addition over their Red is bay leaves, otherwise it's the same, just different ratios. It's definitely my favorite.
Maesri is my favorite store bought vegan brand! :)
Just a hint from Thailand, add just a little (2-3 leaves) of what we call Makgroot or you would call kafir lime leaves finely chopped, with the panaeng curry when it's cooking. NOW that's a superb Thai Penang curry ;-) BTW if you want to make vegan penang curry paste just replace the fish sauce with soy sauce and there's plenty of recipes for it on the web.
Thanks for the tips!