Thai Style Vegetable Green Curry, a Meat Free Monday recipe

I often cook a green chicken curry with some vegetables included especially if I have eggplant needing to be used, but this time, using the Five Tastes Green Curry Paste in a vegetarian version I was so thrilled with the amazing flavour of this curry, minus the chicken. Thai food is a very popular cuisine in Australia, partly due to our proximity to South East Asia, our climate, and the ease with which we can grow many fresh Asian herbs and vegetables. It just tastes so very good. 

There are probably as many Thai restaurants as Chinese ones in Australia now, well where I live there are anyhow. Back in the day before Covid, when restaurants were operating at full capacity, dining out at a Thai Restaurant was one of our favourite options. So dear reader, do you prefer Chinese, Thai or Indian food? I don't remember Thai food being as popular in the United Kingdom or Europe when we were travelling, but Indian food certainly was. Let's dine vicariously in Thailand. 

 Meat Free Monday seems to be catching on as a lifestyle choice now, for the future of the planet and our health, and we certainly don't  miss eating meat a couple of nights a week. Meat Free Mondays was officially launched in Australia back in 2012, by Chris Riedy, Professor of Sustainability Governance at the Institute of Sustainable Futures, UTS (University of Technology, Sydney), or so I just read. For those of us who want to make a difference but who aren't vegetarians, this seems like a good compromise There are all kinds of food traditions in families these days, which gives the kids and the parents something to look forward to I guess. How about Meat Free Monday, Taco Tuesday, Pasta Wednesday or Wacky Wednesday (fun stuff for the kids),  Pizza Thursday, Pie Day Friday (used to be Fish and Chips), and anything goes on the weekend using up leftovers, although I still love the idea of the Sunday roast. Sunday night used to be Scotch pancakes when I was living at home. What a treat.

If you decide to try this recipe and I really hope you do, I urge you not to leave out the kaffir lime leaves, the lime juice, the fish sauce, or the basil leaves, they pack a punch of flavour.  I am lucky to be able to grow a kaffir lime tree here, I use my kaffir lime leaves so often, it's worthwhile having a tree just for those fragrant leaves. The sweet basil is growing beautifully now that it is warming up as well.

Do you try to eat a meat free meal at least once a week? I might just make this one again this Monday, we love it so much and it's so easy to prepare. Make the sauce ahead of time, and add the veg and reheat when you are ready to eat.

Let's Cook:

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant

200g pumpkin, peeled ( used Jap pumpkin but butternut would be fine)

1 zucchini

1/2 small cauliflower

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

2 eshallots, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons Thai green curry paste ( I prefer the Five Tastes brand)

400 ml coconut milk

1 cup (250ml) vegetable stock

2 kaffir lime leaves, shredded, with extra to garnish

200g green beans, trimmed

Juice of 1 lime

Thai fish sauce

Coriander leaves and Thai basil leaves, to garnish

Here I go again. I've already typed this up once, but obviously the automatic save isn't working, grrr!

Method:

• Cut eggplant, pumpkin and zucchini into 2cm pieces.
• Separate cauliflower florets into small pieces
• Heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat (I use a scanpan).
• Add eschallots and cook for about 7-9 minutes, or until soft.
• Add curry paste and cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes
• Pour in coconut milk and vegetable stock
• Add kaffir lime leaves and simmer for 5 minutes
• Add pumpkin and eggplant, cover and simmer on a low heat for 5 minutes
• Add beans, zucchini and cauliflower, cover and simmer for a further 5 minutes
• When vegetables are tender, add lime juice and a dash of fish sauce
• Season to taste and sprinkle with coriander and Thai basil.

Serve with steamed rice. I like it with some of my Sweet Chilli Jam as well. This recipe is based on the David Herbert suite of recipes published in the Weekend Australian recently. I try to see what he's up to.

The Aussie Backyard Bird Count is on. This is our checklist of birds today, although we submitted two bird counts. Didn't get them all the first time.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Aussie Backyard Bird Count. Mr. HRK and I have been enjoying devoting 20 minutes late each afternoon for the the past week recording the birds visiting our backyard. He makes an excellent bird spotter whilst I enter the data on the app., although I do spot some as well. Today he saw 6 Yellow-bill spoonbills flying over, I've never seen them before. So far this time, 4,110,699 birds have been counted, from 129,473 submitted checklists, a great effort for the twitchers. 

Are you doing the bird count as well? It's fun isn't it and it's free.

 

Warm wishes,

Pauline