Thai Green Curry

Thai Green Curry

⏱ 30 minutes 👥 4 serves

Colour theory in practice. The curry paste is your filter — it saturates everything it touches. Green from chillies and herbs, tempered by coconut milk's neutral base. The final image is vibrant, layered, high-contrast.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Heat a large wok or deep frying pan over medium-high heat. Scoop the thick cream from the top of the coconut milk (about 3–4 tablespoons) into the wok. Let it sizzle and reduce slightly, about 1 minute.
  2. Add the green curry paste and fry, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes until deeply fragrant and the oil begins to separate from the paste. This blooms the spices and develops the flavour base.
  3. Add the chicken pieces and stir to coat in the paste. Cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is sealed and beginning to colour.
  4. Pour in the remaining coconut milk, add the kaffir lime leaves, and bring to a gentle simmer. Stir in the fish sauce and palm sugar.
  5. Add the eggplant and bamboo shoots. Simmer for 10–12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and the eggplant is tender. The sauce should be rich and slightly thickened.
  6. Taste and adjust seasoning — add more fish sauce for salt, sugar for sweetness, or extra curry paste for heat.
  7. Remove from heat and stir through the Thai basil leaves just before serving. The residual heat will wilt them and release their anise-like aroma. Serve over steamed jasmine rice.

Nutrition (per serve)

520 Calories
32g Protein
35g Carbs
28g Fat

The Story

Green curry is about layering flavour the way you layer light. You start with the coconut cream — your base exposure. Then you bloom the curry paste in that fat. Frying the paste activates the aromatics: lemongrass, galangal, green chillies, coriander root. This is your colour filter. Everything that comes after will be tinted by this step.

The chicken absorbs the paste, the coconut milk dilutes and softens it, the fish sauce adds salt and umami, the palm sugar balances the heat. Kaffir lime leaves add citrus without acidity — they're aromatic, not sour. Thai basil comes in at the end: anise, mint, clove. If you add it too early, it turns bitter and loses its colour. Timing is everything.

The eggplant goes creamy, the bamboo shoots stay crisp. Textural contrast. You serve it over jasmine rice because you need something neutral to offset the intensity. The curry is vivid green, high-saturation. The rice is pure white, no colour information. It's composition. The eye needs a place to rest.