Maggie's Vegan Massaman Curry

I love Thai food. When Shana and I have something to celebrate, or have people in town visiting, or just a craving for an amazing dinner, we head to Thai 9 in Dayton. In the past two months, we've gone 3 times. Once when my family came to visit, once when Shana's family came to visit, and once to celebrate that I'd been awarded tenure!

While everything there is delicious (we think they must have a wall of avocados because they are always ripe), there's one dish they can't make vegan for me: massaman curry. Their recipe includes half & half and fish sauce. After feeling sad about missing out on massaman curry, I figured I would try to make my own.

In my explorations of possible recipes online, so many had ingredient lists full of things I knew I couldn't get in my town. I started feeling a bit hopeless. But then, one of the recipes I saw had an aside about a really good pre-made curry paste that was also vegan! I jumped on the chance to have massaman curry in my own kitchen and purchased two cans from Amazon. I didn't need to make this more than once; I ordered more the next day. Now I can have massaman curry whenever the mood strikes.

Maggie's Vegan Massaman Curry
Ingredients
1 medium/large onion, chopped
4 red potatoes (slightly larger than a golf ball), cut into 1/2 pieces
2 large carrots, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 can Maesri massaman curry paste
2 cans coconut milk
1 block extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2-1 inch pieces
1/2 c. peanuts (or more)

Directions
1. Saute onions over medium-high heat in a large pot with a little bit of oil.
2. Add carrots, peppers, potatoes and curry paste, stir around a bit.
3. Add coconut milk, stir well, and reduce heat to simmer until veggies are soft.
4. When veggies are soft, add tofu. Stir occasionally until tofu is heated through.
5. Garnish with peanuts and serve over basmati rice.

Helpful Hints

• If you'd like to add other veggies, feel free! Google massaman curry recipes and see what other folks put in there and then do what you like. Some of the things I've seen in other recipes are spicy peppers or tomatoes. 
• You could also take out the tofu and sub in something like chickpeas. However, it will still not be soy-free, as the paste has soy in it. But, this is a gluten-free dish!
• Given the amount of coconut milk (and corresponding amount of fat) in this dish, this is not a meal we eat with regularity. However, this dish is worth it every time. 

The post "Maggie's Vegan Massaman Curry" first appeared on Maggie's LesVegan Kitchen.