Today’s theme for Vegan MoFo is to recreate a restaurant meal.

There is a Thai restaurant in my town called Tong-D that is really vegan friendly. However, at one point I was assuming my favorite dish I used to get, Peanut Massaman Curry with tofu was fully vegan based on the description on the menu. Well, one day my mom went a step further than I did, and tried to confirm that it was vegan with the waiter. They wouldn’t say what is in it that does not make it vegan, but I knew from that point on it wasn’t. So, I’ve eaten there other times and ordered different stuff, but I’ve missed this particular dish.

A few months ago I went to Market Basket and found a package of Massaman Curry paste that’s both vegan and gluten free. The implications for this ingredient was obvious. I was going to recreate this dish. And since I could, instead of tofu, I decided to use Beyond Meat Chicken Free Strips.

Additionally, the restaurant in particular has the most amazing coconut rice they serve as a side. It’s the ultimate comfort food for me. I have been wanting to recreate it for so long, but all of the recipes I’ve tried online do not come out as good. So, I decided to try and experiment with how I think it should be done to re-create the taste, and it actually came out pretty much exactly spot-on.

Peanut Massaman Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 package Kanokwan Massaman Curry Paste
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 9 oz package Beyond Meat Chicken Free Strips
• 1 onion, sliced into strips
• about 2 cups chopped red potatoes
• 1/3 cup peanuts, plus more for topping

Directions:

1. Steam potatoes in a covered microwave proof bowl or casserole dish with a small amount of water (you don’t want to cover the potatoes with the water). Microwave for about 5 minutes or until a fork can easily be inserted into a piece. You don’t want it anywhere near the softness you’d need for mashed potatoes
2. Pour the coconut milk into a heavy bottomed saucepan and put the curry paste into it. Stir on the stove on medium heat constantly until the paste melts and oil appears on the top.
3. Mix in the peanut butter until it melts.
4. Add the chicken free strips and cover, stirring occasionally until they defrost.
5. Add the onions and microwaved potatoes.
6. Turn to low heat and stir every so often until the onions are soft.
7. Fold in the peanuts.
8. Serve with coconut rice (recipe below) and top with peanuts.

Thai Coconut Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup jasmine rice
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

1. Mix the sugar into the coconut milk and water.
2. Place the rice and coconut milk, sugar, and water mixture into a saucepan or rice cooker bowl.
3. You basically cook this as you would normal rice (if you don’t know how to cook rice on the stove, I highly suggest you invest in a rice cooker. They are usually $20 or less and make perfectly cooked rice every time. They also make cooking a heck of a lot easier because you can focus on other things–like making curry– while your rice is cooking.) You may need to stir it a bit more at the end before letting it sit for a bit. It turns out my rice cooker was broken when I went to use it, and so I had steamed the mixture for a bit before I had to transfer it to a pan to cook on the stove. It still came out awesome.

Enjoy! The first full week of MoFo is done, and was pretty successful! Yay!