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:
- 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
- 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.
- Mix in the peanut butter until it melts.
- Add the chicken free strips and cover, stirring occasionally until they defrost.
- Add the onions and microwaved potatoes.
- Turn to low heat and stir every so often until the onions are soft.
- Fold in the peanuts.
- 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:
- Mix the sugar into the coconut milk and water.
- Place the rice and coconut milk, sugar, and water mixture into a saucepan or rice cooker bowl.
- 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!
Banana Curl, Vegan Girl 