Thai Green Curry (with Make-Ahead Instructions)

This is a simple way to prepare Thai green curry with vegetables and tofu. Preparing, blanching and freezing the vegetables and tofu ahead of time means that you can make however much you want whenever you want a quick, healthy, homemade meal. It is best served with rice or rice noodles. Here I use rice noodles because they only take several minutes to cook and are done by the time you finish making the broth.

Step 1: Gather Ingredients

To make 4-6 servings, you will need:

8 oz. button mushrooms
1 cup snow peas
2 cups chopped broccoli
8 oz. extra-firm tofu
1.5 cups light coconut milk (the canned kind)
1/4 cup green curry paste
2 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sugar
8 oz rice noodles (I use the thin kind, usually labelled rice sticks), optional

Notes:

You can use any kind of rice noodle, but the cooking time will be different. It is also delicious with rice.
Thai curry paste is commonly found in most grocery stores. If you can't find green curry paste, use whatever you find, such as red curry paste.

Step 2: Prepare Vegetables and Tofu

First, bring a large pot of water to boil.
Meanwhile, wash the mushrooms, broccoli, and snow peas. Chop the mushrooms into quarters and chop the broccoli into ~1 inch pieces. Cut the snow peas in half if you'd like.
When the water comes to a boil and the vegetables are chopped, fill a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes. This will be used to cool the blanched vegetables so that they don't overcook.
Next, blanch the vegetables. To blanch the mushrooms, add them to the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Immediately remove the mushrooms with a slotted spoon and transfer to the ice water. Then blanch the broccoli by the same process, cooking them for 3 minutes. Then blanch the snow peas, cooking them for 1 1/2 minutes. Drain the ice water and pat the vegetables dry.
To prepare the tofu, remove from the package and drain the liquid. Chop into cubes.
Spread out on the vegetables and tofu on baking sheets and freeze for at least one hour. This will prevent them from sticking together when transferred to freezer bags. After the vegetables and tofu cubes are frozen, you can transfer them to freezer bags for easier storage, and leave in the freezer until you want to make the curry.

Notes:

This recipe is very easy to customize. If you want to swap out any of the vegetables, this chart gives blanching times for a variety of vegetables as well as more information on the blanching/freezing process: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/blanching.html
If you don't need to make this recipe in advance, skip the blanching/freezing step and add the raw vegetables and tofu when you bring the broth to a boil, in the next step.

Step 3: Prepare the Curry and Rice Noodles

First, prepare the rice noodles (these instructions are for the thin kind, also called rice sticks or rice vermicelli). Add the rice noodles to a heat proof bowl or pot. Bring about 4 cups of water to a boil (I used an electric kettle), and pour the water over the noodles. Let soak until tender, about 5 minutes, then drain off the water and set aside.
To prepare the green curry broth, heat the coconut milk in a large sauce pan or wok and simmer for 3 minutes. It will reduce and thicken slightly. Add the green curry paste and stir for one minute, until incorporated. Stir in the vegetable broth, soy sauce, and sugar, and bring to a rapid simmer. Add the frozen vegetables and tofu, and stir until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Check vegetables for tenderness with a fork.
To serve, divide the noodles into bowls and top with green curry.