Thai Yellow Curry Paste
My daughter and I love ordering yellow curry from our local Thai restaurant because it’s so comforting, flavorful, and spicy. I stumbled upon this Thai yellow curry paste recipe on Pinch of Yum that I had to try. I made a delicious vegetable curry over garlic rice for dinner using the paste, and it was wonderful! Seriously, so good. Next time, I will make the full batch and freeze the other portions.
Thai Yellow Curry Paste
Ingredients:
- 2 large shallots, peeled & halved lengthwise
- 2Â large full heads of garlic
- 1 (3-inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled & thinly sliced
- 2-7 whole Thai chili peppers, to taste
- 2 ¼ tsp salt
- 1-1½ tbsp turmeric, to taste
- 1-1½ tbsp mild curry powder, to taste
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1½ tbsp lemongrass paste
- 2 tbsp packed cilantro leaves and stems
How to Make Thai Yellow Curry Paste
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Peel the shallots, then slice them in half lengthwise. Place them on a piece of foil, then drizzle with some olive oil and wrap tightly.
Remove the outer paper from the garlic. Slice the tops off the heads of garlic so the cloves are partially exposed.
Drizzle with oil, and wrap each head of garlic in foil.
Peel the ginger and slice it into thin slices. Arrange in a single layer, drizzle with oil, and wrap in foil.
Place all the foil packets on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for 15 minutes.
Remove the ginger (it should be softened), increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Continue roasting the shallots and garlic for 30 minutes, until golden brown and very fragrant. Open the packets and let them cool.
Make the curry paste by squeezing the garlic from its casings into the food processor.
Add all the other ingredients, using only two red chilies to start with.
Pulse or puree until the yellow curry paste reaches your desired consistency. Taste and add more Thai chilies if desired.
The paste will keep for about a week in the fridge, and it freezes well.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 large shallots peeled & halved lengthwise
- 2 large full heads of garlic
- 1 3-inch piece of fresh ginger peeled & thinly sliced
- 2-7 whole Thai chili peppers to taste
- 2¼ tsp salt
- 1-1½ tbsp turmeric to taste
- 1-1½ tbsp mild curry powder to taste
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1½ tbsp lemongrass paste
- 2 tbsp packed cilantro leaves and stems
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Peel the shallots, then slice them in half lengthwise.
- Place them on a piece of foil, then drizzle with some olive oil and wrap tightly.
- Remove the outer paper from the garlic. Slice the tops off the heads of garlic so the cloves are partially exposed.
- Drizzle with oil, and wrap each head of garlic in foil.
- Peel the ginger and slice it into thin slices.
- Arrange in a single layer, drizzle with oil, and wrap in foil.
- Place all the foil packets on a baking sheet and place them in the oven for 15 minutes.
- Remove the ginger (it should be softened), increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Continue roasting the shallots and garlic for 30 minutes, until golden brown and very fragrant. Open the packets and let them cool.
- Make the curry paste by squeezing the garlic from its casings into the food processor.
- Add all the other ingredients, using only two red chilies to start with.
- Pulse or puree until the yellow curry paste reaches your desired consistency.
- Taste and add more Thai chilies if desired.
Cool that you made the curry paste from the scratch. I am saving this to try. Have never seen that lemongrass paste here, I guess I need to get some fresh one to make this.
I use Thai curry paste all the time but had never thought of making my own, Thanks for this it will make life easier when the shops run out which they so often do!! Take care Diane
Homemade is good. I didn’t know I could get the lemongrass in paste in a tube. So convenient. Thanks for posting that.
I can never find yellow curry paste at the store when I want it, but this is such a great reminder to just make it myself!!
Can I just say, I don’t cook much.
Hardly anything. Decided to try making this and the actual dish….it turned out amazing. I’ve attempted yellow curry several times in the past, but it’s always been terrible (and always been with store bought paste, maybe that’s why).
For someone who is pretty green in the kitchen, you made a recipe that was easy to follow and extremely delicious (I ended up using 5 chilies and a dash of chili powder and it still wasn’t spicy enough tho maybe another chili would have worked). 5/5 stars though, keeping this recipe.
Made this for the first time last month, but halved the recipe as i wanted to try it out first before making a larger batch. It was amazing!!! Making a large batch today and sharing with friends. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
This was easy to make and very flavourful. Three Thai chilli peppers was perfect heat for us. Thanks for sharing this recipe!