A few years ago, wandering the streets of Siem Reap in Cambodia, I happened across a tiny rice paddy. Despite years of frequent travel to the region, this was my first up close and personal encounter with growing rice. A woman approached me, sharing stories of the trouble she was…
Vegan Thai Recipes
From pad thai to gaeng kua kling, these vegan thai food recipes are made with authentic Thai ingredients and knowledge gathered from my many travels to Thailand and numerous hours researching the country's cuisine.
A more authentic pad thai
Chances are you’ve had pat thai before and chances are it tasted good. Chances are also high that, if you had it outside of Thailand, it lacked in authenticity to some degree. As much as I hate the use of the word ‘authentic’ in food discussion and the snobbishness (not…
Why and how to wok: stir fry essentials
If you plan on any serious Thai cooking (or in my opinion, cooking at all), you’re going to want to invest in a carbon steel wok, which will cost you all of a few dollars. Avoid non stick. Like with cast iron, carbon steel will, if seasoned properly, develop a…
Art of Curry: Thai Curry Primer
Thai curries are made up of a pounded paste and a liquid. Personal and regional variations mean there are as many curry pastes as there are people pounding them. There are three major components to any Thai curry, including the paste, the method of cooking, and the final added ingredients….
Vegan Panang Curry
Panang (taken from the name of the island of the West Coast of Malaysia) curry is a peanut rich and creamy red curry that is popular with Westerners. Like with all other Thai curries, this is best served alongside a simple portion of steamed white Jasmine rice. That oily sheen…
Art of curry: boiled versus fried
There are three major methods of preparing curries in Thailand. One, more common in the North, is the rudimentary boiling method that involves heating curry paste in water or stock. Fried curries can either involve frying the paste in oil or frying the paste in cracked coconut cream before adding…
Vegan Red Curry Paste (Prik Gaeng Phet)
Red curry is not one single dish, nor is there a universal red curry paste. Personal preference and regional differences play a role in how a curry paste is made, and that isn’t even touching on variations of use to make a meal. Prik gaeng phet forms the base of…
Art of Curry Paste: Tools of the trade
The good news is you can make a paste and blend spices with a coffee grinder, blender, or spice mill. The bad news is that pounding extracts more flavour than grinding, so the flavour will be a little less pronounced if you use any other method. Normally I would read…
Vegan alternatives to fish sauce, shrimp paste, and oyster sauce in Thai cuisine
Often considered vegetarian in Thai restaurants, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and shrimp paste readily feature in Thai cooking. Furthermore, even if you find a vegan restaurant that does not use shrimp paste and fish sauce, oyster sauce is still a strong possibility as many Thais consider it to be vegan….
Khao Tang (Thai Fried Rice Cakes)
So simple it hardly qualifies as a recipe, these Thai fried rice cakes (khao tang) are made by shaping steamed sticky rice into rounds before baking, sun-drying, or dehydrating the cakes. Once the crackers are completely dry, they are deep fried and used as vessels for different spreads and relishes….
Lon Tao Jiao (Fermented Soybean Dip)
We’ve already discussed nam phrik, the textured spicy Thai relishes pounded with a pestle and mortar. The other sauces in Thai cuisine are lon, which can be considered a softer relish, and are usually cooked. These sauces tend to include a fermented element, such as the fermented soybeans in the…
Vegan Nam Prik Pao (Roasted Chili Jam) Recipe
Add this extraordinary paste to just about anything for an added wow factor (it’s great on toast). I would like to spread it on my life. This is also the sort of foodstuff that, once jarred up and labelled, makes a thoughtful gift. If you use a mason jar, however,…
