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photo of a light pink oval melamine dish on a blue background (painted wood). The dish sets at a 45 degree angle. The plate contains stir fried seitan with red curry paste and green beans. Some of the green beans are tied into knots.
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Vegan pad prik king ผัดพริกขิง

Pad prik king is a red curry stir fry that comes together in a flash and is a favourite for good reason. Some recipes call for more sugar than I do. Start with 2 teaspoons and add more to suit.
Cuisine: Thai
Servings: 2 servings, with rice

Ingredients

  • 200 grams seitan or firm tofu see notes
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons red curry paste see notes1
  • 100 grams green or long beans cut into approx 1 ½ inch pieces
  • 2-3 teaspoons palm sugar
  • 1-2 teaspoons thin Thai soy sauce see notes2
  • 2 makrut lime leaves deveined and sliced thinly
  • long red chilli julienned (optional)

Instructions

If you're using seitan

  • Slice the seitan into thin medallion-ish shapes.

If you're using tofu

  • Slice the tofu into bite size rectangles around ¼ inch thick. For better texture, I recommend you boil the tofu prior to frying (read about why you should boil tofu). Bring a pot of reasonably salted water to the boil, add the tofu, and simmer for 10 minutes. Then strain the tofu, lay it on a tea towl, and pat it dry. Leave for 20 minutes or so to cool properly.

For the stir fry

  • Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok to medium heat. Add the curry paste and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring to break it up (if it's a fresh curry paste, cook it until the raw garlic and shallot smells have dissipated).
  • Knock the heat up to somewhere North of medium high and add the seitan or tofu. Stir fry for a couple minutes until you see some light browning.
  • Add 2 tablespoons of water or stock, the beans, sugar and 1 teaspoon of the soy sauce. Stir to combine and have a taste of the sauce. Add the other teaspoon of soy sauce you favour more salt.
  • Continue to cook for 2-3 more minutes. The beans should still have some crunch left in them. Serve garnished with lime leaves and chilli alongside steamed jasmine rice.

Notes

  1. For this recipe I use this red curry paste recipe, but storebought pastes will also work. Be mindful that salt contents vary between different curry pastes, so you may need to adjust for this by using more or less soy sauce in the recipe.
  2. Not all soy sauces are made the same. While you can get away with using a Chinese or Japanese brand of soy sauce, I recommend using Thai soy sauce as that is what this recipe has been tested with. Read this Thai soy and seasoning sauce primer for more information.