Thai Basil Curry

Curries are one of my favorite food categories! They are my safe haven when I eat out and one of my first choices when I have guests. Almost everyone of any age loves them – as long as they are not too spicy! Don’t get me wrong! I do love spicy, and I do love spices but, not everyone does! Here’s where you come in and push the heat-control-button! The flavors are all taken care of in this Thai curry; you just determine how spicy you want it to be! If you ask me about the difference between Thai basil and sweet basil, I would say that Thai basil has a spicier, stronger flavor with even a hint of anise in it. As a little experiment, I tasted leaves from both plants side by side and then added Thai basil to one half of the recipe and sweet basil to the other half. My taste buds declared Thai basil the winner. This doesn’t mean you can’t use the other one in this recipe. I promise, it won’t taste Italian! You just might have to add a little bit more of it. The flavor is very similar!

Ingredients: (for 6 servings)

For the sweet potato mash:

• 1 large sweet potato, diced (peeling optional)
• 3 pieces fresh turmeric, grated (peeling not necessary, if organic)
• 1 cup vegetable broth

For the curry:

• 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 red or sweet onion, quartered lengthwise, then sliced
• 10 oz (280 g) shiitake mushrooms, hard stem ends removed, sliced
• 2 carrots, greens removed, sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• thumb-size piece of fresh ginger, minced (peeling not necessary, if organic)
• 2 (14 oz / 400 ml) cans full fat coconut milk
• sweet potato mash (from above)
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup
• 3-4 Tbsp gluten free soy sauce (*substitute with coconut aminos for soy free and read notes!)
• 1 Tbsp brown rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp salt free Thai seasoning
• 1 (14 oz / 400 g) can sliced bamboo shoots, drained
• 1 (8 oz / 230 g) can sliced water chestnuts, drained
• crushed red pepper (none: mild), (1 tsp: medium hot), (2 tsp: hot), (3 tsp: your own risk)
• 2 generous Tbsp brown rice miso paste
• 1 cup (240 ml) plant milk
• 1 cup (110 g) petite green peas (frozen)
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 8 sweet mini peppers, cored, halved, sliced or 2 small red/orange bell peppers, cored, quartered, sliced
• generous ½ cup Thai basil, minced

Garnish:

• more Thai basil, minced or leaves
• 1 Tbsp black sesame seeds

Serve with your favorite rice!

Preparation:

Wash and cut vegetables.

Place sweet potato and turmeric into a medium-size saucepan, add vegetable broth, and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are soft. Most of the water will have evaporated. Remove from heat and thoroughly mash the mixture into a purée. Set aside.

Preheat a large, heavy pot or wok over medium heat, then add extra virgin olive oil with onion. Sauté for about 5 minutes until onion is soft and lightly browned.

Add shiitake mushrooms, carrots, garlic, and ginger and increase heat to medium-high. Sauté the vegetables for another 5-10 minutes until mushrooms are lightly browned.

Now add coconut milk and sweet potato mash.

Stir in maple syrup, soy sauce, brown rice vinegar, Thai seasoning, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and crushed red pepper to your liking. Start with less, you can always add more later. Cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat.

Meanwhile, gradually blend miso paste with plant milk to dissolve it. Stir this mixture with frozen peas, celery, and peppers into the curry and cook until peas are thawed and curry is hot but not boiling. Incorporate Thai basil, stir well, and garnish with black sesame seeds and more Thai basil.

Serve with rice of your choice and enjoy!

Notes:

• I served this curry with a wild rice blend which is not very Thai but I absolutely love the hearty flavor and texture. Perfect choices are also brown basmati or brown jasmine rice.
• Miso is actually a Japanese staple ingredient but I recently learned that there is a Thai counterpart called  ‘tao jiew’. I didn’t want to send you on a quest for ‘tao jiew’, so miso paste is perfectly fine. Because both versions are fermented, they are good sources of probiotics or healthy gut bacteria. They like it warm, can take some heat, but are lost wen you simmer them. That’s why you should only bring the curry back to heat and not even simmer in the last phase.
• *) If you want to avoid soy products, you can use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce. You might have to cut back on the maple syrup though. Coconut aminos have a sweet touch.