The Best Vegetable Panang Curry (with video)

Our yummy Panang curry is a tasty, Thai treat you can make at home just about any night of the week. Bursting with a balance of sweet and spicy flavor, this rich and creamy comfort food is surprisingly healthy and a perfect way to get your picky eaters to get more vegetables in their mouths. If you love curry, you must try this easy, less than 30 minute recipe tonight!

What is Panang curry?

Panang curry is a sweet, spicy, and creamy curry originating in Asia. This delicious dish is filling and full of flavors from red chili peppers, coconut cream, and lime. 

Despite being a great comfort food, the curry is actually quite healthy. It is loaded with veggies and all the fat comes from plant based sources. 

You can serve panang curry over rice or rice noodles alongside your favorite Thai inspired veggies.

Panang curry comes from Thailand. You can find the dish at most Thai restaurants around the world with similar veggies, sauce, and taste no matter where you go.

Ingredients for Panang curry recipe

When you make panang curry, you’ll need the following ingredients on hand:

• Organic tofu - look for a firm variety
• Onion 
• Peppers - you’ll need both red bell peppers and green bell peppers
• Carrot
• Green beans 
• Garlic
• Panang curry paste - you should be able to find this in the Asian section of your local store or online
• Thai basil leaves - in a pinch, fresh basil will also work

For the sauce, you’ll need to have the following ingredients:

• Coconut milk
• Creamy peanut butter
• Water
• Soy sauce or tamari
• Coconut sugar - if you can’t find this, you can use granulated sugar
• Sriracha
• Salt 
• Oil
• Half lime juice

How to make Panang curry

• First, rinse your rice until the water runs clear and then place in a stainless container. You will use the pot for a pot-in-pot cooking method for the rice in later steps.
• Next, drain all the water from the tofu package and pat the tofu dry. Once it is dry, cut it into bite sized cubes.
• When the rice and tofu are ready, add the coconut milk and combine peanut butter, soy sauce, sriracha, sugar, and water in a medium bowl. Mix the ingredients until it is smooth.

• Once the sauce is ready, press the sauté button. When the display reads “HOT,” add in the oil, garlic, onions, bell pepper, green beans, and carrots and give it a quick stir.
• Next, add in the panang curry paste and the coconut and peanut sauce and then mix everything together.
• Once the sauce is mixed, stir in the tofu cubs and make sure there are no bits stuck to the bottom. Scraping the bottom can help you avoid the burn notice when pressure cooking.
• After you scrape the bottom, carefully place the trivet in the center of the mixture. Next, place the rice bowl with water on top of the trivet.

• With the trivet and rice and place, cancel the saute mode and then pressure cook for 5 minutes. When it finishes cooking, do a quick release of the remaining pressure and carefully open the lid. We use tongs to easily remove the rice pot and trivet.
• Finally, stir in the chopped Thai basil, green onions, and lime juice. Spoon the rice and then curry into bowls and serve with chopped roasted peanuts as garnish.

Pro tips and tricks to make the best Panang Curry

The following are some helpful tips and tricks that can help you when making this curry. Some things we do to make our lives easier include:

• Always scrape the bottom of the pot before adding in the trivet and rice. This helps ensure you can avoid the burn notice. 
• Don’t overcook the curry. All it needs is 5 minutes of pressure cook time and a few minutes before that on sauté mode.
• If you prefer to serve over rice noodles, skip the rice. It won’t affect how long the panang curry cooks for.

Panang curry vs. red curry

Panang curry and red curry both look similar in color. They are both red curries that use red chilies for heat. But they do have some distinct differences. 

Red curry tends to be hotter and spicier because it uses more red chili peppers than panang curry. 

When you make panang, you add in coconut milk or cream, peanuts, and lime juice for a creamier, slightly less hot curry.

Is Panang curry vegan?

Surprisingly, panang curry is vegetarian but not vegan! The reason is most curry pastes, including panang, uses shrimp paste as a primary ingredient. So this may work if you follow a vegetarian diet that includes sea food, but it does not work if you follow a vegan diet.

However, you can find vegan curry pastes that do not use shrimp paste. We use vegan curry paste in our recipes, which makes the entire dish vegan.&

What to serve with panang curry

Like most curries, panang goes great over rice. When we make rice, we use the pot-in-pot method to save time and so we don’t have to fire up a separate rice cooker or pot. It’s one of the main reasons we love the Instant Pot!

You could also serve the curry over rice noodles. Rice noodles have a slightly different texture and taste than spaghetti noodles used in Italian cooking. They are also a bit sticker and lend themselves well to a thicker curry like panang.

If you love Thai food, you could also serve it alongside some of our other favorites. Some great Thai inspired recipes to try include:

• Pad Thai
• Thai Noodles
• Thai Massaman Curry

How to store & reheat Panang curry

If you make a large batch or just can’t finish it in one sitting, you can definitely store your leftovers. We highly recommend storing any left over rice separately from the curry if you can. 

Place both the curry and rice in separate, air tight containers. You can store the curry for up to 5 days in the fridge with no issues. 

Though you can store rice in the fridge, we recommend making it fresh when you serve your left overs. Reheated rice does not taste as good and tends to clump.

You can reheat it one of two ways. If you are in a hurry or at school or work, you can place the container in the microwave and cook it for about 2 to 3 minutes or until warmed through. 

At home, you can place the curry in a small or medium pot over low heat. As it heats, you may want to stir it a bit to prevent burning on the bottom and to spread the heat throughout.

What’s in panang curry paste?

The ingredients in panang curry recipe paste can vary. 

Unfortunately for vegans, a lot of store bought pastes also contain shrimp paste. But you can look for vegan options that do not use this ingredient to maintain your diet without sacrificing taste.

Some typical ingredients in the paste may include:

• makrut lime leaves
• dried guajillo chiles
• fresh lemongrass stalks
• roasted peanuts
• galangal
• chiles de árbol
• shallot
• freshly ground pepper
• garlic cloves
• kosher salt
• ground cumin
• serrano chiles

Where can I get vegan Panang curry paste

You may be able to find vegan panang curry paste at your local grocery store, but it is not likely. You will probably only find ones with shrimp paste. A local Asian specialty store may carry it.

If you can’t find it locally, you can order it online. We often order a few containers of it at a time so we never run out.

Thai curries

• Thai peanut curry
• Thai Massaman curry

Other Thai Recipes

• Spicy Thai noodles
• Vegan Pad Thai
• Thai Ramen noodles
• Thai basil rice

Let us know what you think

If you make this delicious Panang curry recipe recipe, let us know how it went! When you make this, be sure to take a pic and tag us on Instagram @dbellyrulesdmind or Facebook @thebellyrulesthemind!