I had never eaten Thai food growing up in India. But when I came to the US, the closest food that I could find to the Indian food taste was Thai food. Their curries became my favorite instantly - panany curry, red curry or green curry with perfect jasmine rice. This recipe is to prepare Panang Curry with Tofu and Vegetables.
After some years of eating Thai food only in restaurants, I discovered how quick and easy they were to make at home. It is basically a quick one-pot meal. So you can imagine it is perfect to cook in an instant pot. You can make it either way, in a pot on the stove top or in an instant pot, as I only used the sauté setting in the instant pot and do not pressure cook this curry.
Panang Curry Paste
The main ingredients in the panang curry recipe are - panang curry paste, coconut milk, tofu and mixed vegetables. I used the below paste from the asian market. This one is vegetarian. Most of the other thai paste' contain shrimp, so if you are a vegetation, I suggest to always check the ingredients. There are other options available on amazon.
You can add any vegetables that you have handy in this recipe - bell peppers, beans, mushrooms, broccoli or baby corn. You can even add pineapple and it is delicious.
Try this delicious panang curry with jasmine rice.
Check out other recipes made in a pressure cooker - Vegan Thai Green Curry, Panang Curry with Chicken and Garlic Noodles.
Vegan Panang Curry with Tofu
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 4 tablespoon Panang Curry Paste
- 2 cans Coconut Milk
- 14 ounces Tofu Firm
- 1 cup Pineapple cut in medium pieces (optional)
- 1 lb Mixed vegetables cut in medium pieces (carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, bell peppers)
- 10 leaves Thai Basil
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Salt or to taste
Instructions
- Heat pot in sauté mode. Heat oil and then add the panang curry paste. Mix well.
- Add the coconut milk. The paste should be completely mixed with the coconut milk. Cook for 2 minutes while stirring continuously.
- Add the tofu, vegetables, pineapple, basil leaves, lemon juice and sugar. Bring to a complete boil and cook for 3-4 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
- Taste and add salt if needed. Panang Curry is ready to be served.
Notes
- If the consistency is thick, you can add water when boiling in step 3. This could happen based on the coconut milk used to make the curry.
- This curry has a little spice. If you want to reduce the spice level, add 3 tbsp of panang curry paste.
- You can use fresh or frozen veggies. Fresh veggies would take 2-3 mins more than frozen to be tender.
Note: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
Hi Meeta,
For clarification, do I need to put it in manual mode for 3 to 4 minutes? If so did you Quick release or natural release after cooking. Please reply. Thank you for this website and sharing your recipes.
Hey Vidya - For this panang curry with tofu, I don't do pressure cooking. Just make it on sauté mode. I hope you enjoy it!
Help! I so want to make Penang curry but the prepared paste is very,very high in salt. Can you tell me how to prepare without using a commercial paste? Thank you
Thanks for checking the blog. That is a good point with commercial panang paste. I have not tried preparing the paste myself yet. I will try it out. I do see other blogs that prepare the paste from scratch, you could try those.
Have you tried substituting paneer for tofu?
Hi Neena - No I have not tried paneer in this recipe. However I have tried adding coconut milk to mutter paneer recipe. You can add more coconut milk in the mutter paneer recipe to get a thinner consistency like panang curry. Let me know how it goes 🙂