Thai green curry paste

I had half a butternut squash left and we were going away for the weekend, so I wanted to use it up. Gipsy Spread has also bought me a giant bowl (you know how I love these!) of green chillies. So, my favourite thai curry flavour was staring me right in the face. With all these green chillies to cook with, I could not possibly cheat by using a jar sauce, but rather had to make my own thai green chilli paste. I admit to cutting a few corners as I didn’t have all the ingredients at my immediate disposal. For example, no kaffir lime leaves, so I replaced these with the zest of a fresh lime. It is also convenient to have lemongrass in water in the fridge if you can’t always get your hands on fresh lemongrass. It does the job just fine and it is what I used. Blue Dragon produce this.


What you will need
2 stalks of lemongrass (or dried if unavailable)
2 spring onions
6 fresh green chillies
1 lime, grated zest and juice
8 kaffir lime leaves, torn into pieces (or the grated zest of 1 extra lime)
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 tea spoon of sugar
5cm fresh ginger
4-5 black peppercorns
A small bunch of fresh coriander
1 tea spoon ground coriander
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon soy sauce


This couldn’t be any simpler if I tried. I placed the lemon grass, spring onions, green chillies, ginger, black pepper and garlic, with the lime juice and zest (in place of kaffir lime leaves) into the blender with the fresh coriander. When this was all blended to a pulp, I added the ground coriander and cumin and soy sauce and mixed through to create the paste.

You could add less green chillies if you wish, but remember this is what helps give this curry it's name and distinctive flavour
You won’t need all of the paste, so I recommend freezing the rest of it. This makes eight portions, so treat as necessary.


The paste can be stirred into any vegetable, fish or meat ingredients and then simply topped off with coconut milk and cooked off for as long as is needed to cook through.

I like this spicy effort with the sublime sweetness of butternut squash and green peas.