Thai green curry is one of those dishes that you need to spend time putting together to get the best flavour from your paste. But can you batch cook it and can you freeze Thai curry or not?
Can You Freeze Thai Green Curry?
Yes, you can freeze Thai green curry for up to 3 months. But don’t just jump ahead and throw it in the freezer as there’s more to it to ensure it freezes well. You’ll need to bag it up and seal it airtight before storing it in the freezer.
Do Does Thai Curry freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Thai Green Curry? No
How To Freeze Thai Green Curry
Firstly, you need to let your Thai green curry completely cool to room temperature. You don’t want to put a warm curry into the freezer.
- Prepare: Grab some thick freezer bags. You’ll often find that if you use plastic containers, the curry will dye them. To avoid this, we recommend using thick freezer bags to freeze your Thai curry.
- Portion: Scoop your curry into the bag – try to place a portion in each bag so you can easily defrost the correct amount in future.
- Seal: Seal the bag up, squeezing out as much air as you can as you seal it. The best way to do this is to seal the bag 90% of the way before squeezing the air out and sealing the final 10% up.
- Freeze: Place the bags into the freezer.
Freezer-Friendly Curry Recipes
Try out one of these delicious recipes that are perfect for freezing:
How to Freeze Thai Green Curry Paste
The flavour of any Thai green curry comes from the paste you make. If you put time and effort into making your paste, you’ll be rewarded with bags of flavour. The problem, of course, is that making a paste does take time and effort.
So the question is, can you get ahead and prepare a bulk lot of curry paste and store it in the freezer? Well, yes you can!
But before you do so, you could consider storing it in the fridge. All you need to do is scoop your paste into a Kilner jar, top it up with oil to seal it then secure the lid. This will keep in the fridge for around a month.
If you find you eat curry a lot then this can be a far easier way to store it. If, however, you want to store it for a few more months then give freezing it a go:
You’ll need your trusty ice cube tray for this one. There is a risk that the tray will become slightly stained from your curry paste so be warned!
- Portion Into Ice Cubes: Scoop your paste into the slots of an ice cube tray – you want to fill each slot around 80% of the way.
- Seal with Oil: Top each slot up with a drizzle of olive oil.
- Wrap: Wrap your tray in a sheet of clingfilm then place it in the freezer.
- Final Freeze: Once your cubes have frozen solid, you can remove them from the freezer and pop them out into a bag before returning to the freezer. This frees up your ice cube tray and saves space.
When you’re ready to cook a curry, you can grab a cook from the freezer and pop it straight into a pan.
3 Tips for Freezing Thai Green Curry
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing Thai green curry to have the best results:
Refrigerate for a Day
If you leave your curry in the fridge overnight before freezing it, you’ll find the flavours have time to develop and your curry will taste even better. It’s a bit like a stew that tastes better the following day.
Use Good-Quality Bags
Avoid leakages and smells escaping by ensuring your use good-quality, thick freezer bags.
Label Clearly
Labelling frozen products is vital. This is especially important if you have frozen a few types of green curry. Perhaps you’ve frozen a chicken curry and a vegetarian version? Make sure you know which is which.
How Long Can You Freeze Thai Green Curry?
We would avoid freezing your Thai green curry for any longer than 3 months – especially if you have made it with coconut milk or low-fat dairy products such as single cream or yoghurt.
The longer you leave these products in the freezer, the greater the risk it will split and the texture of your curry will become peculiar.
Having said that, beyond 3 months, your curry will still be perfectly safe to eat.
How Do You Defrost Thai Green Curry?
The best approach to take with defrosting Thai green curry is to do so slowly in the fridge overnight. Simply grab a bag of frozen curry, place it into a bowl and leave it in the fridge overnight.
If it hasn’t fully thawed overnight then you can place it on your kitchen countertop for a few hours before reheating.
You then just need to tip the contents of the curry into a pot and then reheat it slowly over a low heat.
If you want to defrost curry paste then this is also easy. In fact, it’s easier! You just need to grab a cube directly from the freezer and pop that into a pan. You’ll want to thaw it over a really low heat.
If you do it over a high eat you risk frying or burning the outside of your paste cube before the centre has defrosted.
Can You Refreeze Thai Green Curry?
We would strongly advise against refreezing Thai green curry – especially if it contains meat which can make for the perfect place for bacteria to grow. Instead, try to freeze the curry in suitable portions.
Does Thai Green Curry Freeze Well?
Thai green curry can freeze well. Like stews, curries tend to be quite wet which means they freeze well. The meat and vegetables in your curry will be submerged by the liquid which helps them to freeze well and protects them from freezer burn.
There is a caveat, however. Coconut milk can split when frozen so if you have made your Thai green curry with coconut milk then you may notice a textural change when you come to thawing and reheating it.
Curries made with tinned tomatoes or stock will freeze better. It will be safe to eat coconut milk that has slightly split but you may find the texture a little grainy.
All in all, Thai green curry will freeze pretty well.
Thai Green Curry Freezer Recipe
Thai green curry can come in many forms. You get those which are true to roots and full of authentic flavours. You get those which are knocked together with a jar-bought sauce a some diced chicken.
Our recipe is a combination of the two. It’s not too complicated but it packs a punch and is full of flavour.
We’ve included our easy Thai paste recipe too but, if you’re pushed for time, no one is going to judge you for buying a premade paste (some of them are pretty good):
Freezer-Friendly Thai Green Curry Recipe
6
servings20
minutes30
minutes50
minutesGreen curry is the most associated dish of Thailand and this recipe doesn’t disappoint – especially when you can pop leftovers into the freezer!
Keeps the screen of your device ON
Ingredients
- For the Paste
1tsp Salt
10 Green Chillies, Sliced
3tbsp Galangal, Sliced
3tbsp Ginger, Sliced
2 Lemongrass Stalks, Sliced
1tbsp Lime Zest, Grated
Handful Coriander, Roughly Chopped
3 Shallots, Sliced
1 Garlic Clove, Sliced
1tsp Shrimp Paste (or 2tsp Fish Sauce)
1tbsp Ground Coriander Seeds
- For the Curry
2tbsp Thai Curry Paste
220g Potatoes, Cut Into 2cm Chunks
100g Green Beans, Halved
100g Peas
1tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 Garlic Cloves, Sliced
400ml Coconut Milk
1tsp Fish Sauce
1tsp Palm Sugar (or Caster Sugar)
500g Diced Chicken (or Tofu Pieces)
3 Strips Lime Zest
Handful of Thai Basil Leaves (or Italian)
Directions
- First, you need to make your Thai curry paste. You can do this either in a pestle and mortar or a food processor. If using a food processor, then throw all the paste ingredients in and process until smooth. If using a pestle and mortar then start with the salt and chillies before slowly adding the ingredients from the list above in order.
- Once you’ve made the paste, scoop it into an airtight container and then place it in the fridge for a month or so as this recipe will make more paste than you’ll need to make the curry.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and then pop your potato pieces in and cook for around 5 minutes then add your green beans and peas in and cook for another 3 minutes. After this, everything should just be cooked – you don’t want things too soft!
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan then add in your paste and sliced garlic and cook for a minute. Make sure you keep things moving so nothing burns.
- Once your kitchen is full of fragrant smells, tip the coconut milk into the pan, scrape anything off the bottom and then wait for it to start bubbling. Stir in the fish cause, sugar and then the chicken (or tofu) pieces. Simmer for around 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Tip the potatoes and vegetables into the curry along with the strips of lime zest and warm the vegetables through. Then add in your basil leaves and immediately remove the pan from the heat.
- Serve it up with boiled rice or a Thai roti if you want to eat it now. If you plan on freezing it, then allow it to cool before freezing it in airtight containers.
Notes
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing Thai green curry or curry in general, then these may help:
Yes, Thai red curry can be frozen. Once cooked and cooled, portion it into good-quality freezer bags, seal and freeze. You can use plastic containers too but the curry will dye them.
Freezing curry paste from a jar is perfectly safe. Scoop portions of it out into an ice cube tray, top up with a little oil to seal and then freeze. Once the cubes are solid, you can pop them out and store them in a freezer bag.
Sources
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