You guys all know I’m a sucker for a good curry noodle bowl. There’s just something so incredibly comforting about slippery tender rice noodles laced with a spicy coconut sauce and topped with all manner of bright and crunchy things. While I could eat a bowlful of these noodles any time of the year, it’s during spring when asparagus and bok choy have just come into season that my body craves the freshness of herbs and the zip of lime the most.
Traditionally curry pastes are ground by hand using a mortar and pestle, but for ease and speed I like to use my Vitamix® Ascent® Series high-performance blender with the Blending Bowl as it’s the perfect size for blending small amounts of curry paste, pestos and sauces. We use our Vitamix daily around here, mostly for smoothies using either the full-size container if it’s for the kids and I or the handy blend-and-go Blending Cup if it’s just a single serving that’s required. It also gets a lot of use grinding gluten-free wholegrains into flour (mostly buckwheat and quinoa), which I like to do in small batches if and when needed -it only takes about 45 seconds from wholegrain to fine flour! And making my own nut and seed butters and nut milk is super easy.
Each Vitamix Ascent Series high-performance blender features Variable Speed Control, Pulse, SELF-DETECT™ and Interlock Technologies (meaning you can’t make the MESSY mistake of blending without the lid on, which I’ve done in the past!) and a built in timer. The Vitamix Ascent Series lets you build your own personalised blending system by offering a range of compatible container sizes, either the 225ml Blending Bowl which I’ve used here, or the 600ml Blending Cup we often use for single-serve smoothies. The Ascent also recognises the different containers and automatically adjusts blend settings for their size. Super clever aye.
I know lots of people have a bit of a mental block when it comes to making curry pastes from scratch, thinking it’s too much work and takes too much time to do, but I can assure you it doesn’t and it won’t and homemade pastes ALWAYS taste fresher than store-bought. The longest part of the task is peeling a shallot, garlic cloves and ginger, after that it’s only a matter of seconds to blend the ingredients to a smooth paste. One of the cool features of the Vitamix Ascent Blending Bowl is that you can blend and store in the same bowl. So for days when you know you won’t have a spare 5 minutes to make the paste or for those of us who like to be one-step ahead of ourselves, you can prep the night before and store in the fridge using the same Blending Bowl, all ready to use the following day.
I’ve served this curry sauce over rice noodles, but it’s also amazing over jasmine rice if you prefer. Change the vegetables to suit what you have on hand, and while you can absolutely just cook the vegetables in the curry sauce, I really like giving them a quick blanch first and just lightly coating them in the sauce so they retain their own individual flavour and texture. But I’ll leave that up to you to decide which route to go. I’ve kept this really simple and light, however to make it into a balanced meal, serve with some grilled tofu or tempeh or a boiled egg or two (if you eat eggs).
Spring coconut noodle bowl
Ingredients
- 400 packet thin (flat) dried rice noodles
- 1 tablespoon peanut or coconut oil
- 1 lemongrass stalk bruised
- 4 makrut lime leaves
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 400 ml water
- 1 bunch Asian greens such as bok choy or choy sum
- 1 bunch asparagus end trimmed
- 1-2 limes
- Finely sliced chilli, toasted chopped peanuts + coriander leaves to serve
Spice paste
- 1 tablespoon peanut or melted coconut oil
- 5 candlenuts or macadamia nuts
- 1 shallot or small red onion diced roughly
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 long red chilli sliced
- 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2-1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- To make the paste, place all the ingredients into the Vitamix Ascent Blending Bowl, screw on the lid and blend on medium until reasonably smooth.
- Place noodles into a large bowl, cover with boiling water and set aside for 10 minutes to soften before draining well. Divide between four bowls and set aside.Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, blanch asparagus and Asian greens for approx. 1 minute, or until they are just tender. Drain and plunge into iced water to prevent them from cooking any further. Set aside until needed.
- Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add spice paste and cook for 3 minutes or until fragrant. Add bruised lemongrass and makrut lime leaves and cook for a further minute or two, whilst stirring to prevent the paste from catching. Add coconut milk and water and then bring to the boil, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes, adding a touch more water if it gets too thick at any stage. Remove from the heat, remove and compost the lemongrass stalk and makrut lime leaves. Add the juice of 1 lime to begin with, taste it, then add more if needed. Check the seasoning too, adding more salt if desired. Add the blanched vegetables to the saucepan, give it a god stir and allow to sit for a minute or two to gently heat through before dividing the vegetables and sauce between the four bowls.
- Scatter over coriander leaves, sliced chillies and chopped toasted peanuts and serve immediately.
2 Responses
Love this versatile recipe! It’s fall here on Vancouver Island, so I swapped out the spring veggies for cubed pan roasted butternut squash and local tatsoi. I threw the lemongrass into the blender with the other curry paste ingredients, as well as the stems from a bunch of cilantro. So good. Thanks!
So stoked you loved it, your fall version sounds perfect x