You’ve got to love a good Thai yellow curry! One of the challenges of a low sodium diet is sourcing the ingredients for Asian dishes. Face it, I am not about to start from scratch and make my own spice paste!

Ingredients

The Spice Blend

In the past, I have found bottled or canned curry pastes that are fairly average on flavor but more importantly, super high on sodium content. So imagine my happy surprise when I came across the Medium Yellow Curry Powder spice blend from Savory Spice! First of all this is a powder with no additives or preservatives. Secondly, there is total transparency – the ingredients are listed right on the package (for those of you who don’t have access to this store, you could actually consider grinding up your own blend). But most importantly, there is NO SALT added to this spice blend!

Coconut Milk

There are many kinds of coconut milk available in the market. For this curry, I used the 365 Organic Light Coconut Milk from Whole Foods. It adds just the right flavor to the sauce without the heavy creaminess of full fat varieties. Also, total sodium content in a can is only 25mg. So if you do go overboard with the spice blend and need another can of coconut milk to tone it down, you won’t break the (sodium) bank.

Vegetables

The rest of the ingredients are pretty straight forward. Since I wanted this to be a vegetarian yellow curry, my main ingredients were finely chopped ginger and garlic, large diced vegetables (eggplant, red and green bell peppers, sweet potato), Nasoya extra firm tofu, chopped cilantro and basil to garnish. You could swap out the tofu for chicken, shrimp or any other protein of your choice.

Method

This is a guideline and not a precise recipe – allowing for artistic expression! First, get all the ingredients together as shown in the picture above.

• Add about a tablespoon of oil to a large pan over medium heat.
• Sauce finely chopped ginger and garlic till sizzling.
• Add a tbsp of the yellow curry spice powder and let warm through to release the aroma. The powder is not too spicy but very flavorful so feel free to add more.
• Add the can of coconut milk and whisk it together and let simmer.
• Now add in the diced vegetables and cover over low heat till just cooked through.
• Add diced tofu, a handful of chopped cilantro and let simmer for another 5 min or so.
• If you need to adjust the spice level in the sauce, this is the time to do it with more spice powder or another can of coconut milk. If you do add anything, let simmer for a few minutes to get all the flavors to come together.
• Finally garnish with a generous handful of basil (whatever varieties you have access to – Thai basil, purple basil or just plain fresh green basil).

Serve over steamed white or brown rice. Remember, no salt was added to the dish while cooking. Once plated, you may want a quick squeeze of fresh lime (optional) and a pinch of salt over the curry. Easy enough for a Friday night and absolutely delicious!