A Simple Recipe for Shrimp and Sweet Potato Curry
I’m a huge fan of curry dishes but rarely prepare them at home. If I get a hankering for a curry dish, I’ll order some great entrees from our local Thai restaurant, but that will all change now.
Why? I’ve learned how easy it is to make good curry at home, including this shrimp and sweet potato curry recipe adapted from Blue Apron. And it’s so much easier today to find the right ingredients to make a curry dish.
Ingredient Substitutions
Shrimp could have easily been called scallops and sweet potatoes curry or fish or chicken curry. Depending on your favorite foods or what you have on hand, you can substitute any protein for the shrimp, including tofu.
Sweet Potato – we love sweet potatoes in our house, and you’ll notice we always cook with them. I could easily see you substitute any potato for this recipe, and it would work well. You might want to try butternut squash, carrots, pumpkin or acorn squash.
Baby Bok Choy is an Asian cabbage easily found in your local supermarket. If you are looking for a substitute, try Swiss chard, broccoli, kale, rapini, Brussels sprouts, or Napa cabbage.
Scallions—You can substitute with green onions, but scallions and green onions are the same thing. You can also substitute with chives if they are more available.
Lemongrass is not as easy to find in your local supermarket as some of the other ingredients, but it is showing up more and more in my markets. The best substitute if you can’t find it is lemon zest, with the zest from 1 lemon equal to 2 stalks of lemongrass. You can also try kaffir lime leaves, lemon verbena leaves, lemon balm or a ginger and lemon combo.
Coconut Milk – if coconut milk is unavailable, try substituting almond milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oak milk, rice milk or Greek yogurt. You can also try combining coconut water and heavy cream.
Yellow Curry Paste—easily found in supermarkets today—is a key ingredient in this dish. If you can’t find yellow curry paste, you might have better luck with red curry paste.
What I Learned From Blue Apron
Something I didn’t know about lemongrass is that if you smack it with the back (blunt edge) of a chef’s knife, the oils will release before you cut it into pieces.
Another thing I’ve learned from Blue Apron is to finish each dish with a garnish. In this recipe, you’ll use the green tops of the scallion to add a layer of flavor and make the plate look pretty.
And we all know if the plate of food looks good, it will taste better.
Shrimp & Sweet Potato Curry
Ingredients
- ½ rice white, basmati or brown
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon yellow curry paste
- 2 scallions washed, sliced with white bottoms separated from green tops
- 1 stalk lemongrass cut into 2 inch pieces
- ½ pound sweet potato cut lengthwise and then into ¼ inch pieces
- 10 ounces baby bok choy about 2 pieces
- 1 lime cut in half crosswise
- 13½ ounces coconut milk canned
- 10 ounces shrimp peeled and tails removed
Instructions
- Prep all the ingredients and have them ready to go.
- Cook the rice in 1 cup of water seasoned with a pinch of salt in a pot or rice cooker the water is absorbed and the rice is nice and fluffy.
- Heat a large fry pan over medium-high heat until hot. When the pan is hot, add the olive oil.
- When the oil is hot, add the curry paste and the white bottoms of the scallions. Cook until fragrant about 2 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk, lemongrass, sweet potato and ½ cup of water.
- Season with salt and pepper and cook for 15 minutes until the liquids reduce slightly and the sweet potatoes are tender when poked with a fork.
- Dry the shrimp with a paper towel, season with salt and pepper and add them to the pan.
- Add the bok choy to the pan, cover loosely with aluminum foil and cook for 4 minutes until the shrimp are cooked through.
- Remove the pan from the heat and "carfully" remove the lemongrass pieces with tongs.
- To serve, add some rice to a bowl, top with the shrimp curry and finish with the sliced green tops of the scallions. Serve with the lime halfs.
