Easy and healthful, this curry is a great weeknight dinner option

Making the paste from scratch is a beautiful thing, but it also demands a long list of ingredients and a lot of chopping (or pounding). A good store-bought paste clears that hurdle.

Using simple tricks brings your curries to life. Photo: Nikki To / TWAM

Green curry is my antidote to midweek fatigue. Making the paste from scratch is a beautiful thing, but it also demands a long list of ingredients and a lot of chopping (or pounding). A good store-bought paste clears that hurdle, letting you throw dinner together in minutes. My favourite is Maesri, which has no preservatives and is stocked in most supermarkets for around $2.

A vibrant green curry. Photo: Nikki To / TWAM

To push the green further, I blend the paste with coconut milk and baby spinach – a trick I picked up from recipe writer Alaina Chou. It lifts the whole dish, turning something that can sometimes look lacklustre into a fresh, vibrant sauce. I like mine with prawns and fish – it takes me straight back to my childhood friend’s dinner table, where her grandfather’s green fish curry was legendary in the schoolyard. But chicken works just as well, or keep it fully vegetarian.

Try too my cupboard gnocchi bake.

Easy green fish and prawn curry

Feel free to adjust the curry paste for more heat (or less). Here, I’ve suggested broccolini and snow peas, but any greens you have will work.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon neutral oil
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced, white and green parts separated
• 1/3 bunch of coriander, stems finely chopped, leaves reserved (optional)
• 2 tablespoons green curry paste
• 400ml can coconut milk
• 60g baby spinach
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 250-300g firm white fish fillets (such as ling, snapper, Murray cod, barramundi), cut into large chunks
• Salt flakes
• 250g green prawns, peeled
• 1 bunch broccolini, halved lengthways
• Handful of snow peas, topped and tailed
• 1 lime
• Rice, to serve

• Optional toppings: Thai basil, chilli, fried shallots

Method

1. Heat the oil in a wide pan with a lid over medium heat. Add the white parts of the spring onion and the chopped coriander stems, cooking for a minute to soften. Stir in the curry paste and cook for another 30 seconds, moving it around the pan to release its fragrance. Transfer everything to a blender, pour in the coconut milk, and add the baby spinach. Blitz until smooth and vibrantly green, then return the sauce to the pan over low heat. Stir in the fish sauce and brown sugar.
2. Once the sauce is at a bare simmer, season the fish with salt and gently slip it in the sauce. Cover with a lid and cook for 5-6 minutes, allowing the fish to slowly poach in the sauce. Remove the lid and add the prawns, stirring them into the sauce so they begin to turn pink. Pile the broccolini and snow peas on top, then cover again and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the prawns are just cooked through and the fish flakes easily. If the prawns finish cooking before the fish, lift them out along with the greens to prevent overcooking.
3. Zest the lime over the curry, squeeze in the juice of half, and taste, adjusting seasoning if needed. Give everything a gentle stir to combine. Spoon the curry over rice and finish with the reserved green parts of the spring onion, coriander leaves, and any optional toppings like Thai basil, sliced chilli, or fried shallots. Serve with extra lime wedges on the side.
4. Serves 3-4