Curry pastes are an essential ingredient if you plan on making Thai foods. That being said, panang curry paste is an important one that adds a huge depth of flavor to your traditional Thai panang curries and many more. So, if you don’t like to rely on store-bought products, here we are ready to teach you an easy and flavorful homemade panang curry paste recipe using the basic ingredients.

Traditionally Thai curry pastes are made using mortar and pestle. But, we will bring you a more convenient way so you can put this together within a few minutes right in your kitchen. So, let’s get going!

To learn further details about the panang curry paste and what ingredients make it so special, you can click on this link and read our comprehensive article.

Homemade Panang Curry Paste Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Recipe by SpiceRally

Servings

10-12

Tablespoons

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Total time

minutes

Our version of panang curry paste captures the goddess of authentic Thai flavors, while we have added our own bliss to it to make it richer in flavor. Feel free to adjust what goes in your recipe, to get the texture, aroma, and flavor on point.

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Ingredients

Spices & Herbs
10-12 10-12 Thai long chiles (Sun-dried, mild red chiles)
5 5 Fresh Thai long chiles (mild red chiles, roughly chopped)
8-10 cloves 8-10 Garlic (crushed)
1 piece 1 Galangal (about 2-inch piece, roughly chopped)
2 tsp 2 Coriander seeds
1 tsp 1 Cumin seeds
1 piece 1 Nutmeg (take 1/4 from a whole nutmeg seed)
1/2 tsp 1/2 White peppercorns
3 pods 3 Green cardamom
2 stalks 2 Lemongrass (outer peel removed, chopped)
8 8 Coriander roots (roughly chopped)
2 tsp 2 Kaffir lime peel. Shop This
Other ingredients
4 4 Red shallots (roughly chopped)
1 tbsp 1 Roasted peanuts (unsalted)
1 tsp 1 Shrimp paste. Shop This
1/2 tsp 1/2 Sea salt
2-3 cups 2-3 Hot water

Equipment

Small PanShop This
Spice grinder/ Food processorShop This
Cutting boardShop This
BowlsShop This
Spatula or SpoonsShop This

Directions

Preparation
Start by soaking your sun-dried Thai long chiles in hot water. Let your dried chiles rehydrate for about 10 minutes in the water.
While the chiles are soaking, keep a small pan over medium-low flame and let it heat through. Once the pan is heated, add your dry spices- coriander seeds, cumin seeds, green cardamom, nutmeg, and white peppercorns.
Dry-roast the spices until they slightly change color and turn aromatic. Watch your spices not to blacken or burn. Remove the spices from the hot pan and transfer them to a plate to cool down.
After 10 minutes, remove the chiles from the water, take them onto a cutting board, cut them open, remove the seeds, and chop them roughly.
You can leave some seeds if needed and save some chile-soaking water to use later.
Making the Panang curry paste
Add the dry-roasted spices into the jar of your spice grinder or food processor. Pulse them until you get a fine powder.
Remove the lid and add all the rest of the ingredients into the jar (soaked chiles, fresh chiles, coriander roots, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime peel, shallots, roasted peanuts, shrimp paste, and salt) along with a small amount of chile-soaked water to facilitate the blending process.
Close the lid and blend everything until all the ingredients are well-combined and come together as a fine paste. It is okay to have some chunks as it will give a nice texture to your Panang recipes.
Scoop out the content from the grinder jar/ food processor and transfer it to a glass air-tight container.
Use it immediately with your dishes or store it in the jar in the refrigerator. You can also put the leftover curry paste into a zip-lock freezer bag and keep it in the freezer for a longer shelf life.
Grinding the curry paste using mortar and pestle
If you’re using the mortar and pestle to make your panang curry paste, we recommend you have a large mortar and pestle to give enough room for the ingredients to grind.
You can start by pounding the dry-roasted spices first. Break the ingredients that are hard to pound first such as nutmeg, cardamom, and white peppercorns.
Once you’re done making the powdered spice mixture, add in the fresh ingredients accordingly. You can go with garlic, galangal, soaked chiles, fresh chiles, lemongrass, and coriander roots in the first place.
Once they are pounding, add the peanuts and crush them well to combine with the spices and herbs.
You can gradually mix in all the other ingredients and pound your paste to perfection while adding the chile-soaked water to ease the pounding process. But, do not add much water or your paste will get too runny.

Tasty Tips and Suggestions by SpiceRally

This is the perfect amount of Thai chiles recommended for this recipe. But if you prefer going too mild, you can adjust the chiles according to your palate.
You can also take fresh Thai green chiles instead of fresh Thai red chiles. Even a combination of hot and mild chiles would be a perfect kick to make a lovely base flavor for this paste.
You can also use some neutral-flavored oil like avocado or canola oil in place of chile-soaked water. This way, the flavor and quality of your panang curry paste will stay longer in the refrigerator or freezer.
Skip the peanuts if you have nut allergies.
You can also use about one tablespoon of peanut butter instead of roasted peanuts. But adding peanut butter might give a slight sweetness to your panang curry paste.
Leave out any dry spices you don’t like to add to your recipe. All the spices are not compulsory but adding them will take your curry paste to a new level!
To make a vegan panang curry paste- leave out the shrimp paste or add Miso Paste in place of shrimp paste as a vegan-friendly substitute.