holy basil

This simple, delicious recipe for a spicy beef stir-fry comes from Leela Punyaratabandhu, a cookbook author who adapted it from Soei, a family-run restaurant in Bangkok. Using thinly sliced beef tenderloin means the dish is ready in just minutes, and you can adjust the heat to taste by reducing or increasing the number of fresh bird's-eye chiles. Made with fresh holy-basil leaves, the classic Thai dish is known as <em>phat ka-phrao</em>. If you can't find holy basil at a Thai market, Indian market or health food store, you could swap in more widely available Thai sweet basil (pictured), and make a dish of <em>phat bai hora-pha</em>. The dish could be one part of a larger meal or stand alone with some jasmine rice and a fried egg.

Spicy Beef Stir-Fry With Basil

soy sauce, or light soy sauce

oyster sauce

fish sauce

chicken stock

packed teaspoon grated palm sugar, or light brown sugar

garlic

fresh bird’s-eye chiles

beef tenderloin, sliced against the grain into 2-inch-long, 1/4-inch thick strips

lime

If you’re making rice with this dish, get it started. In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, chicken stock and sugar. In a mortar or small food processor, grind together the garlic and chiles into a coarse paste.

Heat the lard in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic-chile paste, and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Before the garlic starts to brown, add the beef, and stir-fry to separate the pieces and coat with fat. Add the liquid mixture, making sure not to leave any behind in the bowl, and cook until the beef is only barely pink, about 2 minutes. Add the lime leaves, and continue to cook until no pink remains on the beef, about 1 minute. Add the basil leaves, and stir until they are just starting to wilt, then remove from heat and serve with rice. (You can fish out the large pieces of makrut leaves before serving or put them aside as you eat.)

This Vegan Thai Basil Tofu Stir Fry with Green Beans recipe is deliciously savoury, sweet, spicy, and aromatic from the fresh basil leaves. You’ll want to enjoy this with a bowl of steamed rice for a perfectly satisfying meal.This recipe is a fusion of my love for Pad Krapow or Spicy Thai Basil Chicken and Chinese Szechuan Green Beans with Minced Pork. Instead of the usual meat used for these recipes, I use extra firm tofu that I crumbled and cooked down to mimic ground meat.

Vegan Thai Basil Tofu with Green Beans (Pad Krapow-Inspired)

oz extra firm tofu

neutral oil

5.2 oz green beans ((see notes))

ginger (minced)

garlic (minced)

green chili (sliced (add more for extra heat))

bird's eye chiles

onion

red bell pepper (diced)

brown sugar (adjust

tbsp soy sauce (or

tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce (or sub more soy sauce)

1.5 tsp dark soy sauce

white pepper

Salt (to taste)

You can watch the video below or see the step-by-step images above to see how to make this recipe.

Press tofu for at least 10 minutes to drain excess liquid. I like to wrap my tofu in a towel and place a weighted surface on top. Afterwards, place the tofu in a bowl and crumble the tofu with your hands or a fork.

Chop off the ends of the green beans. Slice into 1/2-inch pieces.

Heat a large skillet or cast iron pan or wok to medium high heat. Once hot, add in the oil.

Increase to high heat and then add in the green beans. Leave untouched for 2 to 3 minutes or until browned on one side. Move the beans around and repeat this step until the beans are slightly charred, around 8 minutes in total. Remove the beans from the pan and set aside.

In the same pan or wok over medium heat, add in the oil. Once hot, sauté the onion until translucent, 2 minutes. Add in the garlic, ginger, chilies, and bell pepper. Sauté for 3-4 minutes over medium heat until bell pepper is cooked through. Move the onions and bell peppers to the side of the pan.

Add in the mashed tofu. Add the sugar, soy sauces, vegetarian oyster sauce (if using), and white pepper. Mix the tofu to coat in the sauces.

Turn up the heat to medium high and and leave to cook over medium high heat, mixing around every 2 minutes until the tofu dries up. Mix everything (the tofu and bell pepper/onion mix) and then leave the tofu to cook for a bit longer until it resembles minced meat and is lightly brown, around 10 minutes in total.

Add in the Thai basil leaves. Mix well and cook for 2 minutes over medium high heat until the basil leaves have wilted. Add back in the green beans.

Season with a pinch of salt and more soy sauce, if needed. Turn off the heat and serve over steamed rice. Enjoy!

It was delicious!! I just did one thing different which I steamed the green beans slightly just till it was slightly tender and added it exactly like you did. Also I substituted agave instead of brown sugar. It was very yummy!

i never post reviews on recipe blogs (not because I don't feel some sort of way about them, but rather cause I'm too lazy), and I gotta say, this was incredible! Never tried my hand at vegan cooking, but my boyfriend is a vegan, and I wanted to impress him! He LOVED it!!
I will say, and this is entirely not to do with the recipe, and everything to do with the site UI you settled on-WAY too many fucking ads. There's several in frame no matter where I scroll, it makes it hard to see the actual recipe &amp; I kept accidentally clicking on them. I understand the "why" &amp; respect the hustle. But if there's a way to make it a bit more subtle-this page is more advertisement than recipe.

I’ve made this recipe many many times! It’s always delicious and well received!

I have made this recipe many times and my family loves it! I usually double the recipe because I know it will be gone in a flash!

Made this today and everyone enjoyed it!  Didn’t have tofu but I did have some left over tempeh that I crumbled and mixed with textured veggie protein (something I’ve never used before but wanted to try as it looked like it would be like ground meat). Turned out fantastic!! Thanks for this easy and delicious recipe!

I made this today. It is super yum!!! 👌💯

Bell pepper not in ingredients list, but appears everywhere else. How much?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_RKvK8eOfA

FULL RECIPE 👉🏼 https://thefoodietakesflight.com/vegan-thai-basil-tofu

This recipe is a fusion of my love for Pad Krapow or Spicy Thai Basil Chicken and Chinese Szechuan Green Beans with Minced Pork. Instead of the usual meat used for these recipes, I use extra firm tofu that I crumbled and cooked down to mimic ground meat. The tofu is cooked along with some sliced chiles, ginger, onion, garlic, and of course some fresh Thai basil leaves. For the green beans, I dry fried these on a very hot skillet to get these to lightly char and brown on the outside.

———————————————

MORE TOFU RECIPES:
3 Saucy Tofu: https://youtu.be/AjecKJVGSrY
Tofu Katsu: https://youtu.be/Bzhl1mmeEx4
Stuffed Tofu: https://youtu.be/q1d8OwscC_0
Tofu Wrapped in Nori: https://youtu.be/7DVNJsDoL6o
Braised Tofu: https://youtu.be/_FsN4FwLyvg

🍜MORE NOODLE RECIPES:
TANTANMEN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5su5bRpCfnM&t=54s
3 NOODLE RECIPES: https://youtu.be/F5_nqvYuMc4
GINGER SCALLION NOODLES: https://youtu.be/8UoZ2KqoBqg
EASY CHILI GARLIC OIL NOODLES: https://youtu.be/DTok5yN_gzg
SPICY MISO NOODLES: https://youtu.be/0tpoDD7IY_4
JJAJANGMYEON: https://youtu.be/ETdImlm7MpI

TAGS

#vegan #tofurecipes #thaibasiltofu #asianfood

Music from Austin Chen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWivA_bBPfc

👉🏼If you’re looking for more recipes and inspiration:

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Vegan Thai Basil Tofu with Green Beans

Make this Thai basil stir fry (Pad Kra Pao) in just 15 minutes! Ground pork or chicken, holy basil, chilies, and bold Thai seasonings. So addictive!

Pad Kra Pao (Thai Basil Stir Fry Recipe)

soy sauce

chili-garlic paste (or use sambal oelek)

water (for saucier, if needed)

sugar (optional)

vegetable oil oil

shallot (sliced)

Thai bird's eye chilies

pork ((or use ground chicken))

red bell pepper

basil leaves

For serving. Cooked jasmine rice, optional crispy fried eggs

Sauce

Whisk together the fish sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili-garlic paste, and optional pinch of sugar in a small bowl. Whisk in 1-2 tablespoons water for a thinner sauce, if desired. Set aside.

Chilies

Heat the oil over high heat in a wok. Add the shallot, chilies, and garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Pork

Add the ground pork and stir fry for 3-4 minutes, breaking it up as you go, until it mostly cooks through and crisps up.

Bell Peppers

Add the sliced red bell pepper and stir fry for 1 minute.

Add Sauce

Stir in the reserved sauce and stir fry for 1-2 minutes.

Basil

Add the basil and stir fry until softened to your liking, 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Serve

Serve over hot rice with an optional crispy fried egg on top.

This is super easy to make vegetarian if you use veggie ground or shredded tofu along with vegan fish sauce (I like Foodie Takes Flight's recipe, also very easy and lasts forever in the fridge). I've made this three times now on nights when I have very little time, and it hasn't let me down with flavor, time, or delicious leftovers. 10/10.

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Spicy Beef Stir-Fry With Basil

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Top 3 holy basil recipes from across the web

The most viewed holy basil recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Spicy Beef Stir-Fry With Basil

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The most viewed holy basil recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine