Here at Club Trader Joe’s the family loves all things related to Thai food. I am not sure how this came to be, but maybe it’s the zing of the limes or the heat from the chilis, but most Thai food has a freshness and lightness that works well with our diets.
The kids love Thai restaurants and we seem to go a couple of times a month. Trader Joe’s has had their share of Thai food, especially in the frozen section. I think they have even had a jar of green curry simmer sauce at one time (maybe they still do).
As it says right on the packaging, it’s “Authentic Thai” which just means it’s manufactured in Thailand. The dish comes in the frozen section. There are two sections to the packaging when you pull it out of the box.
The curry and the rice. Not sure why they split them up since so many other frozen Thai and Indian dishes are all piled together. But whatever… you stick it in the microwave for a few minutes and voila you have a piping hot Thai curry dish.
The problem is when you try to eat it. The packaging doesn’t assist you with eating. There are two sides with a divider in the middle so you have to lift and mix it from one side to the other. If you took this to work, you might not have a bowl to eat it out of. You could spoon the curry into the rice section and eat it from there.
If you have a bowl it’s kind of awkward spooning the rice into a bowl and then pouring the curry onto the rice. Sounds simple but it was more difficult than it needed to be.
Once I got everything in the bowl, it looks like some really nice curry. The aromas coming out of the bowl were incredible. Smelled just like a Thai restaurant.
You can see the sheets of tofu as they look like sliced chicken and to be honest, I couldn’t tell. That’s what makes this vegan dish so interesting. The tofu strips were just like chicken. The texture was like chicken. I could probably serve this to my kids and tell them it was chicken and nobody would know.
The only downside of this dish is that seems to be more tofu strips and sauce than anything else. I think you can count the five carrot cubes and two eggplant chunks.
Then there is the spice level. I like my Thai food medium spicy. I do not like to have my palate blown out by overly spiced food. I would say that this borders from hot to very hot.
If you like your Thai food very spicy then this is for you, but I had a hard time making it through it. That was a shame because I really liked the flavors. That fact that it was vegan was just icing on the cake so to speak.
I would give this 6 bells mainly because of the spice but if heat is your thing, then this might be 8 or 9 Bells.
Ingredients: cooked jasmine rice (water, jasmine rice), coconut milk, tofu sheets (soybean, water), carrot, coconut cream (coconut, water), water, eggplant, green curry paste (green chili, lemongrass garlic, salt, galangal, coriander seed, lime peel, white pepper, cumin, turmeric), sugar, red chili, soybean oil, sweet basil, vegetable powder blend (onion, cabbage, carrot, spring onion, maltodextrin, salt), cumin seed, coriander seed.
Contains soy and coconut
[…] slip away and they offer quite a wide variety of Thai inspired foods. I have reviewed several here Trader Joe’s Vegan Green Thai Curry, Trader Joe’s Thai Shrimp Fried Rice, are two of my favorites and now I have a third favorite […]
I just ate this for lunch and came looking for reviews. To me, this is not that hot – it does have a nice heat level but I would call it medium in terms of Thai spice. I have had Thai food that basically melted my face off; this is more of a pleasant tingle. I also didn’t think the tofu texture was that close to chicken. But it was really delicious.
I think the tofu sheet is a brilliant idea as substitute to chicken. As for the spice level, its a mild hot to medium and in this case, for Thai green curry, it’s adequate and not “very spicy” as reviewed in this article.
I added a little more coconut cream to reduce the heat. I think I’m hooked now!
I wish they had skipped the coriander & cumin seeds! These 2 spices don’t belong in a green curry. Otherwise it’s a good, quick meal. Giving it a 8/10. Please remove those coriander & cumin seeds!!!
[…] 1. Trader Joe’s Vegan Thai Green Curry […]
Very spicy is a stretch. It’s medium spicy. I agree with the above commenter about the cumin and coriander seeds. It would likely be better without those. This is literally my fav microwave meal I’ve ever had, though.
[…] 1. Trader Joe’s Vegan Thai Green Curry […]
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Has anyone heated this in a conventional oven? I have no microwave and am a little worried about the plastic container.
Just heat it on the stovetop in a pan
Yes, it was easy to make in the oven. I just popped out the rice and sauce and put them on either side of a bread loaf pan, cooked it at 350 for 20 minutes or so, and mixed them together. Very good.
I agree with the commenters that the food underneath is moderately spicy and delicious, but I’m surprised nobody mentioned the epic struggle to remove the transparent plastic cover. Did the food factory in Thailand resort to superglue to cut cost? I feel like I’m on Candid Camera every time I try to open one of these things!
Sometimes it’s just better to cut it out than try to peel it off. Some are easy but this one wasn’t!
excellent product but a horrible package
I liked the taste but the tofu was so stringy and basically you are eating rice and veggies with strands of tofu
Funny, that wasn’t the case when I tried it but knowing Trader Joe’s, they could’ve changed the recipe!
I was eating it as I was reading your review. Funny I also did count the carrots. Thanks for your review. I like the spice level. I will give it 8 out of 10.
Thanks for taking the time to respond! This is one of my favorite dishes from Trader Joe’s!