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Thai Potato Curry

A curry of potatoes, onions, Thai green curry paste, coconut milk, tomatoes, and basil served over rice.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and sambal work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 41 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

The recipe

Time15 to 20 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry

  1. Heat oil in a large wok or skillet over medium‑high heat.

  2. Add onion and stir‑fry until golden, about 5 minutes.

  3. Add curry paste and stir‑fry 1 minute.

  4. Add potatoes and toss well to coat.

  5. Stir in coconut milk and vegetable broth.

  6. Using your hands, lightly crush tomatoes; add tomatoes and juice to the wok.

  7. Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

  8. Stir in lime juice and basil.

Serve

  1. Serve over rice with sambal oelek if desired.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lime + sambaltop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Tomato + basiltop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lime + basiltop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Coconut + ricetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,048 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red-skin potatoes
Hold their shape while simmering and become tender, giving the curry body.
Coconut milk
Adds richness and fat, mellowing the heat of the curry paste.
Onion
Sweetens and builds a savory base as it browns in the oil.
Canned whole tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid that help form the sauce.
Thai green curry paste
Supplies the main aromatic spice flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Simmer covered until the potatoes are tender. Cubed potatoes cook through unevenly if the heat is too high or the lid is left off, so some pieces stay firm while others break down. Gentle, covered simmering cooks them evenly and keeps the sauce from reducing too fast.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, coconut, milk, tomato, lime, basil, rice):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  3. Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, coconut, milk, tomato, lime, basil, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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