No Effort Vegan Coconut Curry
- Updated on Sep 13, 2017
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You’d think I’d be bored of talking about curry by now. But I’m really, absolutely, definitely not.
In my humble opinion, curry is one of the greatest dishes this world has ever seen – with varieties so wildly different you could eat a new one every day and never sample them all.
This vegan coconut curry is one to add to the ‘must eat’ list.
A LOT of recipes get tried and tested for this website, and many get discarded or fall by the wayside in favour of something bigger, or bolder, or generally more exciting.
Taste alone isn’t always enough to guarantee a spot on the site (although it really helps) – a recipe needs to stand out in other ways.
What makes this vegan coconut curry so special?
The joy of this recipe is its simplicity. So rarely have we had do to do so little cooking to get such a great result.
After a little prepping at the beginning, the ingredients hit the frying pan – and that’s it! They’ll fry along happily while the sauce pretty much cooks itself.
It doesn’t get any easier when it comes to effort vs quality ratio.
This is one recipe I’ve taken to cooking over and over; it gives me my curry fix with such ease I just can’t get enough.
Know your paste!
Most curries are made in one of two ways – with curry spices (often in the form of powder, at least in the Western world) or with a curry paste.
Typically, Indian-style curries use spices or powder, and Thai-type recipes use paste, although not exclusively so.
Curry powders generally contain spices and ingredients like cumin, coriander, turmeric, cloves, cinnamon, pepper and chili powders (check out this article for a more extensive list.)
Pastes are usually made from fresh ingredients like chillies, lemongrass, garlic and ginger, as well as the addition of some of the spices above. They’re often mixed with oil too.
Curry paste tends to be the stronger of the two, however that can vary as well. Usually yellow curry pastes are the mildest in flavour, red is next, and green is the hottest.
Vegans and vegetarians should watch out – many curry pastes contain fish derivatives and it’s always worth checking the label first.
With curry powders, the lighter, yellowy colours denote a mild dish, while dark or even brown colours mean a much more spicy kick.
Curry spices are great for giving that Indian-esque taste to every bite; curry pastes are excellent to mix with coconut milk. This vegan coconut curry uses both.
By doing this we get an Indian-feel recipe and flavour with a more creamy, rich, and slightly sweet sauce. It’s the best of both worlds.
Enjoy this stress-free curry with ease – just thank these two wonderful cuisines for their collaboration!
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup broccoli (or use green beans)
- 1 spring onions
- 1 sweet potato
- 2 carrot
- ½ zucchini
- 2 sticks lemongrass
- 2 tsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp yellow curry paste (or red for hotter, green for hottest!)
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 can chickpeas (15 oz = 435g, drained and rinsed)
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 lemon (juiced; lime works too!)
Optional:
- ½ cup cashews (roasted; or use peanuts)
Instructions
- If serving with rice, get that cooking now according to package instructions.
- Grate the sweet potato and the carrots.
- Chop the spring onion, broccoli, and zucchini.
- Add the olive oil to a large pan and fry all the veg on a medium heat. This needs about 5-7 minutes.
- Next, add the curry powder and curry paste, and the beaten (smack it with a heavy spoon a few times to let out the flavour) lemongrass.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
- Stir and fry for another couple of minutes then add the coconut milk, chickpeas, lemon juice, maple syrup and salt. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Alright, that's it. Take out the lemongrass. Serve with rice and top with roasted cashews or peanuts. Easy. Awesome.
NOTES
Nutrition
Comments
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60 comments
While I’m not sold on this as much as I am the chickpea curry; my partner loved it and it reheats so damn well! If you’re doing lunch planning definitely add this to the rotation. Also add extra cashew – they’re great in this.
Thanks Kat! Haha it does indeed seem that the chickpea curry is the queen of curries :D. Love the cashew idea!!
Hi, quick question. Can the sweet potato be substituted with more carrot or with something else? I’m currently in Ecuador and don’t have access to sweet potatoes.
Absolutely, Rachel. I’m constantly switching out veggies in curries for what I do and don’t have. Carrot would be great, I’m sure. Or carrots and regular potatoes, if you have them 🙂
Fantastic recipe. Very tasty and easy although grating veggies can take a bit of time. I part boiled the broccoli and added in at the last minute to avoid it going mushy. The family loved this dish. Will make again for sure.
Hi Emma, really cool you liked this recipe 🙂
Yep, grating can take a little time, I agree. Alternatively little cubes would work. Great idea regarding the broccoli!!
I made this over the weekend. SUPER easy recipe for great tasting food. But, I made the mistake of using reduced fat coconut milk. The absense of fat didn’t balance the spice, acid, and sugar as I’d imagine a full fat coconut milk would do. Gonna try it again! Cheers Logan!
I really do love the ease of this one! Yes, the low fat milks are a problem. I used to use them all the time and wondered what my cooking method problem was. The full fat milks really do make a difference!
Just made this for hubby and I who is normally not a fan of curries. He loved this one and told me to make it again 🙂 I didn’t have any broccoli or zucchini lying around so used spinach instead. Tasted Awesome. Great meal for a cooler day.
Very cool to hear, Samantha! I’m glad the curry converted him. I could eat it every day :D. Yes, awesome idea with the spinach, it absolutely fits well well in curry (as you found out!).
Tried it tonight. Delicious.
For my taste, I would just use half a lemon juice instead of 1 entire lemmon. I might also have grated the sweet potatoe and the carrots too small. Will try bigger chunks next time.
Thank for the recipe! Just made it ! It was my first time making curry and I think it turned out well!
Just a few questions:
1. When do you add the maple syrup and salt ?
2. Do you add the lemon grass as sticks or is it better to grate or chop them ?
3. Do you remove the lemon grass after cooking ? (If you left them as sticks?)
Thanks!
So cool to hear the curry turned out well, congratz 😀
Great questions right there, I’ve updated the post, but will also give you the answers here quickly:
1. I add maple syrup and salt along with the coconut milk and chickpeas (It’s clearer now in the recipe, thanks!)
2. Nah, just give the a few good smacks and chuck them into the curry as sticks. Before serving remove them if you prefer. They’re definitely not nice to eat. As far as I know it’s possible to eat lemongrass, but it needs to simmer for a long time so they won’t have a stringy mouth feel.
Thanks a lot for trying out our dish, Nicole! 😀