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
Such a good curry! I had to make a few adjustments to it as I like my curries a bit more spicier. Added garlic, ginger, chilli, cumin and a bit of nutmeg. Looking forward to making it more often 🙂
Glad you enjoyed, Anthea! Haha yes, spice is definitely a personal thing. I always put mine up a notch, too 😀
So yum! Made this for dinner tonight and everyone loved it. Didn’t have lemongrass or curry paste (just powder) – I added fresh garlic and ginger and it was delicious. Those that wanted more heat added some hot sauce. Thanks for a great recipe!
I love this curry so much! Can it be frozen?
Hi, and yes, definitely! Really glad you like it 🙂
I have to say, this was simply fantastic! A bit on the expensive side but still reasonable and well worth it. I particularly enjoyed the nice change from the usual tomato-based curries I tend to make. Will definitely cook again, thank you for sharing the recipe 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it, Tony! Yes it’s a real nice change. Oh, I hope it wasn’t too expensive – hopefully you have a few things that can be used for further meals (the pastes and powders and so on) to keep costs down a little 🙂
I love curry dishes. I don’t know if it is the brand (I have tried various brands) but coconut milk has a soapy taste to me. Any idea why? Can you suggest an alternative type of milk?
Hi Debi! Hmm, well if you’ve tried various brands then I’d guess it’s more the product itself than the brand. Do you find the same with other coconut ingredients – flakes or shavings for example?
Hi, I made this for my work lunches and it was delicious, I am looking to make the vegan chickpea curry for next weeks lunches , however, i did notice that the saturated fat content for this recipe is a whopping 21.8g (109% RDA) where as the vegan chickpea curry one is only 4g (20% RDA) I originally though that the coconut milk was to blame, but both recipes use the exact same amount so i was wondering what makes this recipe have so much more saturated fat? your response would be greatly appreciated and thanks again for the great recipes 🙂
Hi Jermain, and thanks for writing. I’ve had a look ‘behind the scenes’ and you are indeed correct, it was the coconut milk making the difference. Our nutritional data analyser had pulled up a coconut cream instead of coconut milk in this curry recipe. If you’re watching the saturated fat, I would recommend staying away from the creams, and even going towards a ‘light’ coconut milk (though the dish tends to be slightly ‘thinner’. I hope this helps, and thanks for pointing it out 🙂
This recipe was ok. We’re huge fans of avial, so were really looking forward to it. The recipe came out more like thoran. I used dried coconut with a Vitamix. Even after adding extra water and letting it sit, I couldn’t get it to blend up smooth. I added it anyway and flavorwise it is good, just not the creamy avial we are used to.
Last week we made your Turkish lentil soup though and it was amazing.
Thank you for your feedback! You just taught me two new words. I will look into it asap. Glad you liked the Turkish Lentil Salad last week. It’s one of my favourites. So easy to make, and so tasty 😀