Keralan Mixed Vegetable Curry with Coconut
2015-05-17- Cuisine: India, Vegetarian
- Course: Accompaniment, Lunch, Main, Side Dish, Snack
- Skill Level: Moderate
- Servings : 3-4
- Prep Time : 20m
- Cook Time : 30m
- Ready In : 50m
The recipe
Keralan Mixed Vegetable Curry with Coconut is a lovely vegetarian dish, which can be served as a single vegetable dish with rice or a chapatti. It’s great as a simple midweek meal or as part of a larger multi dish Indian meal. It uses coconut oil which is not only delicious, but also currently recommended as one of the more healthy oils. It’s also a great way to eat green and runner beans, which are not everyone’s favourite vegetables, as the wonderful Indian spices add so much flavour to the dish and they are healthy too. I’ve used less oil than normal for a dish of this kind, but you can add more if you wish. I really like the addition of cucumber as it is amazing when cooked and I personally prefer it to raw – the dish wouldn’t quite be the same without it. You need 800g of mixed vegetables, which I’ve listed below, but you could change the proportions or even exchange some of the vegetables for others if preferred.
Ingredients
- 150g carrots, cut into 5 cm batons
- 100g runner beans, strings removed, cut into 3 cm lengths
- 100g green beans, cut into 3 cm lengths
- 200g sweet potato, cut into 5 cm batons
- 250g cucumber
- 100g fresh coconut, very finely grated
- 60g red onion, very finely chopped
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1-2 fresh green chillies, seeded and finely chopped
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp concentrated tamarind paste
- extra coconut oil to drizzle, if required
Method
Step 1
Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the carrots, beans and sweet potato until just tender.
Step 2
Meanwhile prepare the cucumber. Remove the skin and cut in half lengthways. With a teaspoon scrape out the seeds and discard, and then cut the cucumber into slices of about 1 cm thick.
Step 3
Make a rough paste by blending the grated coconut and onion in a food processor or a pestle and mortar.
Step 4
Drain the water from the vegetables and return them to the pan. Stir the coconut paste and other ingredients into the vegetables and cover with a lid. Cook for about 8 minutes and then add the sliced cucumber and cook gently for about 2 minutes. Serve and drizzle with a little coconut oil if required.