{"id":190717,"title":"Vegetable Curry","modified":"2026-10-09T12:25:17+02:00","plain":"A South Indian vegetable kurma, simmered in a coconut, cashew and fennel sauce.\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s a weeknight, and all that\u2019s left is a carrot, a piece of cauliflower, two potatoes and a handful of green beans. In the saut\u00e9 pan, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves sizzle in the oil, then the onion slowly turns golden.\n\n\n\n The coconut and cashew paste goes in at the end and turns the broth into a pale, velvety, barely sweet sauce, livened up by green chilies. The vegetables stay whole and tender. Dip a first piece of puri into it, and the evening is taken care of.\n\n\n\nMore cauliflower and potatoes, dry style: aloo gobi\n\n\n\nWhat Is Vegetable Curry?\n\n\n\nThis vegetable curry is a South Indian kurma: carrot, cauliflower, peas, potato and green beans boiled in water, then bound with a blended paste of coconut, cashews, poppy seeds, coriander and fennel. \n\n\n\nThe sauce is mild, creamy and slightly sweet, with no cream, no yogurt and no butter. Among the Indian cuisines, it stands clearly apart from the tomato-and-onion curry of the North: here the tomato stays in the background and the coconut carries the dish. It\u2019s served with puris or chapatis.\n\n\n\nKurma is the South Indian form of korma, the name for dishes braised in a rich sauce, handed down from Mughal kitchens. The word curry is a catch-all term popularized by the British; in India, every dish with a sauce keeps its own name and its own spice blend.\n\n\n\nFor a complete meal, add a red lentil dahl\n\n\n\nFrom Mughal Kitchens to the Nilgiri Hills\n\n\n\nKorma took shape in the 16th century in Akbar\u2019s imperial kitchens, where meats were braised in ghee with yogurt, cream or almond and cashew pastes, scented with cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. An often-told story credits its name to the Rajput cooks of the court. \n\n\n\nOver time, the meat dish branched out into vegetarian versions that keep the same principle: vegetables simmered in a thickened sauce.\n\n\n\nThe Mughal cousin, with chicken and yogurt: chicken korma\n\n\n\nThe South replaced the dairy with fresh coconut, blended with cashews and green chilies. There, fennel takes the place that cumin holds in the North. \n\n\n\nIn Kerala, kurma is often cooked in coconut oil, with coconut milk. In the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu, the kitchens of British-era clubs created a green kurma with mint and cilantro, as a way to use the English vegetables grown locally.\n\n\n\nIn the South, vegetable kurma goes with flaky parotta, idiyappam (steamed rice noodles) or appam. The North tends to make a drier mixed vegetable sabzi, built on a base of long-cooked onion and tomato. Here, it\u2019s served with puris or chapatis, and a flaky paratha works well too.\n\n\n\nThe Main Ingredients in Vegetable Curry\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe vegetables in this version, carrot, cauliflower, peas, potato and green beans, can be found everywhere in France. A traditional kurma sometimes adds moringa drumsticks or wax gourd, both rare here: replace them with a few more green beans, or with zucchini added during the last 10 minutes. Keep the pieces whole rather than mashing them.\n\n\n\nThe paste makes the sauce. Use fresh grated coconut, or frozen grated coconut from an Asian grocery store; bagged desiccated coconut works after soaking for 10 minutes in warm water, with a slightly different texture. \n\n\n\nThe cashews give the sauce its velvety texture and the poppy seeds (khus khus) thicken it: the gray or blue poppy seeds sold in France work perfectly well. Ginger, garlic, green chilies, coriander seeds, fennel and a handful of fresh cilantro complete the mix.\n\n\n\nA well-chilled cucumber raita on the side, and it\u2019s perfect\n\n\n\nThe aromatic base comes down to four whole spices heated in oil: bay leaf, cinnamon, green cardamom and cloves. Next the onion turns golden, then a single tomato melts down in the saut\u00e9 pan, just enough for a touch of acidity. The dish is cooked in oil, with no ghee: it\u2019s entirely plant-based.\n\n\n\nTechnique Tips for a Good Vegetable Curry\n\n\n\nThe vegetables first boil, covered, for 10 minutes and only meet the paste once they\u2019re almost cooked, which keeps them whole. The masala paste then cooks with them for 2 minutes, and the water for the sauce loosens it. At the end, the sauce should be light in color, pale yellow to greenish, and creamy enough to coat the spoon. If it turns red, the tomato has taken over.\n\n\n\n\n\n\tVegetable Curry\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tFor the masala paste80 g coconut (grated)8 cashews1 piece ginger (2.5 cm)1 clove garlic2 chilies (green)2 tablespoons poppy seeds1 teaspoon coriander seeds0.5 teaspoon fennel seeds1 handful cilantro (fresh)60 ml waterFor the curry4 teaspoons oil1 bay leaf1 cinnamon stick (2.5 cm)2 cardamom pods (green)3 whole cloves1 onion (finely chopped)1 tomato (finely chopped)0.5 carrot (diced)10 cauliflower florets3 tablespoons peas1 potato (diced)5 green beans (cut into pieces)1 teaspoon salt500 ml water (for cooking the vegetables)375 ml water (for the sauce)\t\n\t\n\t\tFor the masala pastePut the coconut in a blender.Add the cashews, ginger, garlic, chilies, poppy seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and fresh cilantro.Pour in the water.Blend until you have a smooth paste.For the curryHeat the oil in a large saut\u00e9 pan.Add the bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, then saut\u00e9 them.Add the onion and saut\u00e9 until it starts to brown.Add the tomato and cook until it breaks down.Add the carrot, cauliflower, peas, potato, beans and salt.Saut\u00e9 for 2 minutes.Pour in the water for cooking the vegetables and stir.Cover and let boil for 10 minutes, until the vegetables are almost cooked.Add the masala paste and saut\u00e9 for 2 minutes.Pour in the water for the sauce and stir.Cover and cook for 10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.Serve with puris or chapatis.\t\n\t\n\t\tThis is a South Indian veg kurma. Its signature is the coconut and cashew paste blended with fennel, poppy seeds and coriander seeds, which gives a mild, creamy, slightly sweet sauce. It is clearly different from a North Indian curry built on tomato and onion: here the tomato stays in the background and it's the coconut that carries the dish.\nThe vegetables in this version (carrot, cauliflower, peas, potato, green beans) can be found everywhere in France. A traditional kurma sometimes includes moringa pods (drumsticks) or wax gourd (ash gourd), which are hard to find here: replace them with a few more green beans, or with zucchini added during the last 10 minutes. Keep the pieces whole and don't mash them.\nFor the coconut, use freshly grated coconut (from a whole coconut, or frozen grated coconut from an Asian grocery store). Packaged desiccated coconut works if you rehydrate it in lukewarm water for 10 minutes, although the texture will be a little different. The poppy seeds (khus khus) thicken the sauce; the gray or blue poppy seeds sold in France do the job perfectly well.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tPlat principalIndienne","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}