Make this Hotel Style Mix Veg Kurma or Vegetable Kurma at the comfort of your home using my simple recipe. It has beautiful flavors from coconut, poppy seeds, and other spices.
Here are some more South Indian Gravies that you can try – Vegetable Stew, Moru Curry, Ulli Theeyal, Veg Kootu Curry, and Kadala Curry.
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About This Recipe
Veg Kurma is a very special South Indian side dish which is popularly served with Appam.
It is a simple and easy to make South Indian curry recipe in which steamed vegetables are coated in a coconut-based gravy and flavored with some aromatic ground spices.
The use of cashew nuts and poppy seeds not only enhances the taste of the dish but also acts as a natural thickener to the gravy.
Preparing Vegetable Kurma involves various stages such as preparing the paste for the gravy, steaming vegetables, and then combining all this with a nice onion tadka.
Ingredients
Vegetables – This dish is loaded with vegetables, and that’s what I like about this recipe. I have used carrot, potato, beans, cauliflower, and green peas. You can add more vegetables to increase the nutrition content in this dish.
Kurma Masala – A special paste is ground using some full of flavor ingredients to make the base for this dish. This Masala includes poppy seeds, cashew nuts, coconut, fennel seeds, ginger, garlic, clove, curry leaves, tomato, and curry leaves.
The use of poppy seeds and cashew nuts gives this curry a rich and royal touch and even makes it a little thick in consistency.
Other Ingredients – Other than this delicious paste, we will also use other ingredients such as oil, hing, cumin seeds, bay leaf, curry leaves, green chilies, onion, coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, salt, milk and coriander leaves to enhance the taste of this curry even more.
You can even use coconut milk instead of milk in this curry.
Step by Step Recipe
Add all the ingredients to make a paste in blender.
Add little water and blend to make a smooth paste.
Now add vegetables in a pressure cooker along with 1 cup of water. Pressure cook until softened (Approx 1 whistle on high heat and 1 whistle on low heat. Remove the cooker from heat and let the pressure release.
Heat vegetable oil in a pan.
When the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and hing and let them crackle for a few seconds.
Add bay leaves, curry leaves, onion, and green chilies and fry until onion turns slightly brown.
Add the paste and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Now add some water if the paste is getting burned. Add coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, and salt and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the cooked vegetables and milk and cook for 3-4 minutes.
You can add more water if the curry is too thick. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is such a special recipe that in some households it is also prepared as a part of traditional rituals, so it can also be prepared without using onion and garlic.
Just skip the use of these ingredients wherever specified.
Yes, you can definitely use Paneer in vegetable kurma.
Just add fresh paneer cubes while adding the steamed vegetables in the gravy, mix it nicely and cook the entire dish for 3- 4 minutes on a low to medium flame and then you are good to go.
You can even add capsicum along with other vegetables to this mix Vegetable Kurma Recipe.
You can skip making the Kurma paste and add ¾ cup thick yogurt to make the gravy.
You can also add the paste and curd both at the same time to make this Kurma.
Set the Instant Pot in saute mode and add oil. Once the oil is hot, add in hing, cumin seeds, bay leaves, and curry leaves. After 10 seconds, add in the sliced onions and let it cook till they turn translucent.
Add green chilies, spice powders and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes.
Now add in all the vegetables, and mix well. Add the Kurma Paste, required water, and give it a mix. Set the Instant Pot back to manual mode and cook for about 5 minutes on a high-pressure method.
Let the pressure release naturally. Open, add in salt, milk, and give it a mix. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.
As this Kurma has coconut, you can’t store it for long. You can store the leftover in the refrigerator for a day in an air tight container.
Serving Suggestions
Vegetable Kurma is a side dish which acts as a perfect complement to various delicacies like Kerala Parotta, Tawa Paratha, Idli, Dosa, Poori, Chapati, Appam or Idiyappam.
You can also serve it with Steamed Rice, Ghee Rice or any lightly spiced Pulao.
Variations
Veg kurma is a gravy based recipe and its gravy differs in different regions. People in South India prefer a coconut based gravy and people in North India prefer to have a curd based gravy.
South India also have a lot of variations of this recipe. I am mentioning some of them below.
Kerala Style – The Kerala style version is made in coconut oil which gives it a very peculiar flavour. The basic recipe is the same.
Chettinad Style – In a Chettinad style mix vegetable kurma, the spices are roasted until they are brown and fragrant before grinding them. They are then ground with other ingredients to make a paste.
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Recipe Card
Veg Kurma Recipe
Ingredients
To make a paste
- 2 tbsp Poppy Seeds (Soaked in ¼ cup hot water)
- ½ cup Fresh Coconut (Grated)
- 18-20 Cashew Nuts
- 1 tsp Fennel Seeds
- 1 tsp Ginger (Chopped)
- 2-3 cloves Garlic
- 2-3 Clove
- 10-12 Curry Leaves
- 2 tbsp Fresh Coriander
- ½ cup Tomato (Chopped)
To Steam
- ½ cup Carrot (Cubed)
- ½ cup Peas
- 1 cup Cauliflower (Cut into small florets)
- ½ cup Beans (Cut into 1 inch pieces)
- ½ cup Potato (Cubed)
For the Gravy
- 4 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- ¼ tsp Hing
- 2 Bay leaves
- 10-12 Curry Leaves
- 1 cup Onion (Sliced)
- 2-3 Green Chillies (Slit into half)
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
- ½ tsp Garam Masala Powder
- Salt to taste
- ½ cup Milk
- 2 tbsp Fresh Coriander (Chopped)
Instructions
To make a paste
- Add all the ingredients to make a paste in blender.
- Add little water and blend to make a smooth paste.
To steam
- Add vegetables in a pressure cooker along with 1 cup of water.
- Pressure cook until softened (Approx 1 whistle on high heat and 1 whistle on low heat.
- Remove the cooker from heat and let the pressure release.
For the Gravy
- Heat vegetable oil in a pan.
- When the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and hing and let them crackle for a few seconds.
- Add bay leaves, curry leaves, onion and green chillies and fry until onion turns slightly brown.
- Add the paste and cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Now add some water if the paste is getting burned.
- Add coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder and salt and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add the cooked vegetables and milk and cook for 3-4 minutes.
- You can add more water if the curry is too thick.
- Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot.
Beau
This came out amazing, with a rich but balanced flavor. Truly restaurant-quality delicious. I added some chicken thigh pieces that I’d tossed in spices, fried along with the onions/peppers/curry leaves. Worked out really well.
Neha Mathur
So good to hear 🙂