This vegetable malabar curry is a South Indian dish featuring fresh, light flavors from tamarind, cinnamon, curry leaves, and coconut. This vegan version makes vegetables the star, as whole spices, curry leaves, chickpeas, and veggies like cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, and spinach are simmered in a coconut milk and tomato-based curry.
Today we have a fun curry recipe that most people have probably never tried that home: vegetable malabar curry! It’s a South Indian dish that features flavors from whole spices, tamarind paste, curry leaves, ginger, and coconut milk. The fresh and delicate flavors felt perfect for spring, but it will probably be a delight any time of the year.
What exactly is Malabar cuisine?
It was hard to find what the authentic ingredients and techniques were for this malabar curry because malabar cuisine hasn’t been documented much on the internet. But based on what I could find out about it, it is inspired by a melting pot of flavors because the area is visited by lots of traders. The cuisine is particularly influenced by Arab traders who settled in coastal Kerala, a state in South India. It features a lot of coconut, tamarind, red chilis, and ghee. This post was very informative if you want to learn more about this cool cuisine.
The Rundown
This might be the first authentic curry recipe on my blog, meaning that it was made from whole spices rather than ground spices. No compromises on flavor here! However, if you want to use ground spices, you can do so. If you have whole spices though, I’d recommend that! It shouldn’t take any longer than using ground spices.
If you don’t have some of the whole spices (like mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds), I wouldn’t worry much. You can absolutely still try this curry! The only non-negotiable ingredients include curry leaves, ginger, tomato paste, turmeric, and coconut milk.
When you’re making anything with whole spices, you fry them in a little oil first before adding anything else. They start to release aromas and since they are added in the pot so early on, their flavors permeate through the entire dish. If you were using ground spices on the other hand, I usually prefer to fry these no longer than a minute before adding tomato paste. That’s because they burn more easily!
After you fry the spices, you cook the vegetables, add water, cover and simmer, and finish off with the chickpeas and coconut milk.
Serve this warm curry with rice and remember, it will taste better the next day as the flavors infuse into it!
Vegetable Malabar Curry
Ingredients
- 1 large carrot, thinly sliced
- ½ a head of cauliflower
- 1.5 cups cooked or canned chickpeas
- 2 small white potatoes, quartered
- 2 cups spinach
- 14 oz. canned full-fat coconut milk
- 2 tbsp avocado oil or any neutral oil
- 5 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- ½ tsp fenugreek seeds
- 12 curry leaves
- 2 dry red chilis
- ½ a red onion, chopped
- 2 inches ginger, grated
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp kashmiri lal sub 3/4 tsp red chili powder
- 1 cup tomato paste (2 tomatoes)
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Prepare all your veggies. Cut half a cauliflower into florets. Cut one large carrot diagonally to form thin slices. Quarter your potatoes so they are about 1-inch.
- Add 2 tbsp oil to a large saucepan over medium heat. Add 5 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, and 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds. When it starts to crackle, add the 12 curry leaves and 2 red chilis. Continue to fry the whole spices in the oil for 2 minutes.
- Add the chopped onion and grated ginger. Cook for 2 minutes before adding 1/2 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp kashmiri lal (sub 3/4 tsp red chili powder). Cook with the ground spices for 1 minute, making sure they don't stick to the pan.
- Add 1 cup of tomato paste, 1 tbsp tamarind paste, and salt. Cook for 5-7 minutes, allowing the tomato juices to mostly evaporate.
- Add potatoes and 1/2 cup water. Cook for 5 minutes before adding carrot and cauliflower. Cook carrot and cauliflower for 3-4 minutes before adding another 1.5 cups of water.
- Bring to boil, reduce to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes or until veggies are soft and cooked. If the potatoes are not fully cooked at this point, that's ok. They should be soft, but they can finish cooking after you take them off the heat by simply keeping the pot covered.
- Finally, add chickpeas and coconut milk. Cook for 4-5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in spinach. The spinach will wilt in the warmth of the curry. Add salt and lemon juice to taste if needed.
- I recommend serving with rice. As with most curries, the flavor gets better with time, so definitely save some for the next day!
If you want to try more delicious curry recipes, here are some more!
So glad you enjoyed!
Wow – so delicious! Made this today. And the kitchen smells amazing, and the dish tastes just as wonderful! We did use tomato paste since we didnt read the comments first. Worked great, as tomato paste has a lot of rich flavor from being condensed in advance. Used many fresh veggies, including Malabar spinach from our garden. Perfect consistency for this dish. Thanks!
Oh I guess I meant tomato puree, as in tomato puree from about 2 roma tomatoes! That much canned tomato paste would definitely be too much. Thanks for pointing that out!
Do you mean 1 cup tomato sauce?? (as the tomato juices need to cook off…)
That usually depends on the people eating haha so sometimes I like to leave it up to you, but for me, this probably served 3-4!
How many serves in the recipe?
Awww love to hear that! It has such lovely flavors and I’m glad you two enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you so much for your feedback, it means a lot!
I stumbled across this recipe because I was *finally* able to track down fenugreek seeds that had been on my shopping list a long time, but then forgot which recipe I needed them for. I am so glad Google brought me here (I think my search terms were ‘fenugreek tamarind curry’) because this was crazy delicious. My boyfriend and I managed to polish off the entire amount across two meals, even though there was definitely enough food for more than that 🤣
I’m so glad you loved it! It’s so cozy and delicious 🙂
Tried this out today and LOVED it. It’s mild but full of flavour. Hearty and satisfying. Would definitely be making this again!