Vegan Vegetable Curry with Mint Cilantro Chutney

This is a luscious vegan curry, inspired by the delicious Tomato and Coconut Fish Curry recipe in Monica Bhide’s lovely book, Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Contemporary Kitchen. As an aside, I was thrilled to meet Monica in person this weekend at the Roger Smith Food Writer’s Conference.

The chutney is optional, but is super easy to make. Monica does have a mint-cilantro chutney recipe in the book, but I improvised the one here.

If you aren’t vegan, I think this is really nice alongside Amreen’s Biryani recipe that’s available on Food52. This curry also works well over any cooked grain and/or with warm Naan or another Indian-style bread.

Vegetarian Coconut Curry Recipe
adapted from Modern Spice by Monica Bhide
Serves 4

Ingredients:

* 2 tablespoons organic coconut oil or ghee
* 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
* 1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
* 3 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
* 1 Serrano chile pepper, seeded and minced
* 1 globe eggplant
* 1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into cubes
* one 14 oz. can organic whole coconut milk
* 1 zucchini, chopped into cubes
* 1 green pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
* 2 cups chopped collard greens
* 1 tomato, chopped
* 1 teaspoon tumeric
* 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chile powder or other red chile powder
* 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
* fresh mint for the chutney- optional
* fresh cilantro for the chutney- optional
* fresh lime juice for the chutney- optional
* organic sugar for the chutney- optional

Directions:

Cut the eggplant cross-wise into 1 1/2 inch thick slices. Sprinkle them all over with salt and allow to drain in a colander over the sink for 20-30 minutes. Rinse well to remove all the salt and chop into bite-sized pieces.

In a large skillet or wok, melt the coconut oil or ghee over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and cook for a minute or two until they “pop”, then add the ginger, garlic, and chili pepper. Stir everything around for a minute or so.

Add the chopped eggplant and sweet potato to the pan along with the coconut milk. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a little water if the liquid seems too thick.

Add the zucchini, green pepper, collard greens and tomato, and cook for another 15-20 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender, again adding a little water if necessary.

Mix in the spices and salt. Cook for one minute more. Taste and adjust the spices, if necessary. Add a little more red chile powder and/or salt, if you like.

To make the simple mint-cilantro chutney, mix equal parts chopped mint and cilantro with fresh lime and a little organic sugar. Taste and adjust the lime and sugar to your liking. I used about 1/2 cup each of the herbs, the juice of 1/2 lime and 1 tsp. of sugar. You can make a little or a lot of this, but just know that it doesn’t keep very well, so don’t plan to refrigerate it longer than a day or two.

This post is linked to Simply Sugar and Gluten Free’s Slightly Indulgent Tuesday!

Tagged as: coconut, curry, vegetarian