Vegetable korma is made with a rich and creamy coconut base and packed with hearty vegetables and flavorful spices. Serve it with rice, roti, or poori for the perfect weeknight dinner that’s ready in 40 minutes!
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💡 What is a korma?
Vegetable korma is a creamy, coconut-based curry. My recipe is from South India and is made with an assortment of hearty vegetables like potatoes, peas, carrots, cauliflowers, and green beans. It has a spice base made of coconut, ginger, and garlic. In some cases, cashew nuts are also ground and added to the korma to give it a thicker, creamier consistency. FYI, korma is the North Indian way of saying it, and kurma is South Indian.
💭 Why you’ll love this recipe
- The perfect comfort food to warm up a chilly night, perfect for weeknight dinners and special occasions.
- Easy to customize, whether you want to adjust the spice level, add more veggies, or serve it over rice or flatbread!
- Naturally vegan and gluten-free so that everyone can enjoy it!
📋 Ingredients and notes
To make this vegetable korma recipe, you’ll need shredded coconut, ginger paste, minced garlic, Thai green chili peppers, tomatoes, red onion, and Kashmiri red chili powder for the spice base. For the korma base, you’ll need vegetable oil, red onion, turmeric powder, coconut cream, potatoes, frozen peas, cilantro, and salt.
Variations & substitutions
- Vegetables. I used potatoes and peas for the korma base, but you can add many hearty veggies like carrots, cauliflower, bell peppers, and green beans. You can also use tomatoes, corn, chickpeas, and a wide variety of other vegetables in this dish.
- Tomatoes. Use any fresh or canned ripe tomatoes available.
- Shredded coconut. You can substitute this with coconut cream or coconut milk.
- Coconut cream. You can also use vegan yogurt, cashew cream, coconut milk. When using coconut milk, you can add cashews to make the sauce thicker.
- Thai green chili peppers. Serrano peppers work well too. To make it spicier, you can add an extra chili pepper or dried Indian red chili peppers.
- Turmeric powder. You can also use curry powder, a garam masala blend, or add ground cumin to the korma base.
- Add some sweetness. Add a teaspoon of sugar to balance the flavors.
- Garnish with cilantro or mint leaves!
🍲 How to make this creamy Indian vegetable korma recipe
Step 1:
Add 1 tsp of turmeric to a medium pot with water. Peel the potatoes and quarter them into clean chunks. Add quartered potatoes to the pot and bring to a boil on medium heat for about 20 minutes until a fork is easily inserted into the potatoes. Drain the potatoes, mash, and set aside.
Step 2:
While potatoes are boiling, chop tomatoes, onions and chili peppers. Add shredded coconut, ginger paste, minced garlic, tomatoes, half the chopped onions, red chili powder, and Thai green chili peppers into a food processor or blender and pulse into a smooth paste.
Step 3:
Heat some oil in a medium pot on medium flame. Add the other half of the chopped onions and saute until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
Step 4:
Add the pulsed sauce to the sautéed onions along with the mashed potatoes and a cup of coconut cream, 2 teaspoons of salt, half a cup of water, and bring to a simmer (bubbles will start forming along the edges). Simmer for 3-5 minutes covered. Add the frozen peas at the very end and stir into the korma.
Step 5:
Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot!
👩🏽🍳 Top tips to make the tastiest vegetable korma curry
⭐ Peeling potatoes before boiling them in the turmeric-infused water gives them a nice golden yellow color. But if you don’t have a peeler or want to make things quicker, just pop them in with the skin on and then remove the skin once boiled – they usually slide right off!
- Add more hearty vegetables. I only used potatoes and peas in this recipe, but you’re welcome to add cauliflower, carrots, corn, and any other hearty vegetables of your choice to round it out.
- Add nuts like cashews, almonds, or poppy seeds to the korma sauce to give it a creamy consistency and a nutty flavor.
👩🏽🍳 Troubleshooting FAQs
Yes, this vegetable korma recipe is naturally gluten-free.
Yes, you can freeze korma for 2-3 months when stored in an airtight container.
It’s a mildly spicy curry dish. You can easily adjust the spice by adding more shredded coconut or using less green chili peppers and Kashmiri red chili pepper. To make it spicier, add an extra chili.
🍴 How to serve vegetable korma
The best way to serve this veg korma is with Indian flatbread – roti, naan, and poori all work deliciously. But it also tastes excellent with plain basmati rice or jeera rice.
For a complete meal, you can also serve korma with a kachumber salad, which adds a great refreshing touch to the creaminess of this dish. It also goes well with this homemade raita as a side dip and air fryer samosas as an appetizer.
🍴Storage and reheating suggestions
To store leftovers, transfer vegetable korma to an airtight container and refrigerate for 3-4 days.
To reheat, you can heat it on a stovetop over medium heat or in the microwave until it’s heated through. Stir occasionally and add a splash of water if needed.
To freeze, transfer to a freezer bag and store for 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
🍴 More delicious Indian recipes
If you like this recipe, check out my other vegetarian Indian recipes:
Authentic Chana Masala
Authentic Dal Tadka (Stovetop, Instant Pot)
Authentic Mulligatawny Soup (Vegan)
Kitchari
If you tried this recipe, don’t forget to comment and rate! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vegetable Korma
Equipment
- Food Processor or Blender
Ingredients
Spice Base
- 3 tomatoes, medium, chopped
- 1⁄2 red onion, medium, chopped
- 1⁄4 cup coconut, shredded, unsweetened
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp minced garlic, substitute with 2 cloves of fresh garlic
- 1 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder, substitute with paprika as needed
- 2 Thai green chili peppers, substitute with Serrano
Korma Base
- 2 tsp turmeric powder, divided
- 3 potatoes, boiled and mashed (medium size)
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 1⁄2 red onion, medium, chopped
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 2 tsp salt, adjust to taste!
- 2 cups frozen peas
- 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped, for garnish
Instructions
Start by boiling potatoes
- Add 1 tsp of turmeric to a medium pot with water
- Peel the potatoes and quarter them into clean chunks
- Add quartered potatoes to the pot and bring to a boil on medium heat for about 20 minutes until a fork is easily inserted into the potatoes
- Drain the potatoes, mash and set aside
Prepare the spice base
- While potatoes are boiling, chop tomatoes, onions and chili peppers
- Add shredded coconut, ginger paste, minced garlic, tomatoes, half the chopped onions, red chili powder, and Thai green chili peppers into a food processor or blender and pulse into a smooth paste
Make vegetable korma
- Heat some oil in a medium pot on medium flame
- Add other half of chopped onions and saute until fragrant – about 3 minutes
- Add the pulsed sauce to the sautéed onions along with the mashed potatoes and a cup of coconut cream, 2 teaspoons of salt, half a cup of water, and bring to a simmer (bubbles will start forming along the edges). Simmer for 3-5 minutes covered. Add the frozen peas at the very end and stir into the korma.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot!
Notes
- Peeling potatoes before boiling them in the turmeric infused water gives them a nice golden, yellow color. But if you don’t have a peeler, or want to make things quicker, just pop them in with the skin on and then remove the skin once boiled – they usually slide right off!
- I only used potatoes and peas in this recipe but you’re welcome to add cauliflower, carrots, corn, and any other hearty vegetables of your choice to round it out
- If you can’t find shredded coconut, that’s fine – you can just use coconut cream and it’ll still taste delicious, I promise. Likewise, if you can’t find coconut cream – use coconut milk instead. Instead of using the coconut cream and water, use a can of coconut milk (14.5oz)
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
In the meantime, check out these other Indian recipes:
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Looks good! The recipe does not mention when to add the peas.
If I decide to use cauliflower, carrots, etc,, would I withhold some of the potato? And do you recommend those veg be mashed, too?
Thanks John! The frozen peas are added at the very end (since they’re already parboiled before frozen).
If you decide to use other vegetables, I suggest that you cook them partially along with the potatoes (so for instance, in this case, you can just add the cauliflower florets and carrots into the pot of boiling water as well). You don’t need to mash them, but it is a good idea to cook them most of the way through so they integrate with the curry! And yes, I would suggest keeping the overall “amount” of vegetables roughly the same to make sure that it doesn’t become too dense! Hope that helps.
This looks delicious! Are the mashed potatoes stirred into the dish at the end?
Thanks Laura! Yes, you’ll stir them into the dish at the end if you want them more chunky or you can add them along with the coconut milk in the penultimate step and allow them to simmer for a few minutes if you want them more “mashed” so to speak 🙂