Veg kurma or Vegetable kurma recipe – Learn to make delicious south Indian style mix veg kurma with step by step photos. Kurma or korma is a curry made using veggies or meat along with yogurt, coconut, spices and nut or seed paste. Based on the regions, the ingredients used to make a korma recipe are different.
South Indian hotel style kurma is very popular & is loved by most people for its unique aroma & taste. In South Indian tiffin centers & restaurants vegetable kurma is usually served with Poori , Dosa, plain paratha , simple pulao , rava dosa, Ghee rice & many other breakfasts & meals.
In this post I am sharing the same South Indian hotel style veg kurma recipe that is quick and easy to prepare. It pairs wonderfully well even with Naan, plain basmati rice,coconut rice, Jeera rice or any other Variety rice recipes.
More about veg kurma
Veg kurma is a side dish made with mixed vegetables, spices, coconut, poppy seeds or cashews & herbs.
The key ingredients to make a flavorful vegetable kurma are the tempering spices like bay leaf, star anise, fennel, mace, cardamoms, cloves and cinnamon. These spices & coconut paste bring in a wonderful aroma to the vegetable kurma.
There are a few different versions of this south Indian kurma. In some regions it is made by using only curd or yogurt instead of coconut. I have shared that tip as well if you prefer to skip the coconut.
Veg kurma is one of those dishes that makes its appearance not only in a regular South Indian meal but also in festive and special meals. So it can also be made without onion & garlic on occasions.
I often make this flavorful & delicious vegetable kurma when I have guests home.
Tips to make vegetable kurma
1.Vegetables – The veggies that go well in a mixed veg kurma are carrots, peas, beans, cauliflower & potatoes. You can skip what ever you don’t have in hand.
2.The kurma paste is made of coconut, cashews, fried gram & poppy seeds. I do not use poppy seeds as they are banned here in Singapore. You can skip making the kurma paste entirely & just use ¾ cup thick curd or yogurt.
The taste does differ with curd & it tastes slightly tangy. I personally do not prefer to cook with curd so I have not done it for it post. But I have grown up eating this as it is a common method followed in many telugu speaking homes.
3.Many households blend whole spices along with coconut. But I do not since using garam masala works out much better for me & it tastes really good.
4. Do not skip or alter the quantity of whole spices as they are the most key ingredients that flavor up the vegetable kurma.
This veg kurma recipe has been adapted from the other korma recipes on this blog. To make this recipe, you can use potato (aloo), carrot, beans, peas & cauliflower.
For more kurma recipes, do check
Chicken korma
Navratan korma
Egg korma
Potato korma
Paneer kurma
Veg kurma recipe – South Indian hotel style
Veg kurma recipe (vegetable korma)
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
make a paste or use ¾ cup fresh yogurt
- ¼ cup fresh coconut or 2 tbsps poppy seeds or ¼ cup coconut milk
- 10 to 12 cashew nuts
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds or saunf or sombu or ½ tsp powder
- 1 tablespoon fried gram or pottukadalai or putnalu (optional)
- 6 tablespoons water or coconut milk
Whole spices
- 1 small bay leaf or tej patta
- 1 star anise or chakri phool (optional)
- 1 strand mace or javithri (optional)
- ½ teaspoon cumin or jeera
- 2 green cardamoms or elaichi
- 3 cloves or laung
- 1 inch cinnamon or dalchini
other ingredients for veg kurma recipe
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1 cup onions finely chopped – 2 medium
- 1 green chilli optional
- ¾ to 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste or fine chopped
- ¾ cup tomatoes fine chopped – 2 medium sized
- ¾ to 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup beans (8 to 10) chopped to ½ inch pieces
- ¾ cup carrot (1 medium) chopped to ½ inch pieces
- ¾ to 1 cup cauliflower (gobi florets)
- 1 cup potatoes (2 medium) chopped to ½ inch
- ¾ cup green peas or matar
- 1¾ cups water
- 2 tablespoons coriander leaves for garnish
Spice powders for vegetable korma
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric or haldi
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder kashmiri or byadgi
- 1 ¼ teaspoon garam masala
How to make the recipe
Preparation
- Fine chop onions & tomatoes. Slit chilli and set aside all of these. Cube the veggies to ½ inch sizes and set aside. Keep the potatoes immersed in a bowl of water until used.
- Make a fine paste of coconut, cashews, fried gram & saunf with 6 tbsps water. If you do not like the flavor of fennel seeds you may skip it. Set aside the kurma paste.
- Heat a pot with oil. Then saute bay leaf, star anise, mace, jeera, cardamoms, cloves and cinnamon until they sizzle.
- Next put in the chopped onions and green chili. Fry until they turn transparent & pink in color.
- Fry ginger garlic paste until the raw smell goes off.
- Next saute tomatoes with salt until mushy and soft.
- Add turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala and coriander leaves. Saute well for 2 to 3 mins until the masala smells really good.
How to make veg kurma
- Transfer the coconut paste and saute for few minutes until the kurma masala smells good.
- Drain the water from potatoes and add them to the pot.
- Next add the other veggies and mix well. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes and then pour water just enough to cover the veggies. Adjust salt if needed.
- Cook until the veggies are cooked. Garnish with coriander leaves.
- Serve veg kurma with chapati, pulao or biryani.
Instant pot vegetable kurma
- Press SAUTE button and pour oil to the inner pot of Instant pot. Add all the whole spices and saute for 30 seconds.
- Next add onions and chili. saute for 3 mins.
- Add ginger garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
- Next add tomatoes and salt. Saute for 1 minute.
- Move the onions and tomatoes to one side. Add the potatoes to the other side.
- Cover with an external lid and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Saute all of these for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add in all the spice powder and saute for 30 to 60 seconds.
- Press CANCEL button and add the coconut paste.
- Add the rest of the veggies and mix well.
- Pour water and deglaze the bottom by scrubbing with a spatula. This releases bits of food stuck there & avoids a burn.
- Taste the water and add more salt if needed.
- Secure the Instant pot with the lid and position the steam release handle/ value to sealing.
- Press PRESSURE COOK button (high pressure) and set the timer to 1 minute.
- After the Instant pot beeps, wait for 1 minute. Then release the pressure manually by moving the steam release value from sealing to venting.
- Give a gentle stir. Vegetable kurma will look runny at this stage but will thicken after it cools down a bit.
Video
NUTRITION (estimation only)
Notes
- If using yogurt or curd, make sure you don’t use sour one. Use more spice powders to balance the tang in yogurt.
- Substitute fresh coconut with 2 tbsps of poppy seeds or 6 tbsps of thick coconut milk. If using coconut milk then skip water used for making the paste.
- It is important to keep the size of the potatoes and carrots to half inch.
- If you use larger pieces of the veggies about 1 inch then you will need to increase the cook time to 2 mins.
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
If you are new to cooking, follow my detailed step by step photo instructions for best results.
Preparation
1. Add fennel seeds, fried gram, coconut and cashew nuts. You can replace poppy seeds with coconut, or cashew nuts with poppy seeds.
Skipping cashews and poppy seeds both may not lend a good taste. If you do not have a blender to make a paste, then just use 3/4 cup thick yogurt the taste will be different but still good.
2. Pour little water and make a fine paste.
How to make vegetable kurma recipe
3. Heat oil in a pot. Add bay leaf, star anise, jeera, cloves, cinnamon stick. You can also add a single strand of mace If you like the fragrance.
4. Next add in very finely chopped onions or onion paste & green chili. Saute until the onions turn pink. The raw smell of the onions has to go away.
5. Add ginger garlic paste. My ginger garlic paste has turmeric in it, so the color. Saute until the raw smell of the paste has gone away.
6. Then add in chopped tomatoes and salt.
7. Fry until the tomatoes turn completely soft and mushy.
8. Add chili powder, coriander leaves, garam masala and saunf powder. If you do not have saunf/ fennel seeds powder, then add garam masala and saunf to a blender jar and powder well.
9. On a medium to low flame, saute for 2 to 3 minutes until the masala begins to smell good. By now the mixture also begins to leave the sides.
10. Add the coconut cashew paste.
11. Mix and fry for 2 to 3 minutes until the coconut smells good.
Addition of vegetables
12. Lower the flame, add chopped potatoes, beans, carrots, peas and cauliflower.
13. Mix everything well and saute for 2 to 3 minutes without burning.
14. Add water just enough to cover the veggies. I used 1.5 cups water. Add salt as well and stir.
15. Cook on a medium flame until the veggies are cooked. Taste the veg kurma and add in more salt if needed. Add coriander leaves and switch off.
Serve veg kurma with rice or chapati.
Aparna says
I like all your recipes and the results will be awesome👏.. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes…
NS says
Great recipe!
Chetana says
Hi Swasthi, your recipes are always so good! Thank you 🙂 I don’t have cashews for kurma paste is their any substitute for cashews pls?
swasthi says
Hi Chetana,
Thank you. You can use poppy seeds or more coconut
Lakshmi says
Hey swasthi! Tried this out and it came out really well! ☺️
swasthi says
Hi Lakshmi
Glad to know! Thank you
Jennifer says
Unfortunately, I did not preboil the veggies. While the potatoes were done, the carrots and beans didn’t get cooked. But otherwise the taste is alright.
swasthi says
You don’t need to preboil the veggies. You may add more water and cook further until the carrots and beans are cooked.
Arvind says
Hi Swasthi,
Have been searching for perfect kurma recepie for a long time!! Thank you for sharing! Comes out perfect every time.
Best Regards!!
Shankar says
Good recipe during lock Down 😉
We didit have fennel and spice flower , nonetheless tasty.
I also like the watery version of kurma served in regular restaurants along with Chapati which also has beetroot. Please suggest the variation to make that dish as well.
Thanks a lot.
swasthi says
Glad to know it turned out good!
Yes I will try to share
Swetha says
I usially enjoy all your recipes and they are great. I made this recipe and disappointed that the preparation instructions doesn’t match the details specified in the description with pictures. I used fennel seeds with the coconut paste as mentioned in the preparation but fennel seed isn’t mentioned in the description with pictures. Adding fennel seed to the paste makes it taste off and I would have completely skipped it.
swasthi says
Hi Swetha,
Thank you! Fennel seeds is the key ingredient in this veg kurma. Without that it is just a regular masala curry. From onwards please feel free to skip the fennel if you don’t like. Regarding the discrepancy I forgot to add fennel seeds in the step by step picture instructions. I have updated the post with more details.
Reshma says
This was delicious and healthy! Perfect with appams. Thank you for yet another no-fail delicious recipe!
swasthi says
H Reshma,
You are welcome. Wow appam and kurma.! Thank you! Glad you liked it.
shamanth says
it is always the classics , to have veg kurma , i did not know that we can add coconut with cashew , new ingredient for me to know
thank you
swasthi says
Hi Shamanth
You are welcome. Thank you so much!
Avishek Dan says
Turned out very tasty.
swasthi says
Thank you!
Durga says
Hi Swasthi
All your recipes are excellent..
I tried many of your dishes and all turned out very well..Thank you!
swasthi says
Hi Durga
You are welcome! Thanks much!
Katharina says
Hi Swasthi,
I love your recipes, every one turned out well so far!
I‘d like to try this one (loved the dish when I tasted it in India) but unfortunately here in Austria fresh coconut is not easy to come by. Can I also use dried coconut flakes and maybe add some coconut milk to make it smooth?
thank you in advance
Katharina
swasthi says
Hi Katharina,
You are welcome. I haven’t tried with coconut flakes for any curry recipe. So not sure how it works. You can simply skip it and pour some coconut milk & reduce the water. For any korma/curry recipe you can just skip coconut and use cashews or poppy seeds along with coconut milk. Thank you for trying the recipes.
Katharina says
Hi Swasthi,
I tried the recipe today and did as you suggested. It turned out really well! thank you for your help 🙂
swasthi says
Hi Katharina,
You are welcome. Glad it turned out well. Thank you!
🙂
Shilpa says
Hi Swasti,
This recipe is super hit and finger licking good. Everyone loved it so much.
Anand sankaran says
Hi mam I made small mistake
While grinding the coconut paste I added cardamon and cloves and jeers etc
And while frying I added cardamon and jeera again
I make kurma lite bitter
So how to avoid mam
I want to impress my wife kindly say mam
swasthi says
Hi,
Just doubling the cardamom and jeera or blending them will not make the kurma bitter. If you blend spices like star anise, mace etc then it can become bitter. May be you can try to add a bit of coconut milk. It should reduce.
Sharol says
Hi swasthi your recipes are the best .Especially when I want to try out new vegetarian ones I trust your recipes for the best results. Thank you .
swasthi says
Hi Sharol,
You are welcome. Thank you so much! Glad you like them.
🙂
Swapna.Aksekar says
Hi mam 😊 I tried ur recipe it turned awesome thanks
swasthi says
Welcome Swapna,
Thank you so much! Glad you like the veg kurma.
🙂
Vijayashree Suresha Kumar says
Hare Krishna
Excellent, reminds me of my Amma and my Maamiyar’s cooking!
swasthi says
Hare Krishna!
Thank you so much.
Chaitali says
Hi Swasthi,
First time I made this veg kurma and was awesome better than the restaurants. I hate some kurmas with overpowering flavors. This one is so good and delicious. We ate with jeera rice. I am sure will be on our weekly rotation. Thank you.
swasthi says
Hi Chaitali
You are welcome. Thanks for trying. Glad you all liked the kurma.
Manasi Gautam says
Loved it. Just the variation I did was since I didn’t have fresh coconut and tomatoes so simple made the paste with coconut milk powder along with curd, fenel seeds cashews
swasthi says
Thanks Manasi,
Glad you like it
Sara says
Swathi you and your recipes are amazing.. you made cooking so easy… Simplied it more by showing each step with pictures
Nafisa says
Hi Awasthi I tried it khurma recipe everyone liked it…. thank you waiting for more receips from you…..
swasthi says
Welcome Nafisa