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 , 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 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
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
make a paste or use ¾ cup fresh yogurt
- 3 tbsp coconut fresh , grated
- 10 cashew nuts
- 1 tbsp fried gram or pottukadalai or putnalu
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds roasted (optional)
- ¾ tsp fennel seeds or saunf or sombu or ½ tsp powder
Whole spices
- 1 small bay leaf or tej patta
- 1 star anise or chakri phool
- 1 strand mace or javithri (optional)
- ½ tsp cumin or jeera
- 2 green cardamoms or elaichi
- 3 cloves or laung
- 1 inch cinnamon or dalchini
other ingredients for veg kurma recipe
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 cup onions finely chopped – 2 medium
- 1 green chilli optional
- 1 ½ tsp ginger garlic paste
- ¾ cup tomatoes finely chopped – 2 medium sized
- salt as needed
- ¾ cup beans chopped – 8 to 10
- ¾ cup carrot chopped – 1 medium sized
- ¾ to 1 cup cauliflower or gobi florets
- ¾ cup potatoes or aloo cubed – 2 small
- ½ cup green peas or matar
- handful coriander leaves chopped
- 1 ½ cups water
Spice powders for vegetable kurma
- 1/8 tsp turmeric or haldi
- ¾ to 1 tsp red chili powder kashmiri or byadgi
- 1 to 1 ¼ tsp garam masala
How to make the recipe
Preparation for vegetable kurma
- Fine chop onions & tomatoes. Slit chilli and set aside all of these. Cube the veggies to ¾ to 1 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, and poppy seeds (optional) with little water. 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.
NUTRITION
Notes
Preparation for vegetable kurma recipe
1. Add 1 tbsp roasted poppy seeds, 1 tbsp fried gram, 3 tbsp fresh grated coconut and 10 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 to make veg kurma recipe
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.
Nafisa says
Hi Awasthi I tried it khurma recipe everyone liked it…. thank you waiting for more receips from you…..
swasthi says
Welcome Nafisa
Deepa says
Hi Swasthi,Tried this recipe.Came out well.Thanks
Geetha s nair says
Hi swasthi ur kurma recipe is very nice & i tried it. Thanks a lot . Awaiting ur new recipes in future .
swasthi says
Welcome Geetha Nair
Thanks for trying. Yes sure will be posting more recipes
krishna patel says
Your recipes are too good, i really like korma recipe
swasthi says
Thank you very much
Priyanka says
Hi, I find your recipes amazing – have tried making Gopi manchurian and butter paneer both were delicious. For this vege kurma, Could I use dessicated coconut that is found in supermarkets in packets if I can’t find fresh coconut? Please advise. I am really keen to try this.
swasthi says
Hi Priyanka,
Thanks for trying the recipes.For kurma recipe, always fresh coconut is best. If you do not have then try with 2.5 tbsps poppy seeds(khuskhus) & skip coconut. If you do not have both then use desiccated coconut.
Mythu says
Hi swasthi sister, I tried ur most of receipes…. Really good and awesome taste….. My family members also like the dishes… Tq…
swasthi says
Welcome Mythu,
Thanks a lot for trying. Very glad to know the recipes were useful.
🙂
SHIVANI says
Really good… The aroma of the kurma was awesome… Taste was also good.. Thanks for receipe
swasthi says
Welcome Shivani.
Thanks for trying
R SHANMUGAPRIYA says
Hi swasthi I made your veg kurma and potato kurma yesterday both were excellent.I grinded your simple garam masala also.but I didn’t use in both recipes.I have a doubt whether u r using simple garam masala in this recipes or any other garam masala.
swasthi says
Hi Priya
Thanks for trying. I use this garam masala for kurma. I use simple garam masala for normal dishes where I don’t need much masala flavor like veg stir fry, simple curries like potato curry, bitter gourd, sweet potato etc.
maria.K says
hi,
planning to try this but won’t the star anise and saumf flavour dominate?
pl reply.
swasthi says
Hi Maria
No they wont dominate. Star anise if powdered will dominate and saunf if added in more qty then it may dominate. But this will turn out just perfect. Go ahead and try
Sathya says
Tried it today came out really good
Kavya says
Recipe came out really nice and taste thanks for sharing your recipe.
swasthi says
Welcome Kavya
Thanks for trying
Reddy says
Hi.it came our really well last time.can i use dried coconut from next time instead of fresh
swasthi says
Yes you can use dried coconut as well but fresh coconut yields a different taste. Thanks for trying
Anita Burgoyne says
Can i make this a couple days ahead and reheat? Or is it better made right before serving? Thank you.
swasthi says
Hi Anita
You can make it one day ahead and reheat it. The taste of coconut changes if you store for more than a day. However it is best if made few hours earlier.
Bombayboy says
Very nice recipe, but don’t you discard the cloves and star anice before adding the vegetables? I don’t want to eat those by accident
swasthi says
Thanks, you can remove them before you serve
Shankar says
Veg kuruma came very well
swasthi says
Thanks for trying
Vasi says
The recipe looks amazing. I only have one question – what are poppy seeds ? As much as i know they are small black seeds but on the picture in the recipe is something else
Thank you
swasthi says
Hi Vasi
As I have mentioned in the step by step pictures, cashews can be used instead of poppy seeds. This recipe can be made using white poppy seeds, that is what we use in Indian recipes and not black seeds. In the pics I have shown cashews as a substitute to poppy seeds. I live in a country where poppy seeds are restricted from selling. Hope this helps
neha ray says
yummy dish. My family enjoyed it very much. Thank you Swasthi.
swasthi says
welcome Neha
Happy to know you all liked it. Thank you
Yamuna says
Very easy and tasty recipes all yours
amita says
Thanks for sharing turned out awesome
swasthi says
Thanks Amita
meenakshi says
Yummy kurma perfect with phulka pulao thank you so much
swasthi says
Welcome Meenakshi
Glad you liked the kurma
Janaki says
Thank you for this recipe. Made this for 20 ppll very very delicious
swasthi says
Welcome Janaki
So glad it turned out delicious. thanks for the feedback