This green coconut curry is a delicious way to use up summer produce while having a super comforting dish that’s great for meal prep, easy to make, and full of flavor.
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If there’s a comfort food that you could eat over and over again, it would be this green coconut curry.
Whether you want a quick meal during the week, looking to meal prep for the week on the weekend, or you just want a restaurant quality meal, this vegetable loaded curry dish will do trick for whatever you need.
This recipe takes less than 30 minutes to make all in one skillet, so you save on time and dishes.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy and One Pot– This recipe is only 30 minutes to make and all made in one pot for quick clean up
- Meal Prep Friendly – this recipe only gets better as it sits and allows the flavors to merry together and lasts for up to 5 days in the fridge which makes it a great option to eat all week long
- Freezable – Want to really prep this ahead? Let it cool and you can store in individual pre-portioned containers in the freezer for up to 6 months in advance. It’s a great way to make use of in season corn, but not eat until winter.
Ingredients and Substitutions:
Gather your ingredients! See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
- Chickpeas – we are using chickpeas as our protein and for texture. We are crisping them up at the very beginning and then saving some for the end to give variation.
- Corn – in season, fresh, corn on the cob will give you the freshest tasting coconut curry. While yellow corn is preferred, white or bicolored corn works just as great
- Substitute: Canned (drained and rinsed) corn or frozen corn also works great in this recipe if you are making this in the winter or cannot access fresh corn on the cob.
- Zucchini – to keep with our green curry, we’re adding in this fresh vegetable for texture and flavor
- Aromatics – We’re using garlic, yellow onions, and ginger for the base flavor of the dish. These help deepen the flavor of the dish and add complexity.
- Onion substitute: you can use sweet onions or shallots instead of yellow
- Vegetable Stock – we like using a low sodium vegetable stock so that we can control the sodium level inside of our curry
- Coconut Milk – We use canned coconut milk for this recipe. It has the ability to mimic heavy cream well. While most people are worried about a strong coconut taste in their dishes, don’t worry, there’s none. It does not overpower the dish.
- Substitute: You can use cashew cream as our first choice of a substitute. Simply blend 1 cup raw cashews with ½ cup water until a smooth consistency. You could also use a very creamy milk like soy, creamy oat, or flax.
- Greens and Herbs – We’re using spinach, cilantro and basil in this dish. The flavors help build the green curry color, but also the flavor with freshness.
- Spinach substitute: You can use kale as a substitute
- Fresh herbs substitute: You can try parsley in place of the cilantro and basil but you will alter the taste.
- Spices – We are using a combination of curry powder, cumin, coriander, black pepper and red pepper flakes
- Tahini – this is adding some flavor and creaminess to our dish
- Vegan Fish Sauce – because we are building some of these flavors based on Thai curry which uses fish sauce, we are using a vegan version
- Substitute: You can also just use soy sauce, we prefer low-sodium
- Lime and Lemon – We are using both zest and juice to give a balance of flavor that is subtle but so great
Other must try vegan curry dishes:
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Green Coconut Curry
Ingredients
For Green Curry Sauce
- 1 ¾ cup canned coconut milk 420g (1 14.5oz can or 420g)
- 1 cup vegetable stock (240g)
- 1 cup spinach 25g (kale sub)
- 2 tablespoon tahini
- 1 tablespoon vegan fish sauce soy sauce sub
- Zest from ½ lemon
- Juice from ½ lime
For Curry Base
- 3 tablespoon oil
- 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas, blotted dry (1 15oz can or 250g)
- 2 teaspoon seasoned salt (sub with your favorite all purpose seasoning blend)
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 inch fresh ginger, grated (2.5cm)
- 1 ½ tablespoon yellow curry powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon coriander
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes more or less to taste
- 2 small zucchinis, thinly sliced
- 2 cups fresh corn kernels, about 2 ears (or 1 15oz can or 330g)
- 10-15 fresh basil leaves
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped (4g)
Instructions
- In a blender add 1 ¾ cup coconut milk, 1 cup vegetable stock, 1 cup spinach, 2 tablespoon tahini, 1 tablespoon vegan fish sauce, ½ lemon zest and ½ lime juice. Blend until a smooth consistent texture. Set aside.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, add oil. Once heated, add chickpeas. Sprinkle the seasoned salt over and stir together. Saute for 3-5 minutes or until crispy. Remove from the oil to a bowl and set aside.
- In the same skillet, add 1 chopped onion, 4 cloves garlic, and 1 inch fresh ginger. Stir together and saute for 3 minutes or until it begins to soften.
- Add 1 ½ tablespoon yellow curry powder, 1 ½ teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon coriander, ½ teaspoon black pepper, and ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (or less if not wanting spicy). Stir together and allow to cook for 30 seconds to toast the spices.
- Add 2 small sliced zucchinis, 2 cups corn, and ¾ of the chickpeas. Stir everything together. Add ¼ cup of the curry sauce and use that to scrap any bites off the bottom of the skillet. Add remaining sauce and reduce heat to simmer. Let cook for 15 minutes.
- Add 10-15 fresh basil leaves and ¼ cup chopped cilantro and stir together. Remove from heat. Top with remaining crispy chickpeas, fresh mini cucumbers, more herbs if desired. Serve with rice or other desired sides.
Video
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions:
Yes! Let cool completely and then store in freezer safe bags or containers. Store in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Yes! For the coconut milk use a safe for you creamy non-dairy milk or make a cashew cream. Soy or cashew are the next best choices, but a creamy oat milk hits the spot! Tahini can be subbed with a nut butter or sunbutter that is safe for you. And finally soy sauce, depending on allergies, can be subbed with coconut aminos, tamari, or a no soy soy sauce.
Yes! Either of these will work. The truth is that canned and frozen corn are still picked and packaged usually at the peak time of the season which still make them a great option. If choosing canned, try to pick a no added salt version if possible so you can control the sodium.
Yes! Curries are great ways to use up vegetables in the fridge before they go bad. For no change in cooking time, try adding snow peas, eggplant or mushrooms. If adding something like broccoli, cauliflower, or bok choy, you’re going to want to add around 5-8 minutes. For something like potatoes, carrots or other rooted vegetables, you’ll need to add 15-20 minutes of cook time or until softened, but also may need more liquid – either vegetable stock, coconut milk or a combination.
A delicious salad is the perfect start for this comfort food dinner, but the best sides are a grain like rice or quinoa. We also love having homemade vegan naan with curries.
Made it my own in terms of veggies.. Very simple yet full of bold flavors. It definitely challenged me otu of my normal flavor profile. Very delicious.
Love that you expanded your norm!
So tasteful, it’s ny go to curry for guests.
Love it!
I love the flavours, I would make it again. Only thing for me was the sauce was a bit grainy, not smooth like your one was. I blended the sauce for a while. I don’t know where I went wrong
Are you able to share what brand you blended with?
I saw the YouTube video—I’ve made this a couple of times and it’s absolutely delicious. I love the zucchini flavor in this with a little heat, and used fresh corn on the cob and it came together really well. Served with koshihikari rice (Japanese short grain rice) and you’ve got yourself a hearty dinner. One of my favorite things about this recipe is that I can share it with my mom—this is a tomato free dish and tomatoes are too acidic for her. I highly recommend you try it out. It’s way better than any store bought curry paste
Wow, thank you so much for the kind words. I’m so glad you could share this with your mom
This is the second dish we’ve made from y’all and it was incredible! Served with coconut jasmine rice it was the perfect combo of flavors, spice and seasoned perfectly. Thank you!
So glad you’re loving the recipes!
This was such a wonderful meal. The flavors and textures were so very good. This will definitely be in my meal rotation.
So happy to hear that Kathleen!
Very delicious!
Thanks!
I didn’t know vegan curry can be this delicious!
Sure can!