Vegetable Stew with Coconut Milk & South Indian Spices

This GF vegetable dish is inspired by South Indian cuisine, with curry leaves, turmeric, and other delicious flavors. (Cat update included!)

This stew is visually appealing and makes your tastebuds happy!

I’m not a vegetarian, but if I was, I’d eat nothing but Indian food. The vegetable recipes hailing from South Asia are so rich and flavorful that you could imagine eating nothing but those dishes with rice. This gluten-free vegetable stew made with hot peppers, coconut milk, and other seasonings typical of the very southern part of India is one I’ve made many times. I usually prepare it as part of an Indian-themed meal, but the coconut milk makes it rich enough that it can probably stand on its own if you’re not up to making more than one dish.

The recipe uses fresh curry leaves, which you can find at Asian markets. If you’d rather find a substitute, use a couple of bay leaves instead. But I encourage you to try curry leaves, as they have a unique fragrance that will transport you to India. I’ve written about curry leaves before, as I use them in different Indian dishes (such as this cauliflower recipe, also vegetarian). I buy fresh leaves when I need them and keep the rest in the freezer until they’re needed again. (You can do the same with other Asian ingredients that you need to buy in larger quantities than needed for a single dish, like kaffir lime leaves, ginger, galangal, turmeric root, and lemongrass.)

It also contains hot peppers, but the resulting flavor isn’t super spicy, as the heat is subdued by the fat in the coconut milk. As always, you can dial the heat factor up or down depending on the type and amount of peppers you use.

I’ve built the amounts of ingredients around using a whole 13.5-ounce can of coconut milk (the original recipe I was working with had 1 cup, but then what do you do with the rest of the can?), and the result should be just about right for serving four people. If you don’t need that much, the stew lasts really well for several days in the fridge, so you can reheat it for another meal. (The amounts are also scalable up or down).

I hope you’ll enjoy cooking and eating this dish. I recommend serving it with cooked rice. This dish is so colorful that it doesn’t need a garnish.

And scroll to the bottom for an update on Seraphina the cat’s adventures!

Ingredients (in order they’re used):

• 4 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil (or another type of vegetable oil if desired)

• 4 tablespoons sliced garlic

• 4 tablespoons julienned fresh ginger

• 20 fresh curry leaves, whole (can substitute a few bay leaves if desired)

• 4 hot peppers, such as serrano, chopped (adjust amount to taste and tolerance for spice)

• 1.5 teaspoons ground turmeric

• 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper

• ¾ cup vegetable stock (here’s a suggestion for how to make vegetable stock)

• 1.5 cups frozen pearl onions, thawed

• 1.5 cups gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

• 1.5 cups carrots, cut into ½ inch pieces

• ¾ pound fresh green beans, cut int ½ inch pieces

• 1 13.5-ounce can of coconut milk

• Sea salt to taste (I used about 2 teaspoons)

Directions:

• Heat the oil in a large pot (I used an enameled cast-iron casserole)

• Add the garlic, ginger, curry leaves, chopped peppers, black pepper, and turmeric and stir

• Sauté the seasonings for a few minutes until they begin to brown

• Add the vegetable stock, bring it to a simmer, and deglaze the pan by using a wooden spatula to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan

• Continue simmering for a couple of minutes to reduce the liquid slightly

• Add all of the vegetables and stir to coat them evenly with the seasonings

• Add the coconut milk and salt, stir, and bring it to a simmer

• Cook the stew partially covered until the vegetables are tender (20 minutes should be enough)

• Serve with rice

All of the main ingredients (except I forgot to show the turmeric!).

It looks and smells so tasty when it’s cooking!

Cat Update: Seraphina’s First Hotel Stay

Hey, that new pink collar is kind of cute!

I’ve mentioned how Seraphina is getting accustomed to long car rides (at the end of my banana bread recipe). Seraphina’s not quite an adventure cat yet (I recently tried taking her for a walk in a pet backpack—another story), but she’s been cool with the change of scenery from our DC apartment to the car to our SC house and back. On our most drive north to DC, Lia had business in Richmond, VA, so we had to spend the night there with Seraphina. This was to be her first hotel stay, so we were a bit nervous about how she’d react. We found a pet-friendly hotel (Home2 Suites) and checked in—and Seraphina was fine with it! She explored her new surroundings, used her litter box, and even found a floor-length mirror to check out her appearance (see photo). It’s not something we’d want to do often, but knowing we can bring Seraphina to hotels will make a difference in how we plan travel.