Yeah, I’ve been on an Indian food kick lately. I mean, I’m always on one as a consumer, but in the past week, I made three different Indian dishes. Hopefully, you already saw the delightfully easy and delicious naan recipe I put out. And today…I bring you a delicious mushroom coconut curry! I really really enjoyed it. We received Vegetarian India (a cookbook) by Madhur Jaffrey, a well-known Indian chef and cookbook author, as a wedding present. I’m really loving this cookbook and can’t wait to try more from it.
This recipe is based off of her recipe called “Kodava Mushroom Curry with Coconut,” though I deviated quite a bit. Get her cookbook if you want the exact recipe–she’s a genius! Apparently, this dish comes from a more meat-eating region in India and thus she was fascinated by their vegetarian dishes. It’s rich, scrumptious, and filling. She suggests to have it with rice, but we had it with quinoa. I think it would go well with anything–rice, quinoa, naan, paratha, you name it!
- 14 oz can coconut milk
- 2 packets mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 4 tbsp oil
- Open coconut milk can (need to have been left undisturbed for 24 hours) carefully and spoon the thick cream at the top into a bowl. Set aside.
- Chop garlic into fine pieces (near-diced).
- Chop mushrooms into bite-like pieces. Place in bowl and pour salt and curry powder over the mushrooms. Rub the spices into the mushrooms until they are all at least somewhat touched with them and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Put oil into frying pan and set to medium heat. Add garlic and cook until just browning. Take the pan off the heat and add chili powder, cumin, and onion powder and stir.
- Place back on the stove on medium-low heat and add the bowl of mushrooms (any liquid that comes with them) into the frying pan. Stir and cook for 2 minutes
- Add 3/4 cup of the thin coconut milk into the pan. Let simmer for 10 minutes without a cover.
- Add 3/4 cup of the coconut cream and stir until mixed. Reduce heat and let simmer for a minute and continue to stir.
- Turn off the heat and add lemon juice. Stir in. Ready to serve!
- You can also let it cook down longer if you're not ready to serve right away.
I didn’t alter the recipe because I thought I knew better than Madhur Jaffrey, I just didn’t have all of the ingredients listed in her recipe. Still, she inspired and guided me in a pretty incredible dish. Did you know mushrooms are a complete protein? Winner winner. This is a great go-to dish and it makes for wonderful leftovers too with even more flavor. Make this recipe to stay hungry and fit!
