Kerala Style Vegetable Stew

Kerala Stew is traditionally served with Appam(Kerala’s laced rice pancakes). The charm of this vegetable stew is it’s simplicity. Vegetables cooked in coconut milk and flavored with whole spices has exceptional taste. If you are a carnivore you can add meat, chicken, mutton, or even egg make a best stew option.

When ever I get bored of making idli, dosa and the regulars for break fast I make Appam and Kerala style stew. I normally prefer veg stew or egg stew in the mornings. I can’t eat meat as my first meal of the day. Carrots, beans, peas and potatoes are the veggies I use in my veg stew recipe. Add each of these veggies in small quantities. You could even make stew with just potatoes.

To make the entire process easy, you can make coconut milk the previous night and keep it in fridge. I prefer to use home made coconut milk, it’s very rare I use canned milk. But if you are pressed of time you can use canned coconut milk. If the canned milk is too thick make sure to dilute it before you add it to the recipe.

This stew is so easy to prepare, all you need to do is cook vegetables in thin coconut milk and temper with coconut oil and curry leaves. Vegetables add taste and color to the stew. The flavor is from whole spices and green chilies. what you get are tender cooked vegetables in a delicate, spiced, light, aromatic stew with the flavor and taste of the coconut milk. If you dont have thin coconut milk to cook the veggies, you can use water instead. Pressure cooker can be used to cook veggies if water is to be used.

Here’s easy veg stew recipe-

Ingredients:-

Vegetables – 1 cup(I used 2 small carrot, 4 beans, and 1 medium sized potato)
Onions – 1 medium sized, sliced thin
Green chilies – 4 nos(adjust as per requirement)
Ginger – 1 tspn(finely chopped)
Garlic – 1 tspn(finely chopped)
Thin Coconut milk -1 cup
Thick coconut milk – 1 cup
Cloves – 2 nos
Cinnamon – 1 inch piece
Cardamom – 1 no
Salt to taste
Coconut oil – 1 tbspn (If you don’t like coconut oil use normal cooking oil)

To temper –
Coconut oil – 1 tspn
Curry Leaves – 1 sprig

Instructions:-

1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the whole spices(cloves, cardamom, cinnamon) saute for 10 seconds.

2. Next add slices onions, green chilies, curry leaves, ginger and garlic pieces, saute till raw smell of ginger garlic goes away and onions turn translucent.

3. Add chopped veggies and thin coconut milk and cook until the veggies are done.

4. Add salt to taste give it a mix. Then add thick coconut milk mix and immediately turn off the flame. If you cook more than coconut milk will split.