Kerala Style Vegetable Stew with Coconut Milk

Kerala style vegetable stew is a lightly spiced and fragrant curry made with lots of vegetables and coconut milk. This vegan curry is comforting and wholesome and pairs well with appam, idlis or even soft white bread.

Kerala veg stew is a staple breakfast item in Malayali (people of the Southern Indian state Kerala) homes. This simple stew and pillowy soft appam is truly the best food combo there ever is, not just in Kerala cuisine but ever.

This simple vegetable stew is such an easy recipe that is wholesome and is loaded with vegetables. Potato, carrot, green beans and green peas are the most commonly added vegetables to this vegetable stew. You may also add cauliflower or sweet potato to this. 

Coconut milk forms the base for this Kerala style vegetable stew and it is lightly spiced with some ginger and Thai green chillies. You may add some whole spices like green cardamom, whole cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and black peppercorns to this, but I love to make it with just ginger and green chillies in my everyday recipe.

This same humble kerala style stew with coconut milk is also made with chicken, mutton or beef. This Kerala Chicken Stew recipe is something you should try if you love this one.

This Kerala Vegetable Stew is

• A vegan curry
• Extremely nourishing and comforting
• Subtly spiced and fragrant with coconut milk and coconut oil
• Loaded with tons of vegetables making it wholesome
• A great vegetable curry for a cozy breakfast, lunch or dinner
• a great way to use up any leftover veggies in the refrigerator

Ingredients for Kerala Vegetable Stew Recipe

Vegetables - potatoes, carrots, green French beans and green peas are commonly used vegetables in this stew. Of course, you can add any other vegetable you may have in your refrigerator. Zucchini, sweet potato and cauliflower will be great in this curry.

Coconut Oil - the oil of choice for this recipe is coconut oil. The fragrance of the coconut oil is a unique flavor that this Kerala style stew has, so I highly recommend using only coconut oil.

Onion - red onions are used as part of the aromatics in this recipe. Onion slices are softened, not browned for this stew.

Ginger and Thai Green Chilies - fresh ginger provides a subtle heat and lemony aroma to the stew. Green chillies when boiled with the coconut milk, softens and lends a distinct taste as well as heat to this recipe.

Curry leaves - curry leaves and coconut oil together gives a very distinct aroma and flavor to the stew. 

Coconut milk - Canned coconut milk is used in this recipe. Traditionally, coconut milk is freshly made at home and the homemade coconut milk is used but the convenience of canned coconut milk is unbeatable. I would get regular coconut milk and not the light kind.

Step by Step Recipe for Kerala Vegetable Stew

Heat coconut oil in a heavy bottomed pot or a Dutch oven. Add the curry leaves, slit green chillies and minced ginger. Sauté for just a minute or so and add in the chopped onions.

Sauté till the onions start to soften. Do not brown them.

While the onion is sautéing, I like to microwave the chopped potatoes with enough water to cover them, for 2 mins or so, just to soften them a little.

Add the sliced carrots, green beans and the softened potatoes with the water.  Add salt and mix well. The carrots and the green beans will cook quicker than the potatoes, so this will work perfectly. 

Close the pot and let it cook over medium heat for 5 mins or so, till all the vegetables are just cooked. 

Add salt and the coconut milk, reduce heat to medium low. Let it all simmer in the coconut milk on low heat for about 5 mins, so all the flavors get in the veggies.

Turn off the heat and add a tablespoon coconut oil on top of the curry and cover right away to trap in the flavors.

Serve hot with soft and fluffy appams, idlis, dosa, or even sliced white bread.

Pro Tips for making an excellent vegetable stew

• Use fresh ingredients - this stew has very few ingredients, so each of these ingredients shine in bringing out their flavor. Use fresh vegetables, except for green peas, where frozen green peas are fine. Use fresh curry leaves and ginger - avoid dried curry leaves or dried ginger.
• Use fresh Thai green chillies. It can be swapped out with serrano peppers but I will not use anything else to substitute it with. The flavor, not just the heat, from the green chillies is everything in this stew.
• If the stew looks a little watery, then mash a few of the potatoes to bring the starch into the stew and make it thicker and more cohesive.
• This is one of the few curries that does not have a tadka. There is no tempering of mustard seeds or cumin seeds in hot oil. It is one of the unique features of this curry.
• Use regular coconut milk from a can, do not go for the lite version. The full fat creamy coconut milk gives the body to this stew. If you don't get canned coconut milk, then you can use coconut milk powder that can be mixed with a little water in place of the coconut milk.

Recipe variations

• You can always add boiled eggs, chicken, mutton (lamb) or beef instead of or along with the vegetables in this stew.
• Even though potatoes, carrots, green peas and green beans are the common combination of vegetables used in this recipe, you can also always add any other vegetables of your choice like sweet potatoes, zucchini, cauliflower or even broccoli

Serving suggestions

This Kerala stew can be served alongside appams ( a spongy leavened bread), idiyappam or string hoppers (steamed rice flour noodles), idlis, dosa or slices of white bread.

If you love curries with coconut milk, here are some of our favorites

• Vendakka Mappas - Okra Curry with Coconut Milk
• Kerala Chicken Stew with Coconut Milk
• Kerala Style Potato Curry with Coconut Milk
• Olan - Winter Melon and Black Eyed Peas in Coconut Milk
• Kerala Style Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk
• Fish Molee - Kerala Fish Curry with Coconut Milk
• Thai Sweet Potato and Spinach Curry

📖 Recipe