This vegan coconut curry is a quick and affordable way to enjoy your favorite takeout flavors at home. I love how you can make it with just a few ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry!
Vegan Curry with Coconut Milk
The key to the creaminess in this recipe is using coconut milk as the base. I use full-fat canned coconut milk to make it as creamy as possible, but you could use pretty much any type of coconut milk that you like. (Just keep in mind that “light” coconut milk simply has water added to it to reduce the fat– which makes me feel like I’m not getting my money’s worth!)
How to Make Vegan Coconut Curry
Making your own vegan coconut curry at home is as simple as stirring together some coconut milk, spices, and vegetables. You can make it heartier by adding some lentils, like in my Lentil & Sweet Potato Curry recipe, but the recipe below is entirely vegetable based.
I love serving it over cooked quinoa as a complete source of protein for the meal, but you can serve it over white or brown rice, too.
When I’m in a hurry, I’ll use a bag of frozen vegetables instead of chopping fresh ones (frozen tend to cook faster, too!). This recipe is easily adaptable, so feel free to use whatever you have on hand.
Vegan Coconut Curry (an Easy Weeknight Dinner!)
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion , chopped
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 4 teaspoons curry powder (or more, to taste)
- 1 14 oz. can coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon tamari , or soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (or more, to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 sweet potato , chopped
- 1 pound assorted vegetables , chopped
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over high heat, and sauté the onions until they start to soften, about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and stir for one more minute.
- Add in the coconut milk, curry powder, tamari, maple syrup and salt and whisk well to combine. (Since curry powders can vary by brand, feel free to start with only 3 teaspoons and add more to your taste.)
- Taste the sauce and adjust any other flavors as needed (keep in mind that the addition of veggies will dilute the saltiness), then bring the sauce to a simmer and add in the chopped sweet potatoes. Cover the pan, and allow the sweet potatoes to steam in the sauce for 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid and add the rest of the vegetables, since non-starchy vegetables will cook faster than the sweet potatoes. Stir the vegetables to coat them in the sauce, then cover the pot again. Lower the heat and cook until the sweet potatoes and vegetables are fork-tender, about 8 to 10 more minutes.
- Serve the vegetables and curry sauce over cooked rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice. Leftover curry can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Per serving (not including rice): Calories: 280, Fat: 3g, Carbohydrates: 56, Fiber: 12g, Protein: 10g
Recipe Notes:
- For the vegetables in the photos here, I used a red and yellow bell pepper, plus two large handfuls of chopped kale. I also love this dish with cauliflower florets, or a pound of frozen assorted vegetables.
- I call for curry powder in this recipe because it’s a dry pantry staple that I always have on hand, but you can use curry paste if you would prefer a little more depth of flavor. (It’s usually sold near soy sauce at your grocery store.)
- I use tamari to keep this recipe gluten-free, but you can use soy sauce if you don’t need to be gluten free. For a soy-free recipe, try coconut aminos instead, and add a little extra salt, if needed.
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite type of take-out food? Thai food had been ours up until recently, but now we hardly have the need for it!
This curry sounds wonderful! It seems fast and easy to make too — always a plus!
Wow, sounds great! I’ve been looking for a coconut curry recipe lately, so now I know what to make. What’s in the sauce in the first picture — did you use white sweet potatoes?
Thanks,
Mandie
Yep, they’re white sweet potatoes!
Where can I find white sweet potatoes?
I found them at Whole Foods, next to the regular sweet potatoes.
Really? They look like yams… very orange
I’m so excited to try out this recipe! Definitely will be doing it sometime this weekend. I’ve been all on the curry train randomly.
I don’t like the taste of coconut milk. Can I use almond or hemp milk? How can I make the consistency similar to coconut milk?
I’d recommend trying my recipe for Sweet Potato Curry Sauce instead: https://detoxinista.com/2012/01/detox-friendly-vegetable-curry/
Thanks so much – can’t wait to try this:)
I made this recipe for lunch and it was so easy and delicious. I used about double the amount of vegetables and spices and added a can of stewed tomatoes and it came out perfect! Since I have a tons of veggies from my CSA, I used a combination of sweet onions, broccoli, summer squash and a yam. Thanks for the recipe. ps I LOVE your recipes!!! xo
YUM! I seriously love curry and Thai food is one of my favorites. This looks incredible and so easy to make.
I love thai and indian take out! My weekly treat is Indian take out every Sunday 😉 I am a creature of habit. Can’t wait to try this delicious looking recipe! Thanks!!
This is my kind of curry! I can’t wait to make this for dinner for my family.
I made your curry the other night for dinner. My husband and I love it. Thank you for your delicious, healthy recipes. I have tried many of them. Your grain free chocolate chip cookies are my favorite 🙂
I made this last night with my own curry spice blend, delicious! My friend was skeptical when he saw it lacked meat but he loved it so much! Thanks for this one
Easy to make and delicious. Definitely will be on my list to make again soon. (and again, I’m sure.) Thanks for all your great recipes – haven’t tried one yet that wasn’t delicious.
I am really looking forward to making this Curry for my family tonight, looks yummy 🙂
I just made this wonderful curry and used honey (didnt have maple syrup) and I have to say it was so yummy my hubby & I polished off two plates each. It was the best….thank you for a great recipe website. Also wanted to mention I made the cauliflower based pizza last night and that was also a hit!
So glad you posted this recipe! I will definitely be trying it soon! So pretty 🙂
This was delicious! My husband thought it was fantastic! Thanks!
I made this dish for the first time tonight. My entire family loved it!I decreased curry powder to 1 T. to make it more kid friendly and increased maple syrup to 2 T. total. GREAT RECIPE…very quick to make and I always have the ingredients on hand!
I almost never post comments on blogs but this recipe is so good I just have to leave a comment! Only took 30 minutes to make from start to finish using broccoli, carrots, and peas. Such a simple and clean tasting meal, I’ll definitely be making this again soon.
Made this recipe last week and it is delicious! My husband really liked it as well. Thanks so much for posting this and for all the other wonderful recipes as well.
Have you ever prepared and then frozen this meal? (minus the quinoa)
I have frozen it and it turned out well
I made this tonight. Delicious!
Great recipe , fast, easy and delicious!! Thank you. Maria
I made this tonight and it was delicious! My husband and I both loved it, as did my 2 and 4 year olds. Next time I will have to double it, because we ate it all in one sitting!
Like Terry, I am wondering if this meal can be made ahead of time and frozen? I have a large crowd coming and wish to get as much done ahead of time as possible. Can’t wait to try it!
I found this recipe to be addictive. SOOOOO good! I really love how simple it is to make also. Each bite with sweet potato was even better! What a fantastic combo! I could seriously eat this every night. Unfortunately my husband and kids did not like this. Maybe for this recipe you have to like curry? Of course I DON’T typically like curry but I LOVE this recipe. Go figure.
Made this tonight using a new bottle of curry powder and the sauce was delicious. However, the sweet potatoes cooked quicker than I expected and I ended up spooning them out before adding all my other vegetables. Then the veggies cooked longer than I intended due to waiting for a friend to come to dinner. In the end, the sauce had lost it’s flavor. 🙁 Do you think the extra simmering combined with the water leaching from the vegetables is what did this? Next time I’ll make sure my vegetables are ready to go in and don’t get overcooked, but maybe I should just steam them first also and not cook the curry so long? Does curry sauce lose it’s flavor when simmered for too long?
I made it tonight and added 4 drops of lemon oil, and used cauliflower, broccoli, celery, onion, green pepper and chicken, all stir fried in coconut oil prior to adding to sauce. I threw in a handful of peanuts and some unsweetened coconut to garnish. Mild but tasty.
Made this tonight, so easy and full of flavour, going to be a regular now. Thank you
Hi! I have never made any sort of Curry before, but have had it many times in restaurants, and have quite enjoyed it. However, this recipe didn’t taste like what I remember, and the sauce seems to have a pumpkin pie aftertaste. My other family members also said that it seemed to have an aftertaste of pumpkin pie, so I know it’s not just me. Have you ever heard this before? Is there a particular ingredient that might be causing this flavor? Did we purchase the wrong kind of Curry powder?
Thanks,
I
this sauce is wicked good! Totally authentic tasting curry in a matter of minutes.
Transported me to an Indian or Thai restaurant it was so good. Used only chopped kale and carrots for veggies, and mixed the cooked quinoa directly into the sauce before serving. Now I have a go-to versatile curry recipe that tastes fantastic!
This look fantastic! I will be making this for dinner tonight and will add some left over turkey I have in the freezer! Yummy!
I eat for my blood type and coconut milk is not on my list of good foods for me. To make this sauce, could I substitute soy or almond milk? Any suggestions?
This is the first time that I have left a comment on a recipe that I have tried on Pinterest but I just had to post this! This easy meal was not only quick to make but it was absolutely delicious! I made mine with Red Quinoa!
Thanks for posting this! It will be a new addition to my Indian recipes! It’s really good with Chicken Masala!
Yummy! Thanks
This recipe was simple and so satisfyingly good!! This will become a regular in our house. THANKS for the yummy easy recipes.
I LOVE this recipe! Basically a staple for me. I am just wondering if you (or anyone else) has tried using a combo of spices instead of just curry? Like coriander, cumin, tumeric, etc, and in what proportions? I was thinking of experimenting tonight but will hate if I screw up a batch!
This has officially been added to our meal rotation! So yummy! Thank you!!
I was really craving coconut curry , so I did a search and found the lovely recipe. The pictures are beautiful and it looked delicious. I made it last night and didn’t have coconut milk, but had coconut cream, so I used that instead. Big mistake because I didn’t realize how much sugar is in coconut cream and still added the 1 T. of maple syrup. The sauce came out WAY too sweet and I ended up adding whole milk to try and dilute the sweetness. It helped, but now I think I might go out to buy coconut milk – unsweetened – to add to the leftovers so we can still enjoy it – it made a lot of food. I added extra firm tofu and sauteed before hand. I omitted the sweet potato and glad I did – would have been even sweeter had I added that. I did add sauteed red and green peppers as well. I think it’s worth another go since I was the one who messed it up :-). I don’t think I will add the maple syrup next time and will taste the sauce FIRST and then see if it needs it. Maybe add LESS maple syrup.
Made this for dinner and it was super fast and omg…Delicious!!!
This was a delicious recipe. I will definitely make again! And I love your website. Please keep posting. Thank You
I made this last night and was super happy with it! I love sweet potatoes and was super excited I have another meal to include them in! Thank you!
My fiance and i are in love with this recipe. We use rice instead of quinoa and then sweet potato and cauliflower…It’s the best.. Thanks!!!
Delicious!! Thank you so much! I love your site!
has anyone tried this with cauliflower rice?
brilliant idea!
I am going to cook chicken strips on my smoker and want to use a curry sauce as a glaze while smoking…. would this be a good recipe?????
This recipe was delicious and very quick, even for a notorious slow poke like me. And it’s easy to customize depending on what I have on hand.
I made this with rice instead of quinoa, soy sauce instead of tamari, and Jamaican style curry powder since that is what I had on hand. I added broccoli, carrots and sugar snap peas. I think I will leave the snap peas out next time since that flavor didn’t go all that well with the coconut and curry flavors. I also flavored my rice with a little coconut oil and a dash of the curry powder before cooking it in the rice cooker.
If you want to add some protein like chicken, fish, or tofu, I think this recipe leaves plenty of room for that too.
I made this sauce and it was so simple yet so amazing. I decided to add some rosemary bc it goes so well with coconut. Thanks for posting. My belly is happy:)
Just made this for the first time and it is AWESOME! This is the best new thing I’ve tried in a very long time!
So easy and so quick! Thank you so much. I made it for my Dad and I and there was none left 🙂 So nice to be able to throw in what every veggies are hanging around the fridge and get something delicious!!