Coconut Curry

Las Iguanas is one of my favourite restaurants. They were the first mainstream eatery I went to that had a separate vegan/vegetarian menu. For those who don’t know, Las Iguanas is a South American-inspired restaurant chain; they sell everything from quesadillas to fajitas, and they’re roughly the same price as Nando’s.

The first time I went to “Lassies” I had a dish called “moqueca de palmitos”, which is a coconut-based curry featuring hearts of palm. Heart of palm is a really versatile vegetable that comes from the centre of palm trees, and I often use it for “fish” based recipes, like if I’m trying to emulate lobster, or add some texture to a seafood-free paella. Back to the moqueca: it tasted so good, I decided to try it at home. This was years ago. Since then I’ve made this dish again and again, slightly tweaking the recipe, but recently I finally nailed the ultimate flavour.

So, here it is. I’ll just call it “coconut curry”

CocoaVegan’s Coconut Curry
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 40 mins

Ingredients (for the curry)
2 cans (or 800ml) coconut milk
190ml sundried tomato paste
1 white onion, diced
1 large green chilli, chopped
1 spring onion, chopped
1 sweet red pepper, chopped
4 tablespoons seasame seed oil
2 tablespoons tumeric
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon smoked garlic paste
1 teaspoon salt
A handful of fresh coriander

Vegetables
120g tenderstem broccoli
130g babycorn, chopped
1 can hearts of palm

Method

Heat the seasame seed oil on high in a pan
Add the diced/chopped onion, spring onion, chilli and sweet pepper and sugar until onions are soft
Drain the hearts of palm, chop into smaller circles, and add to the pan. Stir regularly
Add the broccoli and baby corn, garlic paste, and all the spices apart from the coriander and tumeric
Add the tomato paste to the pan, stir and reduce heat to simmer for 5 mins
Pour in the coconut oil, tumeric and coriander, and simmer for another 30 mins
Add a dash more coriander and serve with rice or another side