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
