Vegetable Korma
This vegan korma recipe is loaded with vegetables and gets its creaminess from cashews making it completely dairy-free.
Recipe Features
- Dietary needs: vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, can be oil-free.
- Quick and easy: You’ll need just 30 minutes and a handful of simple ingredients
- Creamy, flavourful and comforting dish that’s packed with nutrition.
- Serve with rice or quinoa for a complete meal..
What is korma?
Korma, sometimes spelled, kurma, is a South Asian dish with roots in Mughlai cuisine. It’s defined as a dish where meat or vegetables are braised with yogurt, cream or stock and the flavour is based on spices such as cumin and coriander.
Ingredients & Substitutions
See the recipe card below for the complete list of ingredients and amounts. This isn’t the complete ingredient list, just a few things to consider.
- Cashews: Use plain, raw cashews with no added oil or salt. The cashews ca be substituted with coconut milk if you need the recipe to be free from tree nuts.
- Olive Oil: Can be substituted with water or broth for an oil-free recipe.
- Crushed Tomato : Any canned crushed or diced tomatoes work here, I prefer crushed tomatoes for a smoother sauce
- Peas: Frozen or canned works here, if using canned, drain and rinse before use.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1. In a small bowl place your cashews with boiling water, leave to soak while you making the curry. After a brief soak, we’ll blend the cashews to make the “cream” for the korma.
Quick Tip: It’s also fine to soak the cashews overnight instead of doing the quick soak in boiling water. I would recommend an overnight soak if you don’t have a high-speed blender.
Step 2. In a medium pot on medium high heat, sauté your onions with olive oil until translucent, about 3-4 minutes.
Quick Tip: For an oil-free korma recipe, omit the olive oil and sauté the onions in water or broth.
Step 3. Add the garlic and spices, and continue to cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. If the mixture starts sticking to the pan, add a splash of water.
Step 4. Add the crushed tomatoes and water and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low and add the celery, potato and carrots and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
Step 5. While the potatoes are cooking, blend the cashews and water until smooth and creamy.
Step 6. Once the potatoes are cooked, stir in the cauliflower, peas and cashews cream. Cook for another 4-5 minutes then remove from heat.
Your vegetable korma is ready to enjoy! Serve with chopped cilantro and rice, if desired.
Recipe FAQs
This korma is not particularly spicy but it does have a bit of heat to it. If you’re quite sensitive to spice, omit the chili flakes.
Sure. Green beans or diced bell peppers make a nice addition. Chop them up and add them along with the peas and cauliflower.
You can! If you can’t do cashews or don’t have any on hand, use a 14 oz can of full-fat coconut milk instead.
Storing
- This recipe isn’t ideal for freezing but it can be if needed. Let cool then store in a sealed container up to 3 months in the freezer.
- To store in the fridge (recommended), let cool completely before covering and storing in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Can be stored on its own or mixed with rice.
- Reheat stovetop or in the microwave until heated to your preference.
- If overly thick after storing, thin with a little water or vegetable broth to adjust the consistency.
Did you try this recipe?
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I’d love to hear about it! Click here to leave a review and be sure to tag me @runningonrealfood if you post it on social media.
Vegan Vegetable Korma
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: Main Dish
- Cuisine: Indian
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This easy korma recipe is ready in 30 minutes! Enjoy a tasty blend of vegetables and spices in creamy korma sauce. Serve with rice for a quick and delicious dinner.
Ingredients
Cashew Cream
- 1 cup cashews (150 g)
- 1 cup boiling water (250 ml)
Korma Sauce
- 1 medium onion diced (1 cup, 150 g)
- 2 clove garlic (1 tbsp, 10 g)
- 1 tbsp olive oil (12 g)
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp ginger
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp curry powder
- 2 medium carrots peeled and chopped (2 cup, 275 g)
- 1 28 oz crushed tomato (796 ml)
- 2 cup water or vegetable broth (500 ml)
- 2 tsp salt
Vegetables
- 3 medium potato, peeled and diced (4 cups, 700 g)
- 2 ribs celery, washed and chopped (1 cup, 145 g)
- 2 cups small florets of cauliflower (225 g)
- 1 cup frozen peas (125 g)
Instructions
- In a small bowl place your cashews with boiling water, leave to soak while you complete the following steps.
- In a medium pot on medium high heat, sauté your onions with olive oil until translucent approx 3-4 minutes.
- Add the garlic and spices, and continue to cook for an additional 2-3 minutes to toast the spices (add a splash of water if you notice the spices sticking to the bottom of the pan).
- Add the crushed tomatoes and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and add the potato, celery and carrots stirring occasionally until potatoes are fork tender, approx. 10 – 15 minutes.
- While the potatoes are cooking puree the soaked cashews by placing the nuts and water into a blender. Blend on high for 1-2 minutes until completely smooth in texture. Reserve for later.
- Once the potatoes are cooked, add the cauliflower, peas and cashew cream. Bring sauce back to a simmer and cook for an additional 7-8 minutes, remove from heat and enjoy!
- Serve on its own or over a bed of steamed rice, top with toasted cashews and freshly chopped cilantro.
Notes
Storing: Let cool then store in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
Nut-Free Option: Substitute the cashews and water with a 14 oz can of full-fat coconut milk.
Oil-Free Option: Substitute the oil with water or vegetable broth.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6th of recipe
- Calories: 318
- Fat: 14 g
- Carbohydrates: 41 g
- Protein: 12 g
Keywords: vegetable korma, vegan korma recipe
Flavors were spot on amazing. Probably the easiest korma recipe that I’ve found. When I cook the veggies I brown the cauliflower and set it aside. Take diced potatoes and carrots and simmer in 1 cup of the veg broth till tender.
Make the korma sauce with 1 c veg broth and cream and when hot add in peas and veggies. Add in broth potatoes simmered in as well.
Potatoes are cooked through and cauliflower isn’t mushy.
Point is to pre cook veggies then add to sauce. Anyway this has worked for my curries. Thanks for the wonderful recipe. Delicious!
★★★★★
Now that our giant tupperware of this korma has finally been finished, I think it’s time to leave a review. We made this maybe 5-6 nights ago (using potatoes, green beans, carrots, and peas), and it was a lot of veggie and sauce for two people. I recommend pre-boiling the potatoes, at least a little bit – we had to let it cook on the stove for almost 30 minutes before they were fork-tender. I have since been bringing it to lunch every day with fresh rice, and have never gotten sick of it!! It has delightful warm spices and also just enough of a kick to make for a cozy dinner and a very satisfying warmed-up work lunch. I will definitely be making it again!
★★★★★
Thanks for the feedback and review! It’s much appreciated. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
This is definitely delicious, no fault could be found with it! Thanks for a great supper!!
★★★★★
You are very welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
This was so tasty, very easy to make, it makes a bunch, so leftovers for days when just cooking for two! This was so full of flavor and just enough spice.
★★★★★
I did it! The soaking worked perfectly. End result was super smooth and tasty. Thanks for the encouragement to leave my comfort zone and try something new 🙂
★★★★★
I cook a lot from your site as the recipes are simple to follow, typically use basic or staple ingredients and never disappoint. This one was all of the above! This makes a huge amount of food. We ate it for days and it only gets tastier. Thanks for another awesome plant-based recipe.
★★★★★
YUM I used coconut milk instead of cashews and this is the closest taste I’ve found to my favorite take-out veggie korma!!
★★★★★
Amazing! So glad you enjoyed it, Shauna. That’s a pretty great review..woohoo!!
I omitted the oil and the salt and created one of the best meals I’ve eaten in a while. Fantastic recipe, so authentic.
★★★★★
Another great recipe. Can’t eat garlic or onion so replaced with fennel. The entire family loved it. Was even able to take some to my in laws and they thought it was fantastic.
★★★★★
So glad everyone enjoyed it, Jason! Interesting idea to use fennel! Thanks so much for the review.
Made this last night and it was delicious and still was when I reheated it for lunch today. I put less cauliflower and added red lentils ! Thanks again for sharing amazing recipes !
★★★★★
Loved this recipe! The spices were amazing. My blender isn’t fabulous and I wasn’t brave enough to try soaking the cashews so I just used cashew butter. From the other reviews I might have to try it next time. Many thanks.
Thanks for trying it, Kimberly. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I would say you get a much different result with cashew butter via soaked cashews but I’m glad it worked out either way. Let me know if you try the soaked cashew method.
I did it! The soaking worked perfectly. End result was super smooth and tasty. Thanks for the encouragement to leave my comfort zone and try something new 🙂
★★★★
Awesome, Kim! Good job. So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for letting me know!
OMG…..soo good. glad there are enough leftovers for tomorrow. seriously good
★★★★★
I made this curry last night (6 Jan), and it tasted amazing! Had no cauliflower to hand so I used a large baking potato instead and added half a courgette to the other ingredients. The blended cashews at the end was inspired! I did them in my nutri-bullet and it added a beautiful creaminess and helped that authentic korma colour. It was very tasty, and so quick and easy to make. I ended up with 5 portions out of it, which I cooked alongside brown rice, to freeze the extra portions for weeknight dinners. Deryn thanks for this recipe – I’m keeping this one to make again!
★★★★★
I love this recipe too! How did the freezing/thawing process work for you?
This looks so cozy, healthy, and delicious! Thank you for sharing my recipe, Deryn!
As soon as I saw this posted on Instagram, I knew I had to make it pronto. Followed this recipe exactly, including the cashew cream, though I did add some cubed marinated tofu to the mix at the end as well. One note: the final addition of vegetables needs to either be par-cooked or allowed longer to simmer in the pot – the cauliflower was a bit too crunchy after the suggested time. Absolutely loved it, and am excited to have the leftovers this week!
★★★★★
I was thinking that too. I added a few minutes to the cauliflower cooking time and noted they should be small florets. Thanks for the feedback. So glad you enjoyed it!