Veg Kurma Recipe | Oil-free Veg Korma Recipe

Vegan Kurma Recipe

Mughlai cuisine and healthy food are now synonymous with this oil-free veg kurma recipe. Try it today for your family and friends.

Whole Food Plant Based Veg Kurma Recipe

Course: Course 2: Vegetable Dish for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Meals
Cuisine: Mughlai Recipe
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4 people

INGREDIENTS

1/2 Carrot
1/2 head Broccoli
1/2 Sweet Potato
1/2 Onion
1 Tomato
1 Green Chili
1 inch piece Cinnamon
3 Cloves

Kurma Masala

1 clove garlic
1 inch piece Ginger
1/4 cup Coriander Leaves
1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds / Saunf
1 tsp Dhaniya / Coriander Seeds
2 tsp Poppy Seeds / Khus Khus
1/8 cup Coconut grated
1/8 cup Cashews
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Pepper Powder
Juice of 1 Lemon
4 tsp Miso Paste (Healthy Salt Alternative. See Nutrition Science Highlights below)

INSTRUCTIONS

Cooking Kurma Vegetables

1. Wash and chop carrot and sweet potato into long, rectangular pieces.
2. Cook all chopped vegetables together with a slit green chili, cinnamon, cloves, and minimal water.
3. Peel and crush / grind garlic to a paste. Keep aside for ten minutes.

Kurma Masala Recipe

1. Dry roast poppy seeds for about half a minute. Peel ginger.
2. Grind poppy seeds with ginger, coriander seeds / dhaniya, and fennel seeds / saunf to a smooth paste to make Kurma Masala.
3. Separately, grind cashews and grated coconut to a smooth paste, along with turmeric powder, pepper powder, quartered & peeled lemon, and miso paste, to make a coconut spice paste. This must be added only after cooking, as described in the last step. Preferably, soak cashews overnight or at least for 5 hours before grinding.

Bringing it all together

1. Once Kurma Masala is ready, add it into the half-cooked vegetables and continue cooking.
2. Once vegetables are fully cooked, remove from stove and mix in coconut spice paste. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve fresh!

Nutrition Science Highlights for Whole Food Plant Based Veg Kurma Recipe

1. Why Miso Paste? Miso paste is fermented & salted soya bean paste. American Heart Association Maximum recommended maximum daily salt intake of 3.75 grams per person to minimise risk of high blood pressure, stomach cancer and chronic kidney disease. In addition to helping us restrict salt intake, replacing salt with miso paste also helps by neutralising the negative effects of salt by soya phytonutrients. You can easily make fresh miso paste at home by mixing 100 grams of cooked soya paste with 10 grams of salt, or 10 tablespoons of cooked soya paste with 1 tablespoon of salt. If making at home, ensure to use immediately, or freeze in batches to use later. Or, simply use 3.75 grams of salt or less per day per person and add 18 to 20 grams (dry weight) of soya beans in any dishes, spread through the day!
2. Why not dairy? Veg kurma recipes generally call for the addition of copious amounts of cream. Dairy products have been found to be associated with increased risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, asthma, PCOS, and heart disease. We can still enjoy our milk, cream, and butter though - as long as they are made from whole plant foods!
3. Why crush garlic and wait? When garlic is chopped, crushed, ground or bitten into, two chemicals stored in different parts of garlic's cells combine in a chemical reaction to form allicin. This is a slightly bitter compound that deters insects, but happens to be very beneficial to our health. Allicin helps reduce blood pressure and protect the heart and other organs, fight off lung infections, and reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, cooking destroys one of the enzymes required to form allicin. This can be overcome by crushing garlic and keeping it aside for ten minutes while the chemical reaction takes place. Once allicin is formed, it is heat stable and can be safely cooked. Alternatively, some raw garlic can be added after cooking, to a dish that has cooked garlic in it.
4. Why not tadka? Tadka, thaaLippu, oggaraNe. Tempering spices in oil is quintessential to Indian cuisine. This practice may have started as a compromise when whole nuts were unavailable, and indeed, is more common in inland, drier areas where nuts do not grow easily, all year round. You can enjoy the taste and fragrance, though, by just dry roasting the spices you require, without the oil, or even better, mixing spice powders directly into your dish!
   
5. Why spices? Spices are among the healthiest foods on the planet in terms of their ability to prevent and reverse chronic diseases. They pack the highest antioxidant:calorie ratio. Just one pinch of spice powders exponentially increases the antioxidant content of any dish. Dishes like these, that have many strong spices, are a great way to amp up the health quotient of our everyday meals. Raw and boiled or steamed spices retain their phytonutrient content better than roasted or baked spices.