Plenty of vegetables in a creamy, spicy sauce. This vegan vegetable korma is our new go-to Indian comfort food! And you don’t have to spend hours cooking to enjoy it, thanks to an easy, straight forward method.

A serving of veggie korma on top of a pile of Indian spiced rice.

I gotta say this - I just love Indian food! And since you are here, you probably do as well. The smells, richly flavoured, colourful sauces, the aromatic side dishes… In an Indian restaurant, there are always way too many mouthwatering things to choose from!

Indian cooking has fascinated me for a while now, and ever so often I go through a phase of experimenting with several different dishes and trying to veganise them.

Many authentic Indian recipes are not exactly easy. Their ingredient list contains more spices than other ingredients, some of them uncommon and hard to find in Europe or America. Traditional cooking methods can be a rather complicated and lengthy process.

Our simple vegan korma recipe combines traditional flavours with an easy-to-follow method. It is so tasty and straight forward, we could make it every day!

This vegan korma recipe is amazing because...

It’s full of Indian inspired flavour
It uses only a few, easy to find spices
It’s easy to follow
Creamy and yoghurty, but vegan!
Full of fresh veggies
A colourful feast for eyes and mouth
And it’s a great comfort food for any day

All the ingredinets for the vegan korma laid out on a board.

Key ingredients

We carefully chose the ingredients for this vegan korma recipe to achieve full flavour with minimum effort! All the joy, shorter shopping list!

Spices

Instead of using dozens of spices, we use two very common spice blends that contain the spices found in most korma recipes: Curry powder and garam masala.

To balance it out, we only have to use just a handful of spices you probably already have in your pantry: Paprika, turmeric and cinnamon.

Garam masala is a spice blend usually containing cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and black pepper. It is so popular, you’ll find it in the spice aisle of most supermarkets. If you are planning to do more Indian cooking, garam masala is one you can never go wrong with.

Jars of spices on a wooden board, next to a mix of the korma blend: curry powder, garam masala, turmeric, cinnamon and paprika.

The Sauce

The vegan korma sauce is thick and creamy, and so very tasty! It gets its texture from creamy blended cashews and onions as well as coconut yoghurt.

Why coconut yoghurt? Well, it’s really simple. Other vegetable korma recipes call for yoghurt as well as coconut milk.

Other plant-based yoghurt alternatives lack the creaminess of the fatty coconut milk, and coconut milk on its own doesn’t have the tang of yoghurt.

Coconut yoghurt is both creamy and tangy, so there’s all you need in one product instead of two.

The best coconut yoghurts for this recipe are the ones with high fat content and live yoghurt cultures. Don’t use products that say “with coconut” but are actually made on a different base (like soy) and only contain tiny amounts of coconut.

Indian inspired vegan korma on top of baked rice.

Easy method

I believe that tasty comfort food shouldn’t require a complicated process to cook it. In fact, in all my recipe testing I hardly ever find that lots of extra steps of traditional recipes really make that much of a difference to justify the extra effort. So why waste your time?

It is recipes like our red lentil dal of love, sticky lemon tofu and this vegan korma that are easy and super yummy that I find myself making again and again.

Step by step

Before you start throwing things in pans, I recommend you measure out the spices into the same pot, as they all go in at once, and prep all the veggies. You won’t find the time before you need them once you’ve started cooking!

After that it’s really just some frying and simmering. Here’s a picture guide on how to make a tasty vegan korma:

Diced potatoes, red pepper, mushrooms, slice carrots and green beans on a chopping board.

Step 1 - Prepare all the vegetables and measure out the spices.

Gralic, soaked cashews, ginger, onion and tomato paste in a blender.

Step 2 - Blend onions, cashews, garlic, ginger and tomato puree into a smooth paste.

Starting to fry the paste and spices in a frying pan.

Step 3 - Fry the paste, with the spices in some oil.

Adding the vegetables, coconut yoghurt and sugar to the korma paste.

Step 4 - Stir in coconut yoghurt, vegetables, sugar and lemon juice.

The pan is covered with a lid whilst the vegetables cook.

Step 5 - Cover with a lid and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

Adding the frozen peas to the almost finished dish.

Step 6 - Stir in the frozen peas and continue to cook for a couple more minutes.

So you can see, it’s really easy. Just stir a few times while the korma is simmering to make sure it cooks evenly and nothing catches at the bottom. Once the potatoes are done, it’s ready to serve!

Substitutions and variations

In place of coconut yoghurt, use half coconut milk and half plain unsweetened soy yoghurt (or other non dairy yoghurt). If you find plant-based high fat, ‘greek style’ yoghurt, that would also yield good flavour and creaminess.

In terms of vegetables, you can basically use whatever you want! Our tip is to go for seasonality as well as a colourful mix of different textures.

In winter, squash would be marvellous in this dish! In spring or summer, some fresh leaves like spinach, chard or kale can be added towards the end of the cooking process.

Experiment with flavours, by using different spices. This is a great way to get to know other spice mixes like tandoori masala. Or see how a bit of extra coriander or cinnamon can shake up things a little!

I also suggest you add a little bit of ground cardamom if your particular garam masala blend doesn’t include it already. A little goes a long way and it can really make a difference without being overpowering!

If you like it hot, replace the paprika entirely with chili powder or cayenne pepper. Or add just a little for just a bit of a warm kick.

Sliced carrots, red pepper, and peas ina thick, orange coloured sauce.

Serve it with

We love to top off our veggie korma with some toasted cashews and some chopped fresh coriander (cilantro).

The classic side dish to our vegan korma is rice. We like to make it a bit more interesting by spicing up our rice with some turmeric, garlic, cardamom, cloves and salt.

Another typical Indian side dish is chapati, a thin, simple flatbread that’s cooked in a griddle, though we use a cast iron pan. Fluffy naan bread is amazing too, but takes a bit more time to make as they are leavened with yeast.

A white oval dish of vegan korma, alongside a plate of chapatis and a dish of turmeric yellow spiced rice.

We hope you enjoy this recipe! If you try it or have any questions, let us know in the comments - Love, Sophie & Paul

Try this vegan korma with our really easy Red Lentil Flatbreads for a protein boost.

For another classic Indian curry, try our extremely tasty Vegan Tikka Masala.

And if you fancy a fun Indian inspired dish that’s a bit different, try our Apple Curry!

📖 Recipe

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Vegan Korma