When we dined at a restaurant in Chiang Mai, Thailand few years ago it was quite captivating to see an array of flavorful creamy curries in green, red, orange & yellow colors. Being a vegetarian I could taste only few of those curries, and hence I brought those Thai herbs & spices back home and prepared vegetable curries using them. I was extremely delighted that I could manage to bring out the similar flavor, texture & color.

But now I have prepared an yellow curry with Indian flavor using locally available ingredients. I used cashew & carrot for its vibrant yellow color & creamy texture and garam masala for flavor. It tastes delicious with any Indian bread (roti, chappathi, etc.), rice (pulao), idiyappam & appam.

We can prepare vegetable yellow curry and serve as a side dish for chapathi and pulav in this weekend to break the monotony. Now  the recipe for yellow curry is as below:

Time taken: 30 min

Yields: 500 ml

Ingredients:

1. Carrot – 1 No. (small)
2. Beans – 5 Nos.
3. Cauliflower – a few florets
4. Fresh pea pods – 12 to 15 Nos.
5. Potato – 1 No. (small)
6. Salt – ½ tsp
7. Garam Masala – 1 tsp
8. Sugar (optional) – ½ tsp
9. Chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

     For yellow curry paste:

1. Oil – 1 tbsp
2. Onion – 1 No.
3. Ginger – 1 No. (a thumb sized)
4. Carrot – 2 Nos.
5. Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
6. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
7. Cashew nuts – 1 tbsp
8. Salt – ½ tsp

Cooking Method:

• Immerse cauliflower florets in hot salted water for 5 minutes to kill the germs or bugs and rinse them well.
• Wash other vegetables as usual.
• Peel potato & carrot and shell the peas.
• Cut potato & carrot into 1 inch batons and beans into 1 inch strips.
• Steam vegetables until they are cooked soft but firm (for about 5 min) so that they could retain their color.

• Meanwhile heat a pan with oil in medium flame.
• Add chopped onion, ginger, carrot & salt (¼ tsp) and saute until done.
• Add red chilli & turmeric powder and fry for 30 sec. in low flame.
• Remove from heat and transfer to a food processor when it reaches room temperature.
• Add cashew & salt (¼ tsp) and grind into a smooth paste.

• Heat the same pan in low flame.
• Add steamed vegetables & salt and mix well.
• Add yellow curry paste into the pan.
• Pour water to get required consistency.
• Add garam masala and bring it to boil in medium flame.
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves before removing from heat.
• Serve vegetable yellow curry with roti.

Tips & tweaks:

1. Taste of this curry is predominated by ginger, so it may be required to add sugar and/or lemon juice to mask its slight bitterness; instead you may add more red chilli powder & reduce ginger accordingly.
2. Do not use tomatoes in here as it will change the color of this curry.
3. Onion acts as a binding agent; if we don’t use onion the curry paste may begin to split while boiling.
4. If you like to use coconut milk, you have to reduce or omit cashew nuts; you can pour thick coconut milk (100 ml) before removing from heat.
5. You may also add other vegetables (that don’t turn mushy when cooked) like broccoli, mushroom, baby corn, etc.
6. I cooked the vegetables soft yet firm as I like to have crunchy vegetables in a creamy sauce; but you can cook them tender if you serve to old people or kids.