Vegetable Stew recipe with step by step photos. This veg stew is easy to make, lightly spiced, delicate and fragrant stew made with a bevy of mixed vegetables, creamy coconut milk and aromatic spices. A popular stew recipe from the Kerala cuisine suitable for both vegetarians and vegans alike.
About Veg Stew Recipe
On some days when I don’t make dosa, I end up making our favorite breakfast appam and Kerala style vegetable stew.
Usually I always have carrots, beans, potatoes and peas at home. So these veggies end up being in the veg stew. When I have to make the stew, I prepare coconut milk a day before and keep in the fridge.
Sometimes to make things easy, I use canned coconut milk which is easily available in stores. Canned coconut milk works well as a substitute for homemade coconut milk. You can use your preferred brand of coconut milk as a substitute for homemade coconut milk.
Kerala vegetable stew is so easy to prepare. You just need to temper and cook the veggies. If you cannot have it with appams, then just serve the stew with steamed rice.
I have used thin coconut milk to cook the vegetables. If you don’t have thin coconut milk, then cook the vegetables in water instead. You can also check this Potato Stew.
The veg stew is flavored with warm aromatic spices tempered in coconut oil. What you get are tender cooked vegetables in a delicate, spiced, light, fragrant stew with the flavor and taste of the coconut milk.
How to make Vegetable Stew Recipe
1. Heat coconut oil. Add the whole & crushed spices – cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and black pepper. Fry them till fragrant on low heat.
Then add the ginger, garlic, green chilies, sliced onions and curry leaves. Sauté till the onions become translucent on low to medium-low heat. Don’t brown the onions.
Instead of onions you can use shallots or pearl onions. Do not skip on the curry leaves as they give a lot of flavor to this stew.
2. Add the chopped veggies and stir to combine. Add the vegetables that you like. I have added here carrots, green peas, french beans and potatoes.
Remember not to add vegetables that become too mushy on cooking – like okra or pumpkin, eggplant etc.
3. Add thin coconut milk or water. Cover the pan with lid and cook the veggies until tender.
4. The veggies should be cooked till they are fork tender.
5. Add the thick coconut milk. Stir well and simmer for just half a minute.
6. Serve Kerala vegetable stew with Appam or steamed rice.
Expert Tips for Vegetable Stew
- You could add the vegetables you like. Cauliflower, green peas, carrot, french beans, potatoes, baby corn, bell peppers, broccoli are some nice choices.
- For some umami flavor, white button mushrooms can also be added.
- Opt to make the stew with homemade coconut milk or any good brand of canned coconut milk.
- Coconut oil is a must in the recipe, so do not skip it.
- If short of time, the veggies can be cooked in a stovetop pressure cooker or in the Instant pot adding water instead of coconut milk.
- After adding thick coconut milk, do not boil the stew as the fats in the coconut milk may split and separate.
More Kerala Recipes
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Vegetable Stew | Kerala Veg Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 carrot (medium-sized), peeled and chopped or ½ cup chopped
- 1 potato (medium to large) – 150 grams, peeled and chopped or ½ cup chopped
- ½ cup green peas – fresh or frozen
- 70 to 80 grams french beans or 5 to 6 beans or ¼ cup chopped french beans
- ½ cup thinly sliced onion or 1 medium-sized onion or 1 to 2 shallots or 5 to 6 pearl onions, thinly sliced
- 3 to 4 garlic cloves (small to medium-sized) – crushed into a paste in a mortar-pestle
- 1 inch ginger – julienned
- 2 green chilies – slit
- 1.5 inch cinnamon
- 4 to 5 cloves – crushed or kept whole
- 1 teaspoon crushed black pepper
- 2 to 3 green cardamoms – crushed or kept whole (optional)
- 2 cups thin coconut milk or 2 cups water * check notes for pressure cooking the veggies with water
- 1 cup Coconut Milk (Thick)
- 12 to 15 curry leaves
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- salt as required
- sugar as required – optional
Instructions
- Heat coconut oil. Add the whole & crushed spices – cinnamon, cardamoms, cloves, black pepper. On low heat fry them till fragrant.
- Then add the ginger, garlic, green chilies, sliced onions and curry leaves. Sauté till the onions become translucent on low to medium-low heat. Don't brown the onions.
- Add the chopped veggies and stir to mix.
- Add thin coconut milk or water. Season with salt according to taste. Cover the pan with a lid and cook the veggies.
- The veggies should be cooked till they are fork tender.
- Lastly add the thick coconut milk. Stir well and simmer on low heat for just half a minute.For a bit of sweet taste, opt to add sugar if you prefer.
- If you want, you can also heat a few teaspoons of oil and fry curry leaves in it till crisp. Then add this curry leaves tempering from the top before serving the veg stew.
- Serve Kerala style vegetable stew with appam or steamed rice.
Notes
- * If using water instead of thin coconut milk, you can use the pressure cooker for cooking the veggies. Just add 2 cups water and pressure cook for 1 whistle on medium heat.
- Reduce the green chillies if you prefer. You can also reduce the amount of crushed black pepper.
- Feel free to add your choice of vegetables. But ensure not to add vegetables that become mushy or pasty after cooking.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Veg Stew recipe post from the archives first published on May 2014 has been republished and updated on November 2022.
Will this stew taste good with plain paratha???
Yes it will.
I didn’t have peas …so I added raw banana. Did the tempering at the end .and served with plain paratha. It was awesome.
thanks gitanjali for this lovely feedback and for the rating too on veg stew recipe. glad to know. peas can be skipped if you don’t have them. vegetables of one’s choice can be added. thanks again.
Made this today and my ,my taste buds qent to a full 10. The smell reminded me of my childhood with my Chitti. Thank you.
great and thanks for sharing this lovely feedback roopa. happy cooking.
Hi,
I was looking for an authentic Kerala stew recipe and my god this just hit the spot. I have a cafe in Melbourne and wanted to try out something to surprise my customers and this should do it. 5 starts to you my friend.
Thanks
Hey and also great work on working on so many recipes.
Cheers Nathan.
thank you anuveer. wish you all the best with your cafe. happy cooking.
Hi,
I had tasted stew few years back and wanted to make it for my 10 year old daughter. The stew I made following your recipe was very tasty and everyone enjoyed with dosa.
thank you shree harsha. glad to know that everyone enjoyed the stew with dosa.
Dear Dasanna, this is an excellent recipe. It came out very well. I’m impressed considering that you’re not natively a Keralite. Thanks and cheers!
Welcome Kartik. Glad to get a positive feedback from a Keralite. My father is from Kerala. So I am used to having kerala food while growing up. I am very familiar with the taste.
The recipe tasted perfect and my husband appreciated as well. Many thanks and keep up the good work. Your website has become my Bible for cooking ?
thanks a lot remya. glad to read your comment ?
All receipes are very taste and yummy and thanks
thanks geetha.
Its simply DIVINE…Love the recipe and the result as well?
thanks for this feedback. nice to know.
I have tried many recipes from your site. Today morning, I tried this and came out well. Thanks for the recipes. Keep going.
welcome chithra and thankyou for your kind words.
Good simple recipe and it turned out amazingly well! Thank u for the recipe! U make everything sound simple, so there’s no hesitation in trying out ur recipes! Keep it going!
thanks a lot 🙂
Thank you, Dassana!! This curry is as delicious as the curry I had in Kerala 🙂 . I just loved this one. As well as all your other recipes 😉
glad to know this sari 🙂 thankyou for sharing your views.
Made this and hogged it with appams. My wife came home and said the house smelled like Kovalam. After she ate the first of her 3 bowls she said its moved to the top of her favourites, yes this dish is now in fact her number 1 and ahead of the tiffin sambar! How easily women discard their number ones and move them down their list….tsk, tsk!
So in summary this was like eating in the Neeramaya Surya Samudra and Leela resorts in Kovalam. The only thing missing from this late morning feast was South Indian coffee, so I’ll get onto that next.
Dassana please take another congratulatory bow!
thank you very much rohit. agree on the filter coffee part. whenever i prepare idli or dosa and even upma, i always make filter coffee or bru coffee.
Hi
Thank you Dassana for sharing this light wonderful recipe. ? with all of us. I m planning to make it. Thank you once again for publishing on net .?
welcome sunita
I enjoy trying out the recipes that u put up on ur website. They come out really well. The pics help a lot too. Thanks for sharing them.
welcome shilpa. glad to know this.
Thanks for sharing such good recipes.
welcome rita
Hi Dassana,
Thanks for the appam & veg stew recipes. I shall try them once I can find an appam pan. I’ve loved these appams since young when I lived next door to an Indian family. The lady of the home was such a lovely woman who allowed me, as a kid then, to just stand and watch her lovingly grind her ingredients (for all kinds of dishes that she was turning out daily) on the slab of granite with a granite roller that she’d hold with both hands and roll then back and forth!
For the appam recipe, you mentioned ‘water as required’ when grinding/blending the rices and milk…how much of water?
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Christine
thanks for sharing this christine. the appam batter is slightly thinner than dosa batter. so water has to be added accordingly so that you get a medium consistency flowing batter.
Dear Dassana,
Greetings and congrats..
Let me make a suggestion as a Keralite…
Finally, you have to saute onion, abundantly and curry leaves too and add to the stew.. A small tip..if your stew is not found thick..(which is a must) you can make a cornflour paste and add to the stew before final saute….Always serve hot.. Its superb with soft bakery bread too.
Regards
Beena Koshy
thanks for the suggestion and tips beena. i will try the tempering part as well even serve with a soft bread.
Hai I love cooking and I work in hotel Assistend chef . Dayli I wach your recipes . Tnx
Welcome BIJIN.T
Hi… Thanks for the recipe .!
welcome kiran
Have tried this many times before…but your recipe turned out just perfect! Thanks a lot!
welcome urmi. thanks for giving positive feedback on veg stew.
Thanks for the recipe, Dassana…have tried this many times before…but yours was the first time my husband really liked it:)
welcome urmi. nice to know that you liked the recipe.
Since I hv found ur blog im very happy I have tried ur cake recipes they r amazing me and my family all r satisfied & also they r eggless my husband is non vegetarian and he loves cakes. I hv tried ur other recipes also they r equally good. U r doing wonderful job.Thanxxxx a lot.
welcome priya and big thanks for this positive feedback on recipes.
Thanks. I tried this recipe twice . And it is divine! My new favourite curry. Never knew a vegetarian recipe could taste so good and be so simple to make. Its creamy without calories. DELICIOUS!
just added crushed peanuts for crunch.
thanks for the feedback priya. crushed peanuts is a innovative and delicious addition.
Good one. Sharing the simplest of simplest and quicker Kerala stew recipe – Just peel potatoes and cut into thin circles. Cut onion into small pieces. Just boil these in a little water along with salt and a little julienned ginger, and crushed black pepper. You can optionally add slit green chillies too, according to taste. When the potatoes are almost cooked, add fresh coconut milk, and bring everything to rolling boil. Finally, put off the stove and drizzle a little coconut oil and add a few curry leaves (no tadka, just adding as it is). This stew goes very well with appams, puttu, chapathis etc. As a variation, additional veggies like carrots, green peas and even paneer could be added.
thanks anu for sharing such a simple recipe of kerala stew. i have pasted your recipe and will try it. thanks once again.
You could grind soaked rice, coconut grated, coconut water into a fine paste. add cooked rice – half a cup and grind once again. Now add salt, sugar and a pinch of cooking soda.
Stir well and leave it to ferment overnight.
before making the appams stir well. check for the consistency, it should not be too thick or too watery.. you should be able to pour into the appachatty and swirl it smoothly.
this has worked for me.. pls give it a try….. good luck…
thanks sujata for the tips on making appam without yeast. i already have a recipe without yeast but i will try your method also.
The stew looks delicious. We make it almost the same way and I love it with appams, plain dosas and puris.
thanks poornima
i loved the spices that u add cinnamon and pepper loved this variations. Some times internet sucks. seriously i faced the same problem. some have managed to come out.
My fav……u have an appam recipe…..? have tried so many times but I did not get the crisp lace around the appam
i will be posting 2 types of appam recipes – with and without yeast.
Traditional and flavorful stew.. Love it!