Goan curry recipe with step by step photos – here’s a dish which I have grown up having. This famous Goan vegetable curry used to be made twice or thrice a week at my home. Sometimes with fish and sometimes with prawns. When made with prawns, okra/bhindi was added.
After becoming a vegetarian, I started making the same curry with mix vegetables and mushrooms. I love the flavors of the coconut-based masala in this delicious curry. till today this Goan curry is one of my favorite curries to go with steamed rice. Another similar recipe on the blog is this Tomato curry.
Though a mixed vegetable Goan curry, like this recipe, was not made at our home. But a similar vegetarian curry was made without any veggies in it. We would call it as ‘sorak’ in Konkani language. Sorak is just a plain curry but the flavors of the coconut, red chilies and spices come through in this curry too. In sorak we don’t add tamarind, but kokum (garcinia indica).
The curry is not hot nor spicy. though the heat levels can be increased by using more red chilies.
The color of this Goan curry can vary from a range of light orange to dark orange to a bright red color. This color variation depends on the color pigment intensity of the dry red chilies.
We always add Kashmiri red chilies in this veg curry. In the absence of Kashmiri chilies, even byadagi/bedgi red chilies work well. They give a nice bright color to the curry, without making it hot. I would suggest you to add chilies which are less hot or medium hot.
This Goan curry goes well with steamed rice. The curry also tastes good with bread or pav/buns.
More Curry recipes
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Goan Curry
Ingredients
for the masala paste
- 1 cup grated fresh coconut
- 3 to 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 5 to 6 kashmiri red chilies or byadagi or bedgi red chilies
- 2 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 8 to 10 whole black pepper - optional
- 1 teaspoon seedless tamarind (imli)
- ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder (ground turmeric)
- ¾ cup water or as required for grinding
for vegetable curry
- 2.5 to 3 cups chopped mix vegetables (9 to 10 baby corn, 1 medium carrot, 9 to 10 button mushrooms, 9 to 10 french beans, 1 medium potato or you can add your choice of veggies)
- ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 to 2 green chilies, slit
- 2.5 to 3 cups water or as required
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil or vegetable oil
- salt as required
Instructions
making masala paste
- Grind all the ingredients mentioned under the list 'for masala paste' in a wet grinder to a smooth paste.
- There should be no small chunks or pieces of coconut in the paste. Keep the paste aside.
making famous goan curry
- Rinse and chop the veggies into cubes or small bite sized pieces.
- Don't chop into bigger pieces as they will take a lot of time to cook.
- Heat oil. Add onions and saute till they become translucent.
- Add the chopped veggies and and saute them for 6 to 7 minutes on a low flame, stirring often.
- Add the coconut masala paste to the sauteed veggies and stir.
- Then add water, salt and slit green chilies. Stir again.
- Cover and simmer the curry, till the veggies are cooked tender. Stir the curry at intervals.
- Can take about 20 to 30 minutes for all the veggies to cook on a low to medium flame. If you want, you can steam or cook the veggies before hand and then add them to the curry.
- If the water becomes less while cooking, then add some more water. The consistency of this curry is neither thick nor thin.
- Garnish with coriander leaves and serve this famous goan curry with steamed rice or pav.
How to make Goan curry with vegetables
1. Heat 2 tbsp coconut oil or vegetable oil. Add ¼ cup finely chopped onions and saute onions till translucent.
2. Add 2.5 to 3 cups chopped mix vegetables and saute them for 6 to 7 minutes on a low flame, stirring often.
3. The ingredients for making the masala paste – 1 cup grated fresh coconut, 2 tsp coriander seeds, ¼ cup chopped onion, 5 to 6 Kashmiri dry red chilies. Not pictured are 3 to 4 chopped garlic cloves, 1 tsp cumin, 8 to 10 black pepper (optional) and 1 tsp seedless tamarind. They are all covered by the mound of grated coconut 🙂
4. Add everything to the grinder. Also, add ½ tsp turmeric powder. Then add ¾ cup water or as required for grinding and grind to a smooth paste. No small chunks or pieces of coconut should be in the paste.
5. Add the coconut masala paste to the sauteed veggies and stir.
6. Then add 2.5 to 3 cups water or as required, salt and 1-2 slit green chilies. Stir again.
7. Cover and simmer the curry, till the veggies are cooked tender. Stir the curry at intervals. It can take about 20 to 30 minutes for all the veggies to cook on a low to medium flame. If you want, you can steam or cook the veggies beforehand and then add them to the curry. If the water becomes less while cooking, then add some more water. The consistency of this Goan curry is neither thick nor thin.
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and Serve the Goan curry with steamed rice or ladi pav.
Hello,, This turned out so amazing. Thank you!!
nice recipe. made it twice.. i liked it without the tamrind.
thanks arjun for sharing your positive feedback.
Thank you sooo much for brilliant recipes! I love every single meal i cooked with the help of your blog! You are amazing) An d i would like to clarify one moment. I came across many recipes with tamarind. i dont know where i can buy tamarind in my city. as i understand tamarind is sour agent? can i substitute it for lemon juice or something else? And in which proportions?
Thank you!
welcome ksenia. in some indian recipes, tamarind gives a distinct taste of its own and better not to substitute it. you should be able to get tamarind in an indian or asian grocery store or shop. you can even buy online. you can use lemon juice. but in this recipe, i would not suggest to use lemon juice. the taste will change. in goa, we use another souring agent, which is dried raw mango slices. i know you won’t get dried raw mango slices where you live, but if you can get dry mango powder, then just add 1/2 to 1 tsp of it. you should get that sour hint in the curry. if dry mango powder is not available, then you can also add tomatoes. both chopped tomatoes or tomato puree will work. 1 medium tomato works well in this recipe. if adding chopped tomatoes, then saute the tomatoes for 2 to 3 minutes. add the tomatoes after you are done sauteing the onions. for puree, you can add 1/4 cup of it and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.
Hi, wether we need to fry coriander seeds and red chillies before grinding?
no need to roast or fry coriander seeds and red chilies before grinding.
I didn’t have fresh coconut, so I skipped it and used light coconut milk instead of water when making the masala and the curry. I didn’t have Kashmir chillies, so I used the chillies which I bought in Kerala. My curry turned out less red than yours, but the taste was great! Thank you.
pleased to know this sari 🙂 and thankyou so much for your kind and honest words.
Hi,
I have not tried this recipe yet but I have a quick question. Is this like a thai curry or totally different taste?
vineet, its a different taste. thai curry is more spicy. this is not spicy but will remind you of thai curry.
Absolutely delicious… and more so if you leave the masala to infuse overnight or a couple of days before cooking. I used dessicated coconut so couldn’t completely blend coconut fibers out of the masala… also I added salt and more turmeric than the recipe specified to get a deeper colour. Yum yum yum thankyou.
welcome penny. thanks for sharing your tips and suggestion.
Hi Dassana,
I am so impressed with the effort u put for each recipe.Lovely are your photos and your way of cooking seems simple.Iam frequent visitor of your blog and I recommend your blog to my friends also..Hats off to you both.
Keep going with your passion.God bless you.
thanks rajasree for your positive feedback and for your prayers. glad to read your kind words.
Hi
How tightly packed should the cup of coconut be? Thank you
add the coconut in the cup and press it. thats how it should be tightly packed.
Can I just sauté the spices instead of making a paste with them?
hi lila, that won’t give you the authentic curry. usually the spices are ground with the coconut. however, instead you can add ground cumin, ground coriander, ground black pepper. i won’t suggest you to add red chili powder or cayenne pepper as its best to grind whole red chilies with the coconut. if you soak the red chilies in some warm or hot water for about 30 minutes, they grind nicely in a blender or grinder. you can add the ground spices directly in the pan, once the onions ate sauteed. just make sure you lower the flame and add them, so that they don’t get burned. then add the veggies.
Thank you for this recipe! Should red onion be used? It looks like red onion in the pictures … would yellow onion work too? Also, is kashmiri chilli too spicy for young children? I was thinking of maybe putting maybe 2 chillis instead of 5 or 6, and add some paprika for more color … maybe a 1/2 tsp? Awesome web site!
you can use red onions. yellow onions would also work. kashmiri chilli is not spicy or hot. but for the kids, you can add just 2 chilies. most indian kids are used to eating spicy foods. but for kids who are not used to eating spiced foods, 5 or 6 chilies would become too much. for the color, then you can add paprika.
Thank you. I was very happy with the dish and I think this will become a family favorite
welcome dave
The recipe looks very tempting. Can i add paneer in this recepie with the mix vegetables?
yes you can add paneer.
All your recipes are so good and perfect, have referred to so many sites but yours is the best, do suggest some toddler friendly recipes too. Thanks.
thanks ramya. will try to add some toddler recipes.
I’ve been browsing your recipes for an hour and a half, now, and everything looks so delicious and your step-by-step instructions are so clear I can’t wait to try some of them.
thanks alba. yes, do try some recipes.
Tried it……awesome……..but I didn’t get the color like yrs since I used normal guntur chillies
the color will vary depending on the red chilies. even the taste differs a bit, but not much. thanks for the feedback anitha.
Hi,
This recipe looks so delicious.. Looking fwd to try this.. Thank you for sharing.
One quick question,
In the absence of fresh coconut or coconut milk…
can i use regular cow’s milk and dry coconut powder..
May be like boiling some cow’s milk with coconut powder and getting the rich flavor of coconut in the milk.. and then straining it and adding it to the veggies.
Thanks.. 🙂
then it will not be goan curry. i will also think about the milk getting curdled due to the presence of spices and chilies. i will not suggest adding milk. instead of milk, you can add dessicated coconut. just soak the desiccated coconut or coconut powder in some warm water for 20 to 30 minutes. then grind the coconut-water mixture and the spices together.
Great recipe, have tried some including Hyderabi vegetable Biryani.
thanks haneef
The curry was tasty. We do make similar curry in Kerala, which is called Masala curry. The paste is same without tamarind and cumin. Arabi and potatoes go well with it. Thanks for this Goan version.
thanks dhanya. i know of the kerala fish masala curry. i think it must be the same. i have tasted it many many years back. i know the recipe. will try to add.
Can I use canned coconut milk instead of grated fresh coconuts?
yes sunny. but then you will have to grind the remaining ingredients like onions, dry red chilies, coriander seeds etc to a fine paste. first add the ground paste and saute for a minute. then add the coconut milk and continue with the rest of the recipe.
help help; im planning to make this for lunch today and thinking about only making with okra as tgheres no otherveggies at home 😮 however i have a brilliant jar of Prawn Curry i picked up recently. Will just a goan okra with this pickle style prawn curry make a decent meal?
-frantic!
Please respond :'(
yes you can just make this curry with okra. it will taste good. i think the combo should work.
Looking so darn good! Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait to try!
welcome teresa
Mine turned out to be Yellowish-white – I guess it is because here in Singapore I only have Thai Chillies which doesn’t have much color in it. A few items (when to put turmeric, green chilli in ingredient) is missing aside, it is a rather tasty and delightful recipe!
thats probably the reason for the color. thanks for the feedback teresa and also for letting me know the missing steps. have added.
Hi Dassana,
Loved your recipe….please suggest rice recipes to go well with this curry.
thanks sweta. best is plain steamed rice. thats goes the best.