Delicious and easy curry recipe with beautiful fresh spices
This Fragrant Aubergine Coconut Curry is a really lovely dish with thick-cut seasoned and pan-fried aubergine pieces, chickpeas for texture and a rich red Thai curry coconut sauce spiked with additional lemongrass, ginger and basil. Vegetarian and vegan, you can assemble this dish in less than 1 hour and serve it with rice, flatbreads and other side dishes if you like.
Vegetarian and vegan aubergine curry with plenty of flavour
With a warming element from thickly spiced and stewed coconut milk and large juicy pieces of aubergine taking the place of meat, for those who really appreciate good vegetarian and vegan food, this recipe is a keeper. And why stop at just aubergine and chickpeas? Other vegetables such as courgette, potato, sweet potato, and pumpkin can also be added to make it more hearty.
How to cook aubergine the right way for a curry
As aubergine is the star of this curry, larger pieces are used to replace meat. Pre-salting is still an important part of the cooking process to release excess liquid, of which an aubergine has much. This produces a more sponge-like texture, allowing flavour and marination from the cooking juices and sauce to absorb into the vegetable. Heating a large pan with plenty of oil and pan-frying the aubergine until nicely caramelized makes each piece even more tasty and holds its structure in the sauce.
Making the perfect curry sauce, quickly
Using Thai red curry paste is a great way to create an instant flavour foundation, from there you can add extra aromatics to enhance depth of flavour. Lemongrass and ginger really make this dish fragrant and fresh, turmeric adds a lovely colour, then all that’s required is a little time to cook down and thicken the coconut sauce. Within 30 minutes you have a rich restaurant-style curry.
How to eat Fragrant Aubergine Coconut Curry
Once the curry is ready, add a generous squeeze of lime juice and top with either Thai basil leaves or regular sweet basil leaves. For a fusion element in this recipe, the curry is served with a side of buttery basmati rice combined with crunchy almond flakes for extra texture, flatbreads and fresh cold beer. Alternatively, you could serve rice noodles, egg noodles or even vermicelli on the side with an Asian-style salad.
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Fragrant Aubergine Coconut Curry
A rich fragrant vegetarian and vegan curry ready in less than 1 hour
- Prep Time: 15 Minutes
- Cook Time: 25 Minutes + resting time
- Total Time: 50 Minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Vegetarian
- Method: Stove Top Cooking
- Cuisine: Thai Fusion
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp red Thai curry paste
- 2 lemongrass stalks
- 2cm ginger piece
- 4 large cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp brown or palm sugar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce + 1 tbsp lime juice mixed together
- 2 large aubergines
- 400g tin coconut milk
- 300ml vegetable stock
- 400g tin chickpeas, drained
- 5 spring onions
- 1 lime
- Thai basil or regular sweet basil leaves for garnish
Sides
- 480g basmati rice
- Heaped tsp of butter or margarine
- 4 heaped tbsp almond flakes
- Flatbreads (recipe here for homemade versions)
Instructions
- Trim the ends of aubergine, cut them into large long chunks, and season with salt. toss around and rub salt into each piece evenly. Allow to sweat for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, crush garlic and mince the ginger. Trim lemongrass stalks using only the thick white parts then remove the first hard outer layer. Mince lemongrass finely.
- Cut tops and green ends off the spring onions, then cut each onion into 3 – 4 long pieces. Set aside.
- Using a large non-stick frying pan with a generous amount of frying oil, cook aubergine over medium heat until each side is nicely caramelised. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Heat a pot with some cooking oil and add Thai curry paste. Stir around the pot and after 10 seconds add lemongrass and garlic, cook a further 20 seconds (be careful not to burn or dry out)
- Return aubergine to the pan along with chickpeas, coconut milk, stock, sugar, turmeric, and lime-infused soy sauce. Combine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook gently uncovered until the aubergine is tender, but not mushy, about 15 mins. By this time the sauce should be nice and thick. Add the spring onions and cook a firther couple minutes until they are soft.
- Whilst the curry bubbles away, cook rice to packet instructions. When ready, stir through butter or margarine. Keep warm.
- Remove curry from the heat. Stir through minced ginger. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Allow the curry to rest for 5 minutes.
- To finish the rice, stir almond flakes through the rice and warm flatbreads.
- Cut the lime in half. Keep one piece whole and the other half cut into 4 wedges.
- Before serving the curry add the juice of half a lime and stir to combine. Garnish with basil leaves. Serve with extra lime wedges, rice, flatbreads and beer.
Keywords: best vegetarian curry recipes, best vegan curry recipes, aubergine and chickpea curry
