Coconut Curry with Lemongrass and Vegetables

Coconut Curry with Lemongrass and Vegetables is such a versatile recipe – you can really use any vegetables that you prefer or have already in the kitchen, while using coconut milk, lemongrass, and spices.  Fresh vegetables and spices come to a boil and simmer in coconut milk to make a tasty and healthy dish that is also vegan.  You can eat the vegetables alone has a healthy side dish, or you can top steamed rice or noodles with the vegetables.

 

 

What is lemongrass?

This is the first recipe that I have cooked with lemongrass.  Lemongrass gives a wonderful, lemony scent and taste to cooked vegetables  When I order take-out, I often order dishes with lemongrass.  Whenever I saw the fresh lemongrass sticks at the grocery store in the produce department, I just skipped right past them.  They have a tough outer leaf that looked intimidating to cook with.

How to Prepare Lemongrass

There are several ways to prepare lemongrass, depending on how you are using it in your dish.  To prepare the lemongrass for this dish, I began by peeling off all of the tough outer leaves.  Although the stalk can be quite long, you really are using a much smaller portion of the lemongrass stalk that is under the layers of tough leaves.  One tip that I learned is to use the tender lemongrass inside that goes up to about where the tough outer leaves begin to branch off.  Once you are at the tender portion of the stalk, which is a brighter and and deeper yellow that what you see on the outside of the stalk, begin finely chopping the lemongrass.  When I first began slicing the lemongrass, I didn’t realize I hadn’t fully reached the fleshier part of the lemongrass stalk.

Keep slicing the lemongrass into small slices.  Then, it’s ready to use.

Next, in a saucepan, heat the olive oil.  Add the onion, freshly grated ginger, minced garlic, and chopped lemongrass.

Saute everything for about 5 minutes, until everything softens.

 

After that, stir in the curry powder, salt and pepper, and chili pepper.

 

Toss in the fresh, chopped vegetables.

Cook for an extra 5 minutes.

Finally, add the coconut milk and cover the saucepan for around 15 minutes for the ingredients to simmer.

When the vegetables have softened, the Coconut Curry with Lemongrass and Vegetables is ready to serve.

 

If you like this recipe, you may also want to try Vegetable Couscous with Tomatoes and Sweet Mini-Peppers.