Simple Coconut Curry Sauce
February 19th, 2011 § 14 Comments
If you don’t like vegetables, I’ll still love you. Less than Oprah, more than black licorice, and maybe equal to white chocolate. But love, all the same.
The thing to keep in mind about vegetables is, they can be finessed and fancied in any way you like. If when you think of produce you see nothing but baby carrots, celery sticks, boiled brussels sprouts, and that god awful gassy smell of freshly steamed broccoli, I’ll put it gently and say: you’re missing out.
Try making sauces to coat your vegetables, try roasting them for deeper flavor, try stir-frying in a wok, heck, dip ‘em in chocolate if you feel so obliged. This is a judgment free zone after all.
Here’s how I pack the most flavor into a vegetable dish: Coconut Curry Sauce. I find it absolutely delicious because of its complexity and depth, being all at once sweet, salty, smoky, and toasted.
And the beauty of such a simple and exotic sauce is that you can make it in a small saucepan in under 10 minutes and then toss it with vegetables, chicken, fish, tofu, chocolate…just about anything really. I used it to dress up a plain pan of sauteed vegetables, but now I’m teetering dangerously close to the chocolate idea. Remember what I said about judgment-free zones.
Simple Coconut Curry Sauce
(makes about 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup light coconut milk
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha hot chili sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Whisk all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and let the mixture simmer for about 2-3 minutes until glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Use immediately to coat vegetables, chicken, fish, or tofu.
Nutrition info for entire sauce recipe (though it is enough to coat a 2-4 serving meal):
Calories: 213.6, Fat: 11.7g, Carb: 30.9g, Fiber: 0.3g, Sugars: 18.9g, Protein: 2.7g
Yumm! I’m definitely going to make this in the near future.
I had a great dinner last night that followed this guideline (vegetables, kick-ass sauce) and I was sort of kicking myself for not doing it more often. No more! 6 points plus for a giant bowl of deliciousness? Yes please.
Mine was: 2 carrots cut into long skinny spears roasted at 400 for 15 minutes, then add one head of cauliflower cut into small-medium florets, roast 10 minutes, toss, roast 6-8 minutes. Then the sauce was just a tahini-lemon-garlic-s+p sauce, but I added some chopped capers which was quite fantastic!
I realize if I just have vegetables in the fridge, I WILL do fun things with them, and sauces (curry-coconut, tahini, peanut, etc.) are a great way to make them more fun and to transition them from side dish to full meal.
Paige, yum! That dinner sounds great! I love the idea of a tahini lemon garlic sauce- thanks for the inspiration!
I love coconut and I love curry. It feels like a match made in heaven, or in my mouth.
And when it comes to veggies, my husband prefers them any way but “raw.” He claims he doesn’t like to eat something that tastes like he just pulled it up by the root out of our backyard. I’m thinking this sauce will be a good addition to some of my veggie recipes to keep it from tasting too, shall we say, “earthy.”
Haha, Daniel is the same way about vegetables- he likes them extreeeemely tender. Nothing as it would be found in nature
Ahhh Lovelovelove. I’ve been experimenting with curry forever and can’t wait to try this.
Also I’ve recently started my own cooking blog–heavily inspired by you!–and one of my first posts was about your divine Mascarapone Marsala Chicken.
Keep on bloggin!
Thanks so much Bee! Your blog looks fantastic- I love that quiche recipe too!
Yum! I don’t suppose you deliver?
I always get the Indian food off of Whole Food’s salad bar because it’s the type of stuff I have no idea how to cook.
Love the idea! I’ve been eating a lot of veg’s lately and most of the time it’s the raw crunch variety. I love curry and I’m not sure about coconut milk but am willing to give it a try. Got to expand the horizons!
I love this sauce! And the idea of dressing up veggies is a theme in our house too… while I’m happy with veggies in any form, my husband usually needs some convincing. And curry coconut should do the trick!
You could put curry on my shoe and I’d eat it.
Simplicity is always the nicest and when you add coconut milk into the mix it is even better – fab recipe.
Mandy
yum! that combination of vegetables looks insanely delicous… do you remember what all you threw in there?
ryi: trader joe’s has an 8 veggie combo in the refrigerated veggie section, if you have one near to you….the combo includes red and grren cabbage, carrots, jicama, bell pepper redishes and celery (everything is chopped and ready to include in recipes, over rice or just steamed and eaten!!! enjoy!)
Thanks for the yummy recipe, it saved what could have been a very disastrous dinner last night!!