Kerala Style Vegetable Stew Recipe / How to Make Kerala Vegetable Stew / Indian Vegetable Stew Recipe / Mixed Vegetable Stew / Vegetable Ishtu Recipe / Vegetable Stew and Appam / Veg Stew Recipe.
Nothing hits a day’s dinner than a rich and steaming bowl of Stew and Appam!! Appam and Stew is a traditional breakfast dish of Keralites. Stew can be prepared only of potatoes, or mixed vegetables, or even chicken or mutton. Today I made stew with mixed vegetables.
Appam is a breakfast dish of Keralites, especially the Syrian Christians. Vegetable stew also goes well with Kallappam, Vellayappam, Idiyappam, Bread etc. as for Breakfast or as a main dish for lunch or for dinner. It’s a combination any malayali or a Keralite would indulge. If you have coconut milk, and some vegetables you can make it fast. Since in this dish we use a lot of vegetables it is a healthy too.
I used Carrot, Beans, Potato and Green peas here, but of course you can prepare this stew with any vegetables of your choice. Next time when I make this, I might add some other vegetables like cauliflower, mushrooms or bell pepper, but usually Potatoes, carrots and beans are the vegetables we use. Even with a single vegetable you can make it. It is spiced with cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, garlic-ginger paste, Black pepper and green chilly and simply flavoured with Salt, pepper and coconut milk. I love the colours these veggies provided. In fact if you want to add meat to this you can probably do it.
One of the best ways to develop awesome flavours in a stew is to sear the vegetables in oil before stewing. So sauté all veggies well in oil before adding coconut milk and boil it.
This Vegetable Stew is a quick recipe you can make at any time, wonderfully flavoured and goes well with Appam, a fermented rice pancake, which consists of rice and coconut as main ingredients and the crispy lace towards the edge and airy fluffy centres in appearance.
This one I made yesterday night for dinner which is budget friendly and loaded with flavours. It’s a classic dish with just a few ingredients. I make it all the time and this time I used canned Coconut milk which is very quick, easy and effortless. I will definitely be making this stew again.
Number of servings – 6
Ingredients for Kerala Veg Ishtu:
French Beans – 10, cut length wise
Potato – 2 medium sized, peeled and cubed
Carrot – 2 medium sized, diced
Green Peas – ½ cup (I used frozen peas)
Onion (savala) – 2 medium sized, finely sliced
Coconut Oil – 2 tbsp.
Cinnamon – 1″ piece
Green Cardamom – 4 small
Cloves – 4
Black Pepper – ¼ tsp.
Salt – 3 tsp.
Thin Coconut Milk – 2 cups
Thick coconut milk – 1 cup
Green Chillies – 3 medium sized
Homemade Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 tbsp.
Salt – to taste
Curry Leaves – 2 sprigs
How to Make Vegetable Stew:
Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Splutter cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and black pepper. Sauté until fragrant. Now add ginger garlic paste. And sauté until the raw smell goes away and starts to get light brown colour. Add green chillies and sauté for a minute. Now add sliced onions and sauté it till it gets translucent.
Start adding all chopped veggies and sauté it for about 5 minutes till its raw smell goes out Add curry leaves. Then add green peas and sauté it well for 2 minutes. Next add second diluted coconut milk. Let the veggies get cooked well in this coconut milk on a low heat. Add salt to taste. Close the lid and cook over low heat. Remove the lid and add thick coconut milk. Mix it well and cook for few more minutes till it comes to boil.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve it with Appam / Palappam, Vellayappam,
Idiyappam etc.,
My Recipe Notes on Kerala Vegetable Stew:
1. I used very thin cinnamon, so has taken 3 pieces.
2. I have used coconut oil; you can use vegetable oil also. .
3. Using coconut milk enhances the flavour and taste. For getting the first thick coconut milk, add 1 cup shredded coconut with 1 cup water and blend it well for about one minute. Filter it and your thick coconut milk is ready. Use the strained coconut and 1 cup of water and blend for another one minute. Now extract the thin coconut milk.
4. As I have used tinned coconut milk, for getting second coconut milk, I have diluted tinned coconut milk by adding 1 ½ cups of water to ½ cup of tinned coconut milk.
5. It totally depends on how rich or mild you want this curry to be. If you want a rich stew, increase the amount of first extract of coconut milk.
6. This vegetable Stew gets its’ spiciness from Black Pepper and Green chillies. You can use either both or only one as per your choice.
7. I have used frozen green peas. If you are using dried green peas, soak it in water minimum for 6 hours and pressure cook it until it is done.
8. Instead of using spices you can use 1 tsp. Homemade Garam Masala Powder.
Happy Cooking.. Cheers.. Seena.
N.B:
Please Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel, ‘Seenas Food Basket’.
To get all the latest updates, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. It will keep us motivated.
You have an option to add your Comment on our website. Just go to the recipe page and scroll down. You can see the space provided there to comment. Pls. add your feedback there both, positive and negative.
Hope you liked our Recipes with its step by step explanation and the ‘TIPS’ and ‘RECIPE NOTES’. Pls. support us by SHARING it and clicking on the ‘LIKE’ button of our Facebook Page, so that you will get our latest recipes on your news feed without missing them.
Try out this and let us know what you think.. We love to see your creations. So, when you try out this recipe, take a picture and email it to seenasfoodbasket@gmail.com.
കേരളാ വെജിറ്റബിൾ സ്ടൂ റെസിപ്പി.
Vegetable Stew / Vegetable Ishtu.
Description
Vegetable stew is a superb side dish for Kerala breakfast. Vegetables are cooked in thick coconut milk based gravy and always a hit with kids and adults.