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Cauliflower Curry

Easy, rich, creamy and warmly-spiced, this cauliflower-loaded coconut curry redefines comfort food. It’s vegan and gluten free, so it’s a great meal to serve to folks with food sensitivities.

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creamy Indian cauliflower curry with rice and torn naan in a large serving bowl

Creamy Cauliflower Coconut Curry.

We are huge fans of curry. Curry Meatballs, Pumpkin Curry, Chicken Curry ...give us all the curries! As of late though, the curry dish that has our curry-crazed hearts is curried cauliflower. This recipe brings two things that we love together and makes for one incredible meal.

creamy vegan cauliflower curry with white rice and torn naan in a serving bowl

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A Cauliflower Curry Star Was Born.

The roots of this recipe began when we decided to start cutting back on our meat intake by incorporating at least one meatless dinner a week in our homes. As we racked our brains for dinner ideas, a good vegan curry recipe was the first thing to come to mind for many reasons:

  • Our families love curry.
  • It can be cooked in one pot, seriously saving on time and clean up.
  • The creamy coconut curry sauce is so loaded with flavor you really won’t miss the meat.
  • Did we mention it can be cooked in one pot?
  • So, now that you know the “why” on this vegetarian wonder of a dish, let’s move on to the “how."
Ingredients laid out for vegetarian cauliflower curry; cauliflower, coconut milk, ginger, garlic, turmeric, tomatoes

How Do You Make Homemade Curry?

There are several approaches to making curry depending on what part of the world your curry is coming from. However, every good curry has something in common: a proper base layer of flavor that is created through rich and fragrant spices.

This curry begins with onions, fresh garlic, and fresh ginger. Big flavor at the get-go! Because this curry is Indian-inspired, we used the following spices to layer rich flavor into the dish:

  • Cumin
  • Cinnamon
  • Yellow curry powder

If you wanted to up the spice ante of this dish, you could also add:

  • Garam masala
  • Allspice
  • Coriander
  • Cardamom

Once the base is finished, we add tomatoes and coconut milk and blend until smooth. At this point you may be tempted to drink the mixture with a straw, but be strong and resist! It just gets better from here.

Indian style curry spices with tomatoes and coconut milk in a large pot
coconut curry with raw cauliflower in a pot

What Goes Into Vegetarian Curry?

We’ve kept this recipe simple by only using cauliflower—we love a short ingredient list—but there are many other incredible vegetables you can add if you’re feeling wild! Coconut curry is super versatile. If you aren’t going meatless, a cup or two of shredded chicken is wonderful. Potatoes are a classic ingredient in Indian coconut curry, and would be delicious in this curry.

Some of Our Favorite Curry Add-Ins:

  • Peas
  • Chickpeas
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Potatoes
Indian style curry in a pot
Creamy cauliflower curry in a pot

Is Curry Healthy?

Because we’ve chosen to use coconut milk as the base for this curry, the dish is high in fat, but it also has very few carbs. That being said, depending on what you’re going for it can be very healthy because the fats from coconut milk are the good ones that your body needs. It’s Keto and Whole30 friendly, but if those diets aren’t your bag have no fear because it’s just down right delicious anyway.

Indian style cauliflower curry on white rice in a large serving bowl

What You Should Serve with Cauliflower Curry:

This warming, creamy, cauliflower-laden coconut curry comes together quickly with little effort and it’s certainly satisfying enough to stand on its own, but a scoop of white rice and a warm piece of naan with a sprinkle of fresh cilantro are a welcome addition.

More Favorite Vegetarian Dinners:

Indian style cauliflower curry on rice served with torn naan

Everything Tastes Better When You Share!

When this cauliflower curry makes it to your dinner table, be sure to post a pic to Instagram and tag @themodernproper and #themodernproper. We’d love to see how it turned out and fully expect to hear how much you loved it!

Cauliflower Curry

  • Serves: 6
  • Prep Time:  15 min
  • Cook Time:  35 min
  • Calories: 283

Video

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
  • 3 tablespoons yellow curry powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
  • 3 (14-ounce) cans coconut milk or unsweetened coconut cream
  • 1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
  • Cooked rice, for serving (optional)
  • Minced cilantro, for serving (optional)
  • Warmed naan, for serving (optional)

Method

  1. Heat olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

    Ingredients laid out for vegetarian cauliflower curry; cauliflower, coconut milk, ginger, garlic, turmeric, tomatoes
  2. Add in curry powder, cinnamon, cumin, 1½ teaspoons salt, cayenne and diced tomatoes and stir until combined. Increase the heat to high and stir in the coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.

    Indian style curry spices with tomatoes and coconut milk in a large pot
  3. Use an immersion blender to blend the liquid directly in the pot. (Alternatively, transfer the liquid to the base of a blender, let cool briefly, and blend until smooth. Then return it to the pot.)

    coconut curry with raw cauliflower in a pot
  4. Bring the curry to a boil over high heat. Add the cauliflower, return the heat to low, and simmer until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with remaining salt

    Creamy cauliflower curry in a pot
  5. Serve over rice with cilantro and naan.

    Cauliflower Coconut Curry

Nutrition Info

  • Per Serving
  • Amount
  • Calories283
  • Protein4 g
  • Carbohydrates18 g
  • Total Fat23 g
  • Dietary Fiber6 g
  • Cholesterol0 mg
  • sodium890 mg
  • Total Sugars8 g

Cauliflower Curry

Questions & Reviews

Join the discussion below.

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  • Alexsandra

    I bought a 1/2 gallon of coconut milk from the grocery store - it isn't nearly as thick as what is shown in the video. What is the difference?
    ALSO
    The recipe calls for curry powder - "curry powder" is just a blend of spices mixed with turmeric. Can you please identify what spices are in your curry powder in your recipe?

    Hi Alexsandra, you need canned coconut milk, get the full fat not light. It contains a lot of the coconut cream as well (where as the 1/2 gallon stuff doesn't) so it's a lot thicker. Curry powder is just a single spice. You can buy it on the spice aisle. It is called curry powder and it will be yellow in color. Hope you enjoy!

  • Cherie

    How hot is this curry, I like very mild.

    It's not spicy at all. Yellow curry powder doesn't have much heat just leave out the cayenne pepper. Hope you enjoy Cherie!

  • Lloyd

    Just to be clear, not sure anywhere else in the world, but 1 can of coconut milk here in the UK makes the 14oz needed!! i have now made the mistake of using the 3 cans advised and now have x3 the amount needed :(

    If you want less sauce, you can cut down the amount of coconut milk, but our family of 5 always needs three cans worth of milk to make enough sauce. Thanks for the feedback.

  • Rob

    Hi,
    You mentioned raising the ante with the following spices: allspice, coriander, garam masala, Garam masala, and cardamom. How much of each? And should they all be added together with the cumin, cinnamon, and curry powder? Even the garam masala? (I’m asking specifically about that last spice because I often see it being added at the final stage of cooking.
    One last thing: what’s the approximate weight of what you consider a ‘large’ cauliflower?
    Thanks

    Around 2 1/2 pounds for a large head (I think) The cauliflower doesn't get blended into anything, so really just put as much or as little as you'd like. I would start with 1/4 teaspoon of all spice or cardamom, both of those are strong. Coriander and Garam masala you could prob use 1 teaspoon each. I like to just mix it up a bit sometimes!

  • Fran

    Can it freeze

    It should freeze just fine, hope you enjoy Fran!

  • Janette

    Made this exactly as described but used only one can of coconut cream (all I had on hand), one bag of frozen peas and a can of chick peas. It is so good! Can't wait to try it with the right amount of coconut milk soon. Thank you for the awesome receip.

    Thanks Janette, we are so glad you loved it!

  • Patrick

    Just delicious. Smooth and savoury, with the curry building up the cauliflower and a lovely just-al-dente texture. (Can one use al dente if it's not pasta? I'm doing it anyway.) I would say that if you can handle cilantro/coriander, it's almost a necessity with this dish, providing just the sharp coup de grâce to finish the dish. The whole thing is fairly easy to make, filling, and tasty. Top marks.

    Thanks Patrick! We are so happy you loved it!

  • Elis

    Thank you so much for this great recipe! I'm so thankful for having stumbled upon your site and will definitely try other recipes!

    Thanks Elis, we are so happy you loved it! Hope you try some others soon!

  • Stephanie

    Delicious! Even the little kids ate it!! I ran out of yellow curry so ended up with half & half yellow & red. Besides that I followed the recipe. When we sat down to eat it and tried a few bites we decided to try a few raisins in it and decided that was super yummy! Then we dropped in a few cashews (always looking for ways to add protein to vegetarian dishes). That was good too! This is definitely a keeper.

    Thanks Stephanie, we are so happy your family loved it!

  • Ali

    Absolutely delicious! Added a bit of seared flank steak which was tasty.

    Thanks Ali, so glad you loved it!