Vellai Kurma – Restaurant Style South Indian White Vegetable Korma

Name: Vellai Kurma – Restaurant Style South Indian White Vegetable Korma
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: South Indian
Ingredients: 1 cup fresh shredded coconut; 1/4 cup cashews; 1 clove; 2 cardamom; 1 inch cinnamon; 1 teaspoon fennel seeds; 4 green chillies (adjust according to your taste); 1/2 cup carrots; 1/2 cup beans; 1/2 cup potatoes; 1/2 cup peas; 2 tablespoon peanut oil; 1 teaspoon fennel seed; 1 teaspoon cumin seed; 2 sprigs curry leaves (optional); 1 medium onion, chopped; 1.5 teaspoon salt; 1 lime, juiced; 2 sprigs coriander leaves; 1 teaspoon cornstarch (optional-use if necessary)

January 5, 2015 by Suguna Vinodh 80 Comments

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Vellai Kurma – Restaurant Style South Indian White Vegetable Korma.

South Indian Tamilnadu Restaurant style white vegetable kurma called as vellai kuruma or parotta korma. With video and step by step pictures. Finger licking good!

I learnt this Vellai Kurma recipe after marriage from my mother in law. She is an awesome cook. My father in law is a foodie. This is his favorite curry to have with chapati. In my early years of marriage, whenever my in-laws used to visit us, I would just help around in the kitchen. The true cooking was done by my MIL. She used to make this as a side dish for chapati. Its a very easy recipe and comes out very well every single time.

Here is the video of Vellai Kurma – Restaurant Style South Indian White Vegetable Korma

Usually in Indian curries, the spices are dry roasted and then ground. But for this vegetable kurma, the spices are ground raw. Grind all the ingredients listed below with about 1 cup of water to a smooth paste.

Boil about 2 cups of mixed vegetables until al-dente and keep aside. Do not use a lot of vegetables. 4-5 different vegetables should do fine. Adding potato gives the gravy some body. So don’t miss the potato.

Here is how I boil the veggies. I cook the veggies with quarter cup of water in a pressure cooker (2 or 3 litres) for exactly 2 whistles. Immediately release pressure from the cooker by lifting the whistle weight carefully. Releasing the pressure manually is important to get the veggies with the right texture for kurma without the veggies turning mushy.

Refer to this post to know how to cook veggies in a pressure cooker.

Heat the oil in a saute pan. Add in a teaspoon each of cumin seeds, fennel seeds and 2 sprigs of curry leaves. Let it splutter. Add in the chopped onions and salt. Saute till slightly brown. Add in the ground masala paste and a cup of water. Let it simmer on low flame for about 5 minutes. Since we have added cashews, it will foam up. So stir once in a while. Once the paste is cooked, add a cup of water to dilute.

Once the raw smell goes, after 5 minutes add the boiled vegetables.

Optional: If the gravy looks thin, here is what you can do. Take a small cup and add a teaspoon of cornstarch or maida (All purpose flour). Add 1/2 cup water to it and make a slurry. Add the slurry to the gravy. The slurry helps in thickening the gravy. Do not add the corn starch or maida directly as it may lump up. Simmer for couple of minutes more.

Finally, add in juice of a lime and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot with roti or chapati.