Nothing beats a delicious sweet potato curry made with as little fuss as possible. Today’s recipe is called Curry In A Hurry for a good reason. It requires five minutes to prepare and then it can be left pretty much to itself allowing those delicious flavours dance together and cook.
Basically, you can make this curry FROM SCRATCH and on the table within 25 minutes flat!
That includes chopping, bringing to the boil, cooking the entire curry and even making your rice to go with it.
Time-saving tips for making vegan curry in a hurry
- Use canned beans instead of dry. This means you can reach in the cupboard at a moments notice and speed up your curry in a hurry process no end! I also often batch make beans from dry and freeze them into super helpful portions. This also works well for this recipe if you have a portion you can grab from the freezer.
- Chop your sweet potato up small to speed up the cooking time. The smaller your sweet potato cubes are, the faster they will cook. Small cubes of vegetables are ideal for a vegan curry in a hurry recipe to cut down on the cooking time.
- Chop your sweet potato evenly. Whatever size you you chop your sweet potato, doing them fairly evenly it means they will all cook in a uniformed manner. This also means that you won’t have the frustration of uncooked sweet potato cubes at the end of the cooking time, whilst other parts overly fall apart. (Please note: a little falling apart is fine as it adds to the overall creaminess).
- Start cooking your rice at the same time as the vegan curry. Rice is excellent for cooking with your curry in a hurry, however, timing really depends on which rice you are cooking. Quick cook white rice often only takes 10 to 15 minutes to cook. Brown rice usually takes longer. So be sure to check the rice cooking time and get it started so that you don’t have to wait for it later.
Secrets for making a your vegan curry in a hurry taste good
- Use tomato in the form or passata or tinned tomatoes. This gives your curry a quick and instant richness. Passata is pureed tomatoes that have been strained, and is usually called sieved or strained tomatoes in the USA.
- Use creamed coconut block instead of canned coconut milk. Creamed coconut comes in a solid block and melts upon heating. Coconut in this form imparts a rich, luxurious, coconut flavour into your dish. It acts as a thickener for your curry in a hurry. Read about creamed coconut here.
- Find a good curry powder that you like and stick with it. A good curry powder can be a game changer for a vegan curry in a hurry. It means you don’t have to measure out the individual spices and always have it to hand. All curry powders are not created equally. Some or really spice, whilst others are milder. The dance of spices varies within each of them.
Vegan Sweet Potato Curry In A Hurry Recipe
Yield: 4 portions
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
An easy curry in a hurry recipe that involves very little fuss. You only need about 5 minutes of preparation and the rest pretty much takes care of itself. Creamed coconut, kidney beans, leeks and spinach feature in this recipe.
Ingredients
- 600g (21 oz) sweet potatoes
- 1 large leek (or 350g/12 oz approx)
- 240g cooked red kidney beans (1 can)
- 100g (3½ oz) creamed coconut block
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 300ml (1¼ cups) passata (NOTE: passata is called strained or sieved tomatoes in the USA)
- 200ml (⅘ cups) water
- Large handful spinach leaves (or fresh basil leaves)
Instructions
- Chop the sweet potatoes into small cubes (1 to 2 cm or ½ an inch cubed is fine). Try to get the size consistent to allow for even cooking. If the potatoes are organic then there is no need to peel the skin (loads of goodness right under the skin) - just make sure they are clean and chop any rough bits off. If they are not organic then you might prefer to peel them.
- Chop the leek into small pieces.
- Strain the kidney beans.
- Chop the creamed coconut into small pieces to help it melt upon heating more quickly.
- Put everything in the pan (except the spinach leaves) and give it a little mix around.
- Place pan on the stove, put on the lid and then bring it to the boil.
- It helps to give it a stir once or twice as it comes to the boil to help the ingredients mix together.
- Once it comes to the boil and is fully bubbling and steaming, then reduce down to a simmer making sure that the lid is on to trap the heat.
- Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring a couple of times during the process.
- When ready, everything should be cooked and you should easily be able to pierce a fork through the sweet potatoes.
- Mix in the spinach leaves right at the end. They will reduce down quickly in the heat.
- Serve hot immediately, ideally with rice or quinoa. It also serves on its own as a curry ‘stew’ in a bowl with bread.
- It freezes fine and keeps in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
Swaps:
- You can swap the kidney beans for any other bean.
- If you don't like leek, simply leave them out and add extra sweet potato or any other veg instead.
- Swap passata for tinned tomatoes.
More vegan curry recipes…
Pin your vegan curry in a hurry for later…
Hi Anastasia, just wondered if you could suggest a good substitute for creamed coconut in this (and your other) recipes? I live in Australia, and we can’t get bulk creamed coconut only coconut butter in a jar and this can get quite expensive so I save it for making your fudge recipe! I have used a little coconut oil + some tapioca flour/water to thicken and give some more texture in your vegan shepherd’s pie, but wondered what else you might suggest? Thank you & love your work 🙂
Hi Clare,
Thank you for your comment… this is a really good question. It does cause a bit of strife knowing that creamed coconut (coconut butter) is so expensive over there, arghhh.
The best thing I have found when creamed coconut is harder to get hold of or too expensive (as in Australia, unfortunately) is to make a swap.
If you can get coconut milk from a can or coconut cream then they work too.
The difference is that you’d have to omit some of the initial water, especially if you are replacing it with coconut milk. Not using the creamed coconut means you won’t have the thickening action that it creates. It also won’t have a super coconut-flavoured infusion, but it will still work fine.
Does that make sense?
Anastasia x