Sri Lankan Green Bean Curry

This Sri Lankan vegan curry is absolutely dreamy – packed to the brim with spice and cooled down with coconut milk and cinnamon; it’s so good! Although there are lots of ingredients, it is relatively straight-forward to make.

I’ve used panch phoran (which literally means five spices) – you can get this is most big supermarkets, but essentially it is a mix of fenugreek seed, nigella seed, cumin seed, black mustard seed and fennel seed in equal parts – used as a base to many Indian recipes. You always use this spice blend whole, and it’s the first thing you fry in hot oil – all the other ingredients come after. It adds a whole new level of flavour to your curries and I thoroughly recommend!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Rapeseed oil
5 curry leaves
1 tsp panch phoran (‘five spices’)
1 small onion, finely chopped
Large piece of ginger, peeled and grated
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 green chilli, deseeded & finely chopped
¼ tsp turmeric
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp cumin
300g fine green beans, cut into small pieces
1 large white potato, chunked
400g can coconut milk
4 black cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala

Method:

Heat a glug of rapeseed oil in pan. Add the curry leaves and panch puran and fry on a medium heat for approximately 30 seconds.
Add the chopped onions and fry on a medium heat for about 4-5 mins, and then add the ginger, garlic and chilli and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Then add in your spices – turmeric, paprika and cumin and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Add in your potatoes and green beans, give this all a good stir.
Pour in the coconut milk, and add in the cloves, cinnamon stick and salt. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.
Serve in a large bowl and finish with the garam masala.