I received a lot of requests from JOC readers to make a Vegetarian Japanese Curry recipe. Sure, you can throw in chopped veggies in the mix and call it Vegetarian Curry. Instead, I spent a little more time developing one killer version that I am truly excited to share. It’s one pot of curry that makes the most use of vegetables, and perhaps steals the limelight of the regular curry!
What’s So Good About This Vegetarian Japanese Curry?
Big bold layers of flavors, even without meat! Nutritious and healthy, with lots of veggies! Fulfilling, without too heavy on the stomach. Striving to eat more plant-based food? This recipe is going to be your staple.
Bring Regular Curry to The Next Level
The most challenging part of making vegetarian curry in a big pot is that each vegetable has different cooking times. You can somewhat control by cutting the vegetables into desirable sizes and toss them in, so they are cooked into homogenous tenderness. For this recipe, however, I decided to take on a different approach. First, I categorized the ingredients based on the texture and density. For this instance, I grouped onions and root vegetables together as they have similar cooking time. Then, I applied a mix of sauteeing and steaming methods to cook them in my Dutch oven pot. Once they are almost 80% tender, I added broth and continued cooking for a short time. Next, I used a separate frying pan and sauteed the rest of the vegetables in stages. With this approach, each ingredient maintains its shape beautifully. No crumbling potato pieces or overly soft peppers. Because I cooked the vegetables and mushrooms in a separate pan, they get a nice char like how you’d sear meat and ultimately brings additional flavors to the curry.
5 Tips on Making This Curry
Ingredients Substitutes and Suggestions:
This recipe is pretty flexible when it comes to swapping ingredients.
Vegetables: cauliflower, corn, green beans, okra, zucchini, and etc. Mushrooms: Crimini mushroom, portobello mushroom, shiitake mushroom, and etc. A meat-eater in the family? You can put Tonkatsu (baked version) or Chicken Katsu (baked version) on top!
How to Make it Vegan
I make the curry roux with butter and saute the mushrooms with butter for the flavors. If you want to make this dish vegan-friendly, simply swap the butter with vegan butter or other types of oil. Enjoy the Japanese vegetarian curry over rice. It’s going to be the most exciting, satisfying meal you’d love for a very long time.
Other Japanese Curry Recipes You May Want to Try
Sapporo Soup Curry Cold Curry Udon Pressure Cooker Japanese Curry Pressure Cooker Japanese Seafood Curry Japanese Chicken Curry Japanese Beef Curry Curry Udon
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