Are you doing Veganuary this year? You’ll be joining 500,000 people who have pledged to go meat-free this January. If you are looking for ideas for vegan recipes, I’ve compiled a selection of my vegan Sri Lankan recipes. Sri Lankan recipes – that just happen to be vegan.
If you are looking for more vegan recipes then see why Sri Lankan cuisine is a brilliant option if you’re exploring a vegan diet.
Sri Lankan recipes for Veganuary
Plain and simple. Sri Lankan food is delicious
OK. Sri Lankan food is delicious. I think it’s the way of cooking – stir-fried vegetables with spices that retain their freshness and crunchiness. Curries cooked in coconut milk that soak up all the flavours of the spices. The use of tamarind, lime, and vinegar that gives Sri Lankan food it’s natural lip-smacking piquancy.
We love to use coconut – great alternative to dairy
Fresh coconut, desiccated coconut, coconut cream, coconut milk. coconut oil – this all features in Sri Lankan food from curries to desserts – this makes a lot of Sri Lankan food a great vegan option.
Check out Kiri Hodi the most flavoursome coconut gravy which you can serve alongside vegetables and sambols – its lick your plate delicious.
Kiribath is a coconut-based dish you are going to want to try. Kiribath is rice cooked with coconut milk to form a kind of rice cake and can be eaten savoury or sweet.
Jackfruit. Sri Lankans have been cooking with jackfruit for years!
Jackfruit curry, we’ve been cooking this for years. Jackfruit is incredibly versatile to cook with.
The green young tender jackfruit is great for curries, the jackfruit seed – you can cook with that too. The ripened jackfruit yellow flesh is the best part, I just love to eat it, so sweet and scrumptious. It tastes like mango, melon and banana all rolled into one, with bite. Just try it – I’m sure you will love it.
Super Sri Lankan Sambols
Eaten alongside the main dish a sambol is a condiment. Sambols can be firey packed with chilli, or just simple and mild – you make them to your taste. There are a huge variety of sambols, here are just a few: pol sambol made with coconut, red onion / shallots, chilli and limes. Seeni sambol is a classically Sri Lankan. You make seeni sambol with onions, spices, a touch of sugar, tamarind and lots of chilli. You can make gotu kola sambol with pennywort, kale or parsley and coconut, green chilli, tomato, shallots / red onion and some lime. What all sambols have in common is they are packed with flavour.
Discover the magic of mallung
I love making mallung. Mallungs are quick and easy – a great way to cook vegetables. To make a mallung, stir fry vegetables with spices, a bit of chilli, coconut, and a squeeze of lime. I make mallung with cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussel sprouts, beans.
Just watch out for the fish
Some of these recipes may have a very typical Sri Lankan ingredient, Maldive fish. Maldive fish is tuna which is dried and cured to give an additional umami flavour. To make your recipes fully vegan simply omit the Maldive fish.
9 authentic Sri Lankan recipes to help you smash Veganuary
1. Super tasty, super healthy aubergine curry
This is a super tasty super healthy Sri Lankan aubergine curry. The trick is to roast the aubergine. Then cook the aubergine with onion, garlic ginger, spices and fresh tomatoes. This helps minimise the oil content and reduces calories.
Learn to make an aubergine curry
2. Spice up your beets with this super Sri Lankan beetroot curry
I use fresh beetroot which I roast for this Sri Lankan beetroot curry. I gently fry the beetroot in spices and coconut and finish off with a generous squeeze of lime.
3. Let the courgettes take centre stage
Ditch the
4. Green beans made fabulous with a spicy coconut sauce
This Sri Lankan green bean curry is quick and easy to make. It’s the spicy coconut sauce that
5. Superfood kale gets a Sri Lankan makeover
Are you bored of kale in your soups, smoothies and sauces? You have to try this Sri Lankan recipe for kale
6. Roasted Brussel sprouts jazzed up with Sri Lankan spices
Christmas may be over but that doesn’t mean you have to stop eating Brussel sprouts. Try this recipe for crisp roasted Brussel sprouts with just a dash of Sri Lankan spices, a perfect Sri Lankan vegan recipe.
7. A simple dhal, a hug in a bowl
One of my absolute favourite comfort foods. This is a family recipe for dhal and one that I make often for my brood. What can be better than a soothing bowl of dhal?
8. Creamy and sublime Sri Lankan cashew nut curry
A Sri Lankan cashew nut curry is packed full of flavour and goodness. With added potatoes and green beans to make this a full wholesome vegan meal.
9. Glorious Sri Lankan pumpkin curry
So what if Halloween is over, doesn’t mean you can’t make this fabulous, easy to make, Sri Lankan pumpkin curry. The real effort is to cut, peel and chop the pumpkin. And pumpkins make a great vegetarian or vegan curry.
On these dark dark, miserable, cold January days, this pumpkin curry is a wonderfully warming meal. It’s the perfect supper when all you want to do is curl up and stay cosy indoors.
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