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Lazy Cat Kitchen

A food blog with plant-based recipes from all over the world

Green bean dry curry and coconut tofu

August 26, 2020 by Ania - 16

coconut, gluten-free, healthy, tofugo to recipe

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green bean dry curry lunch

As someone whose job is to show up with two brand new food recipes that taste and look good every single week, I tend to get periodically obsessed with certain ingredients, which tend to fall out of grace as soon as I have moved on to something else. Fickle, I know. By that time I typically would have eaten (tested) so much of the ingredient in question that it doesn’t even feel like much of a betrayal to be honest.

My very latest obsession, super seasonal right now in the UK, is for green beans and it’s been going on for a few weeks now. I always make sure to buy UK-grown ones as, even though we are bang in the middle of the season, many supermarkets appear to be bringing them all the way from Kenya and Zimbabwe. Not cool when they grow so well here. This dish, inspired by the Sri Lankan mallung is one that we’ve been enjoying a lot lately. I added coconut encrusted tofu, but it is a bit of a faff to make so, if you are in a rush, feel free to skip that component and replace the tofu with toasted cashews, for example.

This simple dry curry makes for a delicious midweek dinner. It’s essentially a stir-fry so it comes together really quickly. The beans get stir-fried with spices first and then finish off cooking in a little bit of liquid. For an even more pronounced coconut flavour, you are welcome to use coconut milk instead of water at the end. The dish is lightly spicy, fragrant with spices and a splash of lime juice offsets the sweetness of toasted coconut beautifully. I love serving it with plenty of chopped coriander and a handful of toasted cashews instead of chunks of tofu if I’m after a quick meal. I hope you’ll enjoy this dish.

PS: If you do make my green bean dry curry and coconut tofu, don’t forget to take a photo of it and tag me on Instagram as @lazycatkitchen and use #lazycatkitchen hashtag. I love seeing your take on my recipes!

green bean dry curry ingredient

green bean dry curry tofu

green bean dry curry wok

green bean dry curry plate

4.75 from 4 votes
Print
  • serves: 3
  • prep: 30 min
  • cooking: 30 min

Ingredients

  • 200 g / 1 cup basmati rice
  • 15 ml / 1 tbsp high smoke point oil, I use rice bran
  • ½ tsp black mustard seeds
  • ½ tsp cumin seeds
  • 8 curry leaves, fresh or dried
  • 200 g / 7 oz green beans, cut into bite-size pieces
  • ½ red onion, sliced
  • 1 hot red chilli, sliced (deseeded for milder version)
  • salt
  • 2 tsp finely grated ginger
  • 50 g / ½ cup desiccated coconut (I used a mixture of flakes and desiccated)
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • lime juice
  • a large handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped

COCONUT TOFU

  • 200 g / 7 oz firm tofu, pressed
  • 2 tbsp ground flax (I used golden flax seeds) or chia seeds
  • 2 tbsp lime juice + 2 tbsp water
  • 2 tsp maple syrup or sugar
  • 1 tsp finely grated ginger
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 2 tbsp rice flour, any flour
  • approx. 75 g / ¾ cup desiccated coconut
  • oil (I use rice bran), for greasing the tray

Method

RICE

  1. Place rinsed rice in a medium pot you have a glass lid for and cover with 300 ml / 1¼ cup of water and heaped ½ tsp salt.
  2. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Once the water comes to the boil, decrease the heat down to low and let the rice cook until it has absorbed all of the water. Once all the water has been absorbed, switch the heat off (but do not lift the lid) and let the covered pot sit on a warm hob for another 5-10 minutes to finish off cooking in its own steam.

COCONUT TOFU

  1. Drain the tofu and press it well, until all the excess moisture is squeezed out so that it is primed for absorbing the marinade. This is the tofu press I use.
  2. Mix ground up flax or chia seeds with 100 ml water and place in the fridge for the mixture to jellify.
  3. Make the marinade / dressing by combining lime juice, water, maple syrup, minced ginger, salt and garam masala.
  4. Cut the pressed tofu into small cubes and place at the bottom of a baking dish. Pour the marinade you’ve prepared in the previous step over the tofu and allow it to soak in.
  5. Place flour and desiccated coconut on two plates and jellified flax in a shallow bowl.
  6. Set the oven to 200° C / 390° F.
  7. Lift a piece of tofu out of the marinade, press it into the flour to coat it lightly, then dip it into the flax egg (allow any excess to drip off) and finally press it into the coconut making sure the entire surface is covered with it. Place on a clean plate and proceed to coat the rest of the tofu in the same manner.
  8. Brush a bit of oil underneath each tofu piece. Bake for about 25 minutes, flipping the pieces to the other side halfway through.

BEANS

  1. Heat up a large wok until lightly smoking.
  2. Add 2 tsp of oil and then mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Allow them to cook, stirring frequently, on a low-medium heat until mustard seeds start crackling.
  3. Next, add in another 1 tsp of oil, followed by green beans, onion, sliced chilli and a few pinches of salt. Stir-fry for a minute, then add ginger and the coconut. Stir-fry for another 30 seconds to allow the coconut to toast.
  4. Next stir in garam masala.
  5. Add in approximately ½ cup (120 ml) of water. Keep on stir-frying, allow the water to cook out.
  6. Finish off with a good squeeze of lime and extra salt (if needed).

Notes

If you want more info on some of the ingredients that we use in our recipes, check out our glossary.
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This recipe has been written by Ania. She is the cook, stylist and photographer behind Lazy Cat Kitchen. You can read about her journey into food blogging here. You can also check her out on Pinterest and Instagram.

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    Comments

    Leave a comment

  1. Lauren says

    August 26, 2020 at 6:27 pm

    Hi Ania

    I am just about to move to bristol, can you recommend shops to check out to source fresh curry leaves?

    Reply
    • Ania says

      August 26, 2020 at 8:38 pm

      Hi Lauren,

      The surest place is The Sweet Mart in Easton, I often also see it in the 168 Oriental in Broadmead. Hope this helps and enjoy Bristol! It’s a nice city! Ania

      Reply
  2. Paolo Thomas says

    August 26, 2020 at 11:34 pm

    Really looking forward to trying this. Coconut and tofu is new to me and the using flax is really interesting. Thank you, Ania!

    Reply
    • Ania says

      August 27, 2020 at 12:40 pm

      My pleasure, I hope you’ll enjoy this combination. Ania

      Reply
  3. Katherine Schmidt says

    August 27, 2020 at 5:09 pm

    Any substitution for curry leaves? I live in rural Colorado, USA and have lots of green beans from my garden.

    Reply
    • Ania says

      August 27, 2020 at 5:13 pm

      Hi Katherine,

      You can usually buy them dried in most supermarket’s spice sections, but you could also just skip. There is no sub for this ingredient, I’m afraid. Ania

      Reply
  4. Mahima Rana says

    August 28, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    I experiment a lot with tofu and coconut crusted tofu is something I need to try! The whole recipe is giving me Thai vibes!

    Reply
    • Ania says

      August 28, 2020 at 12:30 pm

      The inspiration behind this dish is a Sri Lankan dry curry called mallung so not quite Thai, but I see where you are coming from 🙂 Ania

      Reply
  5. Jamie Walls says

    September 7, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    Really good, added a little courgette as was a bit short on the beans. My wife is not the biggest fan of tofu, but said this way of cooking was the best she had eaten.

    Reply
    • Ania says

      September 8, 2020 at 1:35 am

      Great to hear that both you and your wife enjoyed it, Jamie! Ania

      Reply
  6. Lauren says

    October 3, 2020 at 12:09 pm

    Thank you Ania 🙂 I will check out the sweet mart

    Reply
    • Ania says

      October 3, 2020 at 2:05 pm

      Pleasure!

      Reply
  7. Yvette McPhail says

    October 11, 2020 at 8:50 am

    Yum, yum and yum again. I cheated a bit and bought a Sri Lankan dry curry mix (lazy, I know) but all else was to the recipe. I did add the coconut cream at the end to make it less of a dry curry. It really is so fresh and quite summery. Thanks again Ania

    Reply
    • Ania says

      October 14, 2020 at 12:06 am

      My pleasure, Yvette! No shame in that kind of cheating at all! I’m glad you enjoyed it! Ania

      Reply
  8. Anna S. says

    November 18, 2020 at 10:35 am

    Yummy! You really have a way of taking pictures that makes the viewer want to fall into their laptop screen and lap the food up. The last shot was the hero shot. I can literally see the crunchiness of the coconut tofu and and green beans. Looking forward to recreating this recipe!

    Reply
    • Ania says

      November 18, 2020 at 1:44 pm

      Aw, thank you so much for your kind words, Anna! Much appreciated. Ania

      Reply

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Ania Marcinowska
Hi, I'm Ania. I love good food but I love animals more! Adopting a plant-based diet has been the best decision I've made and that's how this blog was born. It's a space where I want to show you that creating delicious plant-based food isn't actually hard at all.
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