This authentic Kerala vegetable stew, or “Ishtu,” is a fragrant, coconut milk-based, typical South Indian dish. It’s a delicately spiced and simple Kerala recipe spiced with green chilis, ginger, black pepper, and curry leaves, which allow the natural flavors to shine.
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➡ If you’re new to Kerala cooking, start with my Kerala Cooking Basics guide for ingredient tips, shopping advice, and more authentic recipes.
This Kerala style vegetable stew recipe (ishtu or ishtoo) is a great recipe that happens to be vegan. It’s a special part of my childhood memories. I remember my mom making stew with appam (lacy rice pancakes) on lazy Sunday mornings.
Although I loved appam and stew, I always hoped she would make idiyappam (steamed rice noodles with coconut) because they were my favorite. Both these rice-based side dishes are perfect for soaking up this stew! It also tasted great with Malabar parotta.
This Kerala style veg stew recipe is unlike any Indian curry in a restaurant. It’s a great recipe with a perfect balance of subtle flavors that doesn’t overwhelm the palate with excessive spice.
The curry is velvety rich from creamy coconut milk and a medley of vegetables. This white stew is typically made with any combination of carrots, potatoes, green beans, cauliflower, and peas, simmered until tender.
Curry leaves are essential to the flavor of this recipe. If you’re making it, you need to get curry leaves.
This recipe is perfect for a banana leaf feast such as Onam Sadhya (see image below).
➡ If you’re looking for recipes from Kerala cuisine, try my fish curry, egg curry, chicken curry, chicken korma, potato stew (ishtu), or parippu curry.
And for more Onam Sadhya recipes try Kerala parippu, mango pachadi, cucumber pachadi (kichadi), potato stew (ishtu), kootu curry, carrot beans thoran, inji curry, sambar, and semiya payasam.
Ingredients and Tips
🧂 Ingredients for Kerala Veg Stew
💡 Ingredient and Recipe Tips
🥥 Coconut Oil: Coconut oil adds authentic taste to this recipe. But you can use vegetable oil instead.
🥣 Spices: Some communities include the whole spices cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and black pepper, and others don’t. My mom does not include them, but I am showing you how to make the stew with the whole spices so you can decide for yourself. This curry is traditionally white, but if you prefer a yellow color, add a pinch of turmeric to the onion mixture and saute for a few seconds.
🌿 Curry Leaves: Curry leaves are important to the taste of this dish and can be found at Indian grocery stores. If you can’t find them, omit them. There is no substitute.
🫚 Ginger: I like to use thinly sliced ginger or julienned ginger for this recipe. You can use minced ginger too.
🌶️ Green chili: This veg stew isn’t very spicy, and all the spice comes from the green chilis. I like to use 2 to 3 serrano or Thai chilis (slit lengthwise), but you can use more or less.
🧅 Onion: For many Indian recipes, you sauté the onions until deep golden brown. For this recipe, the onions just need to become soft. Red onions add more flavor than yellow onions.
🥕 Vegetables: Use your choice of vegetables that have similar cooking times. Cauliflower and beans are good options. I use 2 ½ to 3 cups of veggies.
🥛 Coconut milk: Use a high-quality canned coconut milk or coconut cream brand. I like Chaokoh and Aroy D. If you’re using fresh coconut milk, use 2 cups of second-press coconut milk (thin coconut milk or randaam palu) to cook the veggies, and add ¾ cup of first-press coconut milk (thick coconut milk or onnaam palu) to finish.
How to Make Kerala Stew
♨️ Stovetop Instructions
- Heat a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add coconut oil and, once hot, add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and black pepper. Saute briefly.
- Add ginger and stir for 30 seconds. Add onion, green chilis, and 15 curry leaves and saute until the onions are soft (don’t brown them, as that will affect the color of the curry). Add vegetables and stir until coated.
- Add salt, ½ cup coconut milk thinned with an equal quantity of water, and one more cup of water. Stir well, cover, and cook on medium-low heat until potatoes are soft.
- Slightly mash a few of the potatoes to thicken the curry. Stir in peas. Add thick coconut milk. Add more salt as needed. Bring to almost a boil and turn off the heat to prevent the coconut milk from curdling. Drizzle a teaspoon of coconut oil and the remaining fresh curry leaves.
⏲️ Instant Pot Instructions
- In Saute mode, heat coconut oil and, once hot, add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and black pepper. Saute briefly.
- Add ginger and stir for 30 seconds. Add onion, green chilis, and 15 curry leaves and saute until the onions are soft (don’t brown them, as that will affect the color of the curry). Add vegetables and stir briefly.
- Add salt, ½ cup coconut milk thinned with an equal quantity of water, and one more cup of water. Stir well, cover and pressure cook on high pressure for 1 minute. Do a quick release of pressure and open the lid.
- Slightly mash a few of the potatoes to thicken the curry. Stir in peas. Add remaining coconut milk. Add more salt as needed. Bring to almost a boil and turn off the heat to prevent the coconut milk from curdling. Drizzle a teaspoon of coconut oil and the remaining fresh curry leaves.
See the recipe card below for detailed instructions.
Kerala Vegetable Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 piece cinnamon stick 3 inches [ See Note 1]
- 3 whole cloves
- 3 cardamom pods
- ¼ teaspoon whole black pepper
- 1 tablespoon ginger julienned or thinly sliced (about 1 inch piece)
- 1½ cups onion sliced thinly (about 1 medium)
- 2 to 3 green chilli or to taste [See Note 2]
- 20 curry leaves divided
- 1 cup potatoes cut into ½-inch cubes
- 1 cup carrots cut into 2 inch strips
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¾ cup coconut milk divided
- 1½ cups water [See Note 3]
- 1 cup frozen peas thawed
- 2 teaspoon coconut oil to finish (optional)
Instructions
Stovetop Instructions
- Heat a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoon coconut oil and once hot, add 1 piece cinnamon stick, 3 whole cloves, 3 cardamom pods and ¼ teaspoon whole black pepper [if using, see Note 1]. Stir briefly until fragrant. Add 1 tablespoon ginger and saute for 15 seconds. Add 1½ cups onion, 2 to 3 green chilli, and 15 curry leaves, and saute until the onions are soft. They should not brown because that will affect the color of the stew.
- Add 1 cup potatoes, 1 cup carrots, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ cup coconut milk thinned with 1½ cups water. Stir everything and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook until the potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes. [See Note 4]
- Using the back of a spoon, mash some of the potatoes to thicken the stew. Add 1 cup frozen peas and bring to a boil. Add remaining coconut milk and heat through, but do not let it boil.
- Remove from heat and adjust salt as needed. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoon coconut oil (if using) and remaining curry leaves.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Select Saute mode and add coconut oil to inner pot of the Instant Pot.
- Once the oil is hot, add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and black pepper. Stir briefly and saute ginger for 15 seconds. Add onion, chili, curry leaves and saute until onion is translucent, about 2 minutes. Stir in potatoes and carrots and saute for 2 minutes. Add salt, ½ cup coconut milk and 1½ cups of water.
- Close the lid and pressure cook on High Pressure for 2 minutes. Do a Quick Release and open the Instant Pot. [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
- Mash a few potato pieces to thicken the stew. Add peas and heat through in Saute mode. Add remaining coconut milk and let it come to a simmer and immediately remove the inner pot from the base, so it stops cooking. Stir in the remaining curry leaves and 2 teaspoon coconut oil, if using.
- Serve with rice, appam, or idiyappam.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. diced potatoes, sliced onion, etc.
- Note 1: The whole spices (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, black pepper) are optional. Some communities use them and others don’t. Try it both ways and see which you prefer.
- Note 2: This curry’s spice comes almost entirely from green chilis. Add as many as you need to get to your desired spice level. For myself, three Thai chilis are perfect.
- Note 3: For the Instant Pot version, reduce the quantity of water to 1 cup, since there’s less evaporation.
- Note 4: Use any combination of vegetables including potatoes, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, and peas (about 3 cups total).
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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