Vegan Japanese Dry Curry

Quick and easy-to-make Japanese “dry” curry using lots of beans and veggies!

日本語は、こちらから。

As much as I love regular Japanese curry, sometimes I want something a bit lighter but still satisfy my curry cravings. That’s when I go for “dry” curry. It’s quick and easy to make, and I can skip the rice and go lighter by having it with some bread, making it into a wrap or simply putting it in salad.

I’m not sure how it evolved or what the equivalent of it in India is, but dry curry (ドライカレー) is a Japanese curry-flavored stir-fried ground meat dish, which depending on the recipe, could be mixed with soy beans or other types of vegetables. For today’s recipe, I’m using ground type soy meat and chickpeas and adding potatoes and eggplants to make it a bit more interesting.

To prepare the soy meat, boil 3 cups of veg broth and add 1 tsp of shio-koji. Boil 50g soy meat for 3 min. Stop the heat, cover and set aside.

Finely chop 1/2 onion, 1 clove garlic and ginger. Dice 2 small potatoes (peeled) and eggplants.

In a pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and sautée potatoes and eggplants until potatoes become transparent and all sides are brown. Take them out of the pan and set aside.

In the empty pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive again. Sautée finely chopped garlic and ginger then add finely chopped onion. Add a pinch of salt. Once the onion is cooked, add 2 tsp curry powder and stir well.

Add drained soy meat and 1/2 cooked chickpeas. Stir well. Add back the potatoes and eggplants. Stir well.

Add 2 tsp tomato paste and 2 tsp soy sauce. Stir well. Add salt to taste.

That’s it! I’ve used soy meat in several dishes like gapao rice, and I think it does really well when stir-fried with spices. But make sure to prep it right! Boiling in veg broth with some salt ensures that it loses a lot of the distinct soybean smell:)

Vegan Japanese Dry Curry

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 50g soy meat (ground type)
• To prepare soy meat:
  • 3 cups veg broth
  • 1 tsp shio-koji
• 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
• 1/2 medium-sized onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 small piece ginger
• 2 eggplants
• 2 small potatoes
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 2 tsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• Salt – as needed

Instructions:

1. To prepare the soy meat, boil veg broth and add shio-koji then boil soy meat for 3 min. Stop the heat, cover and set aside.
2. Finely chop onion, garlic and ginger. Dice potatoes (peeled) and eggplants.
3. In a pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and sautée potatoes and eggplants until potatoes become transparent and all sides are brown. Take them out of the pan and set aside.
4. In the empty pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive again. Sautée finely chopped garlic and ginger then add finely chopped onion. Add a pinch of salt. Once the onion is cooked, add curry powder and stir well.
5. Add drained soy meat and cooked chickpeas. Stir well. Add back the potatoes and eggplants. Stir well.
6. Add tomato paste and soy sauce. Stir well. Add salt to taste.