One of my favorite curries to make in a hurry is this dazzlingly flavorful and utterly simple Mushroom Spinach Curry. It needs a handful of ingredients, is super-nutritious, and tastes great served simply with rice.
I make this with the curry powder I shared with you yesterday. A big advantage of having premade, flavorful spice mixes on hand is that you can really cut down on cooking time while keeping all of the flavor and complexity in your dishes.
I hope you will try it and if you do, be sure to know in the comments below or take a photo and tag me @HolyCowVegan on Instagram!
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What you'll love about this recipe
- It's easy. It goes from scratch to done in practically 15 minutes.
- There's very little prep work involved, besides chopping an onion and some mushrooms.
- It's tasty. Flavorful veggies swimming in a creamy, spiced coconut sauce. What's not to love?
- It's versatile. You can tweak it to your tastes by adding other things you love. Chickpeas? Check. Bell peppers or zucchini? Check.
- It's one pot.
Ingredients for Mushroom Spinach Curry
There are eight ingredients listed below (besides salt) but two of those are optional. You can leave them out if not available and the curry will still be delicious.
- Button or crimini mushrooms: Both work here, or you can use a meatier mushroom like portobello. If using a dry wild mushroom make sure you reconstitute it first in hot water.
- Baby spinach or regular spinach (fresh or frozen. If using baby spinach no need to chop, but if using the larger spinach leaves chop them coarsely)
- Coconut oil: Any oil is fine but if you have coconut oil use it here. It adds even more flavor and healthfulness.
- Black mustard seeds (optional): These are not absolutely necessary, the curry powder has mustard added to it, but if you have some toss them in here for more flavor.
- Onion: For the curry base, and for lots of flavor.
- Curry leaves (optional): Again, the curry powder has curry leaves so you can leave them out if you don't have them. Or use cilantro and add it at the same time as you would the curry leaves.
- Curry powder: Use a good homemade blend like the one I shared with you. If you have sambar powder, a south Indian spice blend, that works really well in this recipe too.
- Coconut milk: Use the canned kind, which is thick and creamy, for this curry. Stir the coconut milk in the can well before using.
- Salt to taste
How to make the Mushroom Spinach Curry
1. Make the "tadka" or tempering by heating oil and then adding the mustard seeds to it. Wait for the mustard seeds to start sputtering and crackling, then add in the onions and curry leaves, if using, with a pinch of salt and saute until the onions are soft and translucent but not browning.
2. Add the sliced mushrooms and spinach and saute for a minute until the spinach has wilted down.
3. Add the curry powder and half the coconut milk and mix well.
4. Add half a cup of water or vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
Pour in the remaining coconut milk and add salt if needed. Stir well and allow the curry to heat through but turn it off before it comes to a boil.
Expert tips
- Always wait until the oil is very hot (but not smoking) before adding tadka ingredients like mustard seeds. Otherwise they won't sputter and bloom and will leave a bitter undertone in your dish.
- Adding a pinch of salt to your onions ensures they cook faster and become more flavorful.
- Add more cayenne or red pepper flakes if you want more heat in this recipe.
- If you use dry mushrooms in this dish, save the water or stock that you reconstituted the mushrooms in and use it instead of the water in step 4. It will add lots of flavor.
What to serve with the curry?
- Plain brown or white boiled rice is great.
- You can also serve it with Carrot Rice or Jeera Rice.
- You don't need a vegetable side here but if you want you can serve a yummy potato dish like Jeera Aloo or Bombay Potatoes.
More vegan curry recipes
- Easy Vegan Coconut Curry
- Vegan Spinach "Chicken" Curry
- Easy Tofu Curry
- Mushroom Matar
- Creamy Vegan Peas Potato Curry
Mushroom Spinach Curry
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
- 1 medium onion (thinly sliced)
- 1 sprig (about 10-12 leaves) curry leaves (optional)
- 8 oz crimini mushrooms (or button mushrooms, sliced)
- 5 oz baby spinach (or regular spinach. Chop regular spinach but you can leave the baby spinach whole. Frozen spinach is fine here, thaw before using)
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- 14 oz coconut milk (canned)
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the mustard, if using, and wait for it to sputter.
- Add the onions and curry leaves, if using, and saute on medium heat until it sotens and becomes translucent.
- Add the mushrooms and spinach and saute until the spinach wilts, which should take no more than a couple of minutes.
- Add half the coconut milk and the curry powder with half a cup of water. Stir to mix and let the sauce come to a boil.
- Add salt to taste and the remaining coconut milk. Warm the curry through at this point but turn off the heat before it comes to a boil.
- Check salt and add more if needed.
This is really good! It's not easy finding Indian recipes with few ingredients that taste good. I will definitely make this again. Thanks!
Amazing how a dish that you posted three years ago is what I want to eat today. Your passion for food really shows in the way your recipes are relevant long after you post them. I hope, like several others I'm sure, that you'll keep cooking and writing for a very long time to come. 🙂
I have bought fresh mushrooms and spinach. I could not wait to cook them since they are sooo freshhhhhhh! Then I got an idea to cook mushrooms and spinach together and see how the result will be, but I have no clue how to cook them together... I wanted to cook some gravy kind... so I searched online and viola! I found your recipe... It satisfied all my criteria mushrooms, spinach, gravy... moreover I like the idea of sambhar powder in it...so I cooked immediately and the end result is awesome. Thank you so much... Btw, you have a nice blog! 🙂
Simply Awesome and Super Healthy
brilliant! keep up the good work, more spinach recipes please!!
cooked this for dinner.used curry powder and added green chillies,red chilli powder,black pepper(a little bit of each one of the spices) and a bit of coriander powder.I used fresh spinach and before adding the coconut milk I dried all the water in the pan(dont like a lot of gravy). the ingredients were well out of my comfort zone but loved the end result.lets hope hubby likes it too(not home yet).keeping my fingers crossed.
Yummy, just made this for lunch. I added some cubes of plain tofu to it and cooked it for a little bit longer so the flavours infused the tofu. Delicious!
Just now I made it.. Its sooo yummy that i could not resist posting a comment here.. Thank you for this delicious dish...
Thanks for the recipe! It was so good, I made it again for my friends the next day!
Yummy receipe vaishali!
Really all my family members liked it.My husband asked me to do again and again.Thanks
Swapna: Good suggestions, and thanks for sharing-- glad you liked the curry!
Jessy, thanks for the feedback-- so happy you liked it!
I made this last night. i used Curry Powder insted of Sambar powder which turned out to be excellet.. it was supposed to last me for 3 days, but it is all gone............
Hi Vaishali,
I just tried your mushroom spinach curry today and it was wonderful. I'm feeling pretty smug and happy that i pulled of a recipe with two unlikely ingredients.. but couldn't have done it without your recipe.
many thanks for sharing.
ps: i added ginger garlic paste and red chilly powder to your list of ingredients.. they fared well with the recipe 🙂
Great recipe!! The combination is truly fascinating. mushroom and spinach both are nutritious and good for health. So mushroom-spinach curry is likely to be tasty and healthy alike. thank you for shearing your post.
YAY i made this last night 🙂 and guess what, it turned out really nicely ..i added some coarse pepper as well 🙂 the spinach and coconut combo totally rocks.. thank you vaishali 🙂
Quick, easy and delicious - that's just the kind of dish I like.
Happy Tamil new year to you and your family.
yum, the curry looks awesome! happy new year too!
I have mushrooms and no spinach... worth a try even without the spinach... the sambar powder and coconut milk seem great 🙂