Vegan Katsu Curry

It's easy to make a vegan katsu curry! This recipe is simple and delicious, utilises a green apple to make sure the sauce is the perfect balance between spicy, sweet and sour, and includes a good helping of carrots to give the sauce its deep orange colour.

Education time - did you know that katsu actually means breading something? So a 'katsu curry' actually mean something that is breaded, along with a Japanese curry sauce.

While this isn't one of our quickest recipes, it's well worth it - a solid choice for a weekend treat. We love the aubergine and tofu combo, but mix it up if you feel like it! Our vegan katsu curry goes really great with other veg too...we sometimes add sweet potato and it's a winner.

We make a rad Chinese curry too – hope you like it!

Vegan Katsu Curry

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• Author: Dan Saunders
• Prep Time: 30
• Cook Time: 45
• Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Yield: 2 1x

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Ingredients

For the curry sauce:

• 1 large onion - roughly chopped
• 5 cloves garlic - chopped
• 2 inch piece of ginger - peeled and chopped
• 2 large carrots - peeled and chopped
• ½ green apple - core removed and chopped
• 1 tbsp white miso
• 1.5 cups hot water
• 4 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 2 tsp rice vinegar
• 4 tsp tamari
• 2 tsp maple syrup

For the katsu:

• 200g extra-firm tofu (½ a pack) - pressed for at least an hour, but preferably overnight
• ½ an aubergine (80-100g) - cut into 4 thick slices
  
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• ½ cup non-dairy milk (unsweetened)
• 60g panko breadcrumbs
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• A small bowl of plain flour to dip the aubergine/tofu in

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Instructions

1. Melt 1 teaspoon coconut oil (alternatively you could dry fry) in a large saucepan and then add the onion, ginger and garlic over a medium heat.
2. Cook until the onion is translucent and then pile in the spices, cook for a few minutes until the spices really start to smell good.
3. Add in the carrot and apple, then stir well.
4. Dilute the miso in the hot water then add to the pan.
5. Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes.
6. While the sauce simmers get to work on the katsu.
7. Whisk the flaxseed, flour and non-dairy milk together until it forms a thick batter.
8. Put the batter into a bowl, in another bowl mix together the sesame seeds and panko, make sure the bowl of flour is also ready.
9. Now that you have all three parts of the coating ready, get the aubergine and tofu ready to dip.
10. First cover the aubergine in flour, then dip in the batter (coat well) and then into the breadcrumbs. Repeat until all tofu and aubergine are covered then set aside.
11. Once the sauce has simmered for 20 minutes, blitz it up until smooth in a blender.
12. Add the rice vinegar, tamari and maple syrup. Take the taste test and adjust if you need to.
13. Heat the oil up in a frying pan until it's super hot (you can test it with a small bit of batter, it's ready when the batter sizzles upon touching the oil).
14. Prepare a plate with a few layers of kitchen roll, then fry each piece of tofu and aubergine for a couple of minutes on each side, until golden brown.
15. Once ready transfer each piece onto the kitchen roll so excess oil can drain off.
16. Make sure the sauce is still hot by reheating in the original pan.
17. Serve with brown rice and enjoy!

• Category: Dinner
• Method: Stove-top
• Cuisine: Japanese

Keywords: Vegan Katsu Curry