Restaurant style vegetable jalfrezi is super easy to make. Packed with veggies cooked in a tangy, mildly spicy tomato curry will make the pickiest of eaters fall in love! Serve this with rice, naan or roti, and you've got yourself a winning meal!
Vegetable Jalfrezi is probably one of the most popular restaurant dishes of all times! Its a mildly spiced gravy with a lot of fresh veggies, and some paneer thrown in (because we love paneer) and stir fried together to make something super tasty. What I love about this vegetable jalfrezi is how forgiving it is! Once you follow the base of the curry, you can pretty much whatever veggies you have at hand and the dish will turn at amazing. That's how food should be right? Flexible but still tasty!
Quick Walk Through: Vegetable Jalfrezi
Reasons why you'll love this recipe
- A perfect fridge and freezer clean-out recipe that tastes amazing no matter what veggies you add.
- Works just as well with frozen vegetables as it does with fresh.
- Thanks to all the vegetables, this curry is high in fibre, vitamins, essential nutrients and minerals.
- 100% vegetarian and gluten-free recipe that can be easily made vegan by replacing paneer with tofu or skipping it entirely.
- A super kid-friendly recipe and a great way to include more veggies into your family's diet.
Richa's top tips to make the best vegetable jalfrezi
- That list of ingredients in the recipe might look long, but look closely and you'll realise ten of those ingredients are just fresh veggies. So you can easily switch those ten ingredients to a bag of frozen veggies if thats what you have on hand, or use only five out of those ten veggies if thats what you have in the fridge.
- This version of jalfrezi is like a dry curry, but if you want more gravy, add half a cup of water or vegetable stock. Then you can mop this up with rotis, naan or even slices of bread.
- If you're using cauliflower, try to cut it into small, even-sized florets to help them cook faster and more evenly. Also when stir-frying cauliflower, make sure to add it before carrots and other veggies as it takes a lot longer to cook. You can even par-boil or sauté the cauliflower separately and set aside before adding it to the pan with other veggies.
FAQs
For vegetable jalfrezi, the veggies are first stir fried on high heat and then cooked in an onion tomato gravy. That's why the veggies in jalfrezi are slightly charred and have a mildly smokey flavor. Where as mixed veg is a blanket term used for many different types of vegetable curries. This includes different ways of cooking, unique ingredient bases, spice and heat levels, etc.
Jalfrezi sauce is a simple base made with onion, garlic, ginger, tomato puree (paste/passata) and ketchup. Yea, there's ketchup in here - in a really small quantity. Its what makes this tangy, sweet, spicy, savoury, and so amazing!
Let's say, if you are in the mood for Indian, and want to use the veggies in your fridge or freezer, this one takes care of it all! I usually serve this with steamed rice or my homemade naan. But this versatile curry tastes equally great with jeera rice, roti, kulcha or even paratha.
Watch Vegetable Jalfrezi Recipe Video
Vegetable Jalfrezi
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons Oil
- ½ teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 1 Green Chilli slit lengthwise
- 1 teaspoon Ginger-Garlic paste
- 2 Onions sliced (medium)
- 1 tablespoon Tomato Ketchup
- 3 tablespoons Tomato Puree or 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon Red Chilli powder
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric or Haldi powder
- ½ Green Bell pepper sliced
- ½ Red Bell pepper sliced
- ½ Yellow Bell pepper sliced
- 1 Roma Tomato sliced
- ½ cup Baby corn sliced diagonally
- ½ cup Carrots cut into thick julienne
- ½ cup French Beans sliced diagonally into 2" pieces
- ½ cup Cauliflower Florets
- ¼ cup Sweet Corn kernels
- ½ cup Paneer cut into 3"x 1" thick long pieces
- 2 teaspoons Salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon Garam masala
- ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg ground
- ⅛ teaspoon Green Cardamom ground
- 2 tablespoons Kasuri Methi dry roasted and crushed
- 4 tablespoon Fresh Coriander chopped
Instructions
- Start by blanching the baby corn, carrots, beans, cauliflower and corn kernels and keep aside.
- Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Add cumin seeds, once they splutter add the slit green chilli. Let the chilli fry for 15 seconds, then add the ginger- garlic paste. Cook for half a minute.
- Next add the sliced onions and saute till translucent.
- All tomato ketchup and tomato puree to the pan followed by turmeric and red chilli powders. Saute for a minute, stirring all the time.
- Add the sliced bell peppers and sliced tomato to the frying pan and saute together for 2 minutes.
- Add the blanched and drained vegetables, salt, garam masala, nutmeg powder, cardamom powder and kasuri methi.
- Add a tablespoon of water, mix and cook covered on a slow flame for a couple of minutes.
- Add the paneer and saute for a minute.
- Serve hot garnished with more fresh coriander.
Video
Notes
- Jalfrezi is a semi-dry side dish recipe which is a blend of many vegetables, paneer or meat or fish or poultry and spices.
- This dish came into existence during the British Raj in India and is believed to have been invented as a means to use left overs.
- This dish can be made with any combination of vegetables of your choice.
- If you'd like more gravy, add half a cup of water or vegetable stock along with the veggies.
- To make vegan jalfrezi, substitute paneer with tofu.
Giselle says
Thank you Richa for another great recipe, yet again. It was so good and an excellent way of incorporating veggies into a meal 🙂
Pri says
Wonderful recipe so easy and delicious! Best way to get the veggies in. I used butter instead of oil and it was bomb! 😜
Richa says
Fantastic Pri!
Neerja says
Please tell us the right way of blanching veggies
Richa says
Boil water on high heat and add salt and the veggies. Cook for 2 minutes, strain and use.
Neelam Srinivasan says
Turned out delectable! And this recipe goes into my collection of great recipes😀
Richa says
Thanks so much Neelam! So glad you enjoyed this recipe
Anand Dwipesh says
I enjoyed your portfolio and your Food Recipes collection.Nice😋👍
Janet says
Tried this recipe and it was delicious! The step by step process explained is easy to understand especially for someone who doesn't like long methods for cooking.
Richa says
Thanks Janet, glad this was easy and approachable.
Ghulam Mohyudin says
It was perfect the first time. I learn so much from you as well! Keep it up great post.
Claudia says
This turned out amazing. Light and fresh while still feeling nourished. I admit that I doubled the spices (except salt) and the ketchup and tomato paste, because it didn't seem to be enough for the amount of vegetables I used. I will be making this again and again.
Richa says
So so glad you liked it Claudia!