Katsu Curry with Cauliflower Nuggets

A delicious Vegan Katsu Curry alternative served with crunchy Cauliflower Nuggets.

Katsu Curry with Cauliflower Nuggets is one of our favourite recipes to prepare when we have friends coming over. Everyone loves Katsu Curry, and when we are cooking for our non-vegetarian friends, we have to make sure to cook something that is meaty enough so they won't be missing anything and not too spicy!

All our friends and family that have tried this recipe loved it and are amazed to know how easy it is to prepare. Our Katsu Curry is made with simple ingredients and it tastes delicious. The Cauliflower Nuggets are a fantastic option to serve with this Japanese Curry. These are easy to prepare and really scrumptious. Deliciously crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside.

The Katsu Curry sauce it’s really addictive and it contains simple ingredients that you most probably will already have at home. Every time we make this dish we cook double the amount of sauce to keep some for the next day or to freeze it. Believe me, you will want to do that as well once you try the sauce!

If you are cooking for the whole family, including toddlers or kids, you can follow this recipe as it's not spicy and little ones will love it too. Maybe reduce the amount of ginger and make sure the curry powder you are using is non-spicy. Our almost two years old toddler cleans the plate every time we cook Katsu Curry with Cauliflower Nuggets.

Our recipe is vegan and can be made gluten-free, so you can cook one meal for everyone!

How to prepare the Cauliflower

For this recipe, we use a whole cauliflower head. We always try to get a big, fresh and good-looking cauliflower. You will need medium-sized florets. If the florets are too small, they will cook too fast and they will mostly be batter.

Coat the cauliflower florets with a batter made out of all-purpose flour and plant-based milk. To make this step fast, simply add all the cauliflower florets into the bowl that contains the batter and combine making sure all the florets are perfectly coated. Then the cauliflower florets will need to be breaded with breadcrumbs. To bread the cauliflower, use fine breadcrumbs. In our pantry, we always have “Quelitas”, local cracker crumbs that make your coatings crunchier and tastier. You can use any type of fine breadcrumbs, or just make your own with a food processor.

Now all you need to do is place the cauliflower on a big baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes at 200C. We place a silicone baking mat on our tray before so the cauliflower doesn’t stick to the bottom and the tray doesn’t get dirty. You will need to flip the cauliflower halfway to ensure that it cooks perfectly on both sides.

Tip: If you want to use wholemeal flour, you will need to add more plant-based milk, as the flour is denser and the batter will be too thick.

If you loved these cauliflower nuggets, try our Asian Style Orange Cauliflower as it contains the same nuggets but with a sweeter and Chinese-inspired sauce.

How to prepare the Vegan Katsu Curry Sauce

Ingredients

Curry Powder. Use a good quality curry powder, as this is the main ingredient to create the perfect Katsu Curry sauce.

Onion, garlic, carrots, ginger. These are the basic ingredients together with the curry powder to make the sauce. The combination of these four staple ingredients when cooking an Asian dish, makes the perfect base for the sauce.

Turmeric Powder. We love adding some turmeric powder when cooking Katsu Curry. It adds colour and loads of good properties!

Vegetable Stock. When possible, use homemade stock. The taste you get from homemade stock is difficult to get from a cube or shop-bought pack. We always have some in our freezer as we make a batch every second week. Check our Easy Homemade Stock for a quick recipe. You can always use a stock cube if you do not have homemade stock ready, just get a good one!

Coconut Milk. To make the sauce creamier, you will need some coconut milk. Always try buying the brand that contains the most percentage of coconut.

Flour. Just a little bit of flour is needed to get the perfect consistency of the sauce. We use all-purpose flour, but you can use corn flour too.

Soy Sauce. Finish the sauce with some soy sauce or tamari (gluten-free option).

Sweetener. For a vegan option, we use maple syrup but agave, sugar or another plant-based sweetener can be used. For a vegetarian option, honey can be a great option.

Step-by-Step Method

The Katsu Sauce is really simple to cook, following these easy steps.

1. Heat some oil in a pot. We use our cast-iron pot to cook Katsu Curry. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, and ginger. Stir and cook for 5-6 minutes until the onion starts to soften. Add the curry and turmeric and cook for another minute.
2. Add the flour and then pour in the vegetable stock a bit at a time while constantly mixing. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the carrot has softened.
3. Add the coconut milk, soy sauce and maple syrup. Transfer the sauce to a blender. Blend until you have a smooth consistency.

How to make Katsu Curry with Cauliflower Nuggets Gluten Free

Cauliflower Nuggets

To prepare the Cauliflower Nuggets gluten-free, simply substitute the all-purpose flour to make the batter for gluten-free flour and the regular bread crumbs for gluten-free ones. It might be a bit difficult to find gluten-free breadcrumbs, but we normally put some gluten-free bread slices from the freezer and ground them using a food processor.

Katsu Sauce

The ingredients that contain gluten in our Katsu Sauce are all-purpose flour that can be substituted by gluten-free flour and soy sauce that can be replaced by tamari. When using a store-bought stock cube, make sure that it's labelled as gluten-free.

Serving Suggestions

Katsu Curry is normally served with steamed rice and some greens.

To serve our Katsu curry, we used basmati rice. To make the perfect basmati rice (fluffy and cooked to perfection) use 1:2 ratio rice to water after rinsing the rice with cold water.

Place the water and rice in a medium-sized saucepan. You don't need to use a large pot if you are not making rice for many people. Choose a high temperature and bring the water to boil with the saucepan uncovered. When the water starts to boil, reduce the temperature to the lowest and cover the pan with a lid that fits perfectly so the steam doesn't escape.

When most of the water is gone turn the heat off and leave the pan covered to rest for another 8-10 minutes.

Using a spatula or a fork, move the rice so any extra steam will go out and your rice will be ready to be served with your favourite curries.

To add some greens to the dish, we normally prepare a simple salad with lettuce, cucumber and carrots. You can as well serve some edamame beans, to add protein to the dish, or steamed green beans.

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4.83 from 29 votes

Katsu Curry with Cauliflower Nuggets

A delicious Vegan Katsu Curry alternative, served with curnchy Cauliflower Nuggets.

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Total Time50 mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: califlower, curry, katsu

Servings: 4

Calories: 495kcal

Ingredients

Cauliflower nuggets:

• 1 cauliflower head
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 cup plant-based milk unsweetened
• 2 cups Bread crumbs fine

Katsu Sauce:

• 1 onion diced
• 2 garlic cloves diced
• 1 carrot diced
• 2 to 3 cm ginger diced
• 2 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 400 ml homemade stock
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 100 ml coconut milk
• 2 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Cauliflower Nuggets

• Preheat the oven to 180Cº / 350Fº.
• Cut the cauliflower into florets. In a big bowl, mix the flour, pepper, salt, coriander and cumin powder. Add the plant-based milk and whisk until you have a uniform batter.
• Dip the cauliflower florets into the batter until they are fully coated. In a separate bowl, add the fine breadcrumbs and dip each cauliflower floret into the bread crumbs until perfectly coated. The results will be better if you bread the florets with the breadcrumbs one by one even if it takes a bit longer.
• Place the cauliflower on a baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes. Flip the cauliflower halfway to ensure that it cooks perfectly on both sides.

Katsu Curry Sauce

• While the cauliflower nuggets are baking, heat 1-2 tbsp of oil in a pan on medium heat and add the onion, carrot, garlic and ginger. Stir and cook for 5-6 minutes until the onion starts to soften. Add the curry and turmeric and cook for another minute.
• Add the flour and then pour in the vegetable stock a bit at a time while constantly mixing. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the carrot has softened.
• Add the coconut milk, soy sauce and honey or maple syrup and transfer the sauce to a blender. Blend until you have a smooth consistency.

Nutrition

Calories: 495kcal | Carbohydrates: 84g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Sodium: 1056mg | Potassium: 907mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 3040IU | Vitamin C: 78mg | Calcium: 271mg | Iron: 8mg

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• Easy Vegan Miso Ramen
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