Sweet Potato Lime Coconut Curry (easy recipe)

This sweet potato lime coconut curry will become your go-to easy weeknight dinner. It comes together quickly and tastes delicious.

In just 30 minutes, you’ll have a nutritious and yummy dinner that everyone will love.

You’ll love the warm, golden color of the curry sauce as well as the fact that it’s loaded with perfectly cooked, nutritious cubes of sweet potato.

With just a handful of ingredients, you can feed those you love super duper well.

Pour it over a bed of freshly cooked rice, add a sprinkle of a fresh herb like cilantro or parsley, and be prepared to fall in love with this simple coconut curry.

Sweet potato lime coconut curry

This meal features cubed pieces of sweet potato that are simmered in a generously flavored coconut milk based curry sauce. The sauce is a beautiful yellow color thanks to the use of yellow curry powder, ginger, and turmeric.

All the flavor doesn’t just come from the spices however. You also get a boost of flavor from the  onion and garlic that you sauté at the start of the recipe.

This curry recipe was not developed to be a spicy dish. The spiciness level is really determined by the type of curry powder you use.

Ingredients

You only need 10 ingredients (plus salt) to make this sweet potato coconut lime curry. Here’s a rundown of each ingredient:

• Sweet potato – Sweet potato are super nutritious and are low cost to boot. There are several types of sweet potato, and some are better for this recipe than others. Garnet, Japanese, or Jewel types work best.
• Coconut milk – You can use full-fat or lite, whichever you prefer. Just know that full-fat will make for a richer, creamier curry sauce.
• Olive oil – Used to sauté the aromatics at the beginning of the recipe.
• Onion – Yellow or white onion are the best to use for this recipe.
• Garlic – You’ll need 3 cloves. Use less if you prefer. 
• Curry powder – There are so many types of curry powder. You’ll need a mild yellow curry powder.
• Ground ginger – While you can certainly grate some fresh ginger and use that instead, ground ginger simplifies the prep work.
• Turmeric – Not only does it enhance the beautiful golden yellow color of the curry, but turmeric also is a great healthy ingredient to add to meals on the regular.
• Salt – Makes all the other flavors shine.
• Chicken broth – To help thin out the sauce a little bit as it can get thick as it cools.
• Lime juice and zest – Really brightens up the dish. 

How to make coconut lime curry

This dinner is really easy to make. Here are the steps:

Heat a pot over medium low heat. Once hot, add olive oil to the pot. When the oil starts to shimmer, tip in the diced onion. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Toss in the garlic with the onion. Sauté for 30 seconds, stirring continuously. Add the curry powder, ginger, turmeric and salt. Stir to coat the onion and garlic in the spices.

Pour in the chicken broth and cans of coconut milk. Stir to incorporate the spices throughout. Turn the heat up to medium and bring to a soft boil.

Add in the cubed sweet potato. Return to a boil. Then lower the heat so the sauce is simmering. Let simmer for 10 – 15 minutes.

Once the sweet potatoes are cooked through, turn off the heat.

Zest and juice a lime. Add the zest and juice into the curry, and stir to incorporate.

Serve on rice. Enjoy!

Tips for the best vegetarian coconut lime curry

Here are some tips to help you make the best homemade curry:

• When cutting the sweet potatoes, make sure you cut them into fairly even, 1” pieces. Similarly sized pieces will more likely cook at the same rate, ensuring that when you check the doneness of one potato cube, the rest will all be at a similar doneness as the one you checked.
• If you would like a spicy curry, feel free to either add some cayenne pepper in with the spices or use a spicy curry powder.
• You don’t only have to add sweet potato to this dish. You can also add a can of drained garbanzo beans and/or a handful of roughly chopped spinach. Just toss them in at the same time as when you add the lime zest and juice. Stir to help the spinach wilt.
• Keep an eye on the onions when they’re sautéing. If they start to brown and get some color on them, turn down the heat. You don’t really want to caramelize the onions in this step, just cook them down a bit.
• Another tip for when you’re sautéing the onions: Add in a dash or two of salt. This will help them release their juices and cook better.
• Make sure you’re using sweet potato and not yams. Sweet potato have smooth skin, while yams have skin akin to tree bark.

How to store sweet potato lime coconut curry

Let the curry cool completely before storing. Once cool, ladle it into an airtight, preferably glass, container. The container should be glass because curry can easily stain plastic containers, much like tomato sauce does. Store it in the refrigerator for 3 – 4 days.

When you’re ready to eat it, simply place it in the microwave and reheat for 30 seconds to a minute, or longer, depending on the power of your microwave.

Serving ideas

This is a nice and saucy curry. Ladle it over a bed of fresh rice, then top it with a fresh sprinkling of herbs (cilantro or parsley pair nicely with it), then add an extra squeeze of lime juice. I’m a lime lover, so to me the more lime juice the better.

Another great addition to this meal would be a nice flat bread that you could use to dip into the curry. Naan, roti, or even pita bread would work great for this.