Sri Lankan garlic curry recipe

Rice and curry is a staple meal in Sri Lanka comprising many different plates of curry, served with rice.

We learnt this delicious recipe for garlic curry…we’ve never seen so many garlic cloves before in one small space! There must have been at least around 50 garlic cloves used for this recipe:

Trying to count how many garlic cloves are in this bowl and quickly losing count!

Ingredients for garlic curry:

• 250g of garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 onion sliced
• 1 green chilli
• a handful of curry leaves
• 1 teaspoon of red chilli powder
• 2 teaspoons of curry powder
• half a teaspoon of fenugreek
• half a teaspoon of turmeric powder
• half a teaspoon of mustard powder
• 125ml of coconut milk
• teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (if none, use vegetable oil)

How to make garlic curry:

1. Peel the garlic cloves and set aside in a bowl.
2. Heat a pan with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and add the chopped onions.
3. Cook the onions on a high heat, uncovered for around 5 minutes until they are golden brown (keep stirring every so often to avoid them sticking to the pan).
4. Add the curry leaves, chopped green chillies, 1 teaspoon of red chilli powder, 2 teaspoons of curry powder, half a teaspoon of mustard powder, half a teaspoon of turmeric powder and stir well.
5. Add the garlic, teaspoon of salt and mix in 125ml of coconut milk.
6. Cook on high heat, uncovered, for around 10-15 minutes, until the garlic is tender,stirring occasionally, adding more water if desired.

Serve with rice and a plate of other curry delights.

Learning to make Sri Lankan garlic curry

Watch our travel video diary of our adventures through Sri Lanka as we ate our way through this tropical island, took some beautiful train journeys and enjoyed excellent safaris spotting leopards at Udawalawe and blue whales at Mirissa.