Copycat Ikea Vegetable Balls in Coconut Curry Recipe

Whenever my wife and I go to Ikea, we eat at the restaurant for the interesting, often healthy ideas they have on the menu.  This last time was the first time we noticed the vegetable balls in coconut curry.  While this is not a traditional Thai recipe, coconut curry has a long history in Thailand so I grabbed a bag of the vegetable balls to make at home.  They come in a bag like this image I found on the website.

Mod and I both tasted the dish and Mod thought it tasted more like an Indian style curry but it was good and there was none left on the plate.  It was super reasonably priced too at the restaurant and at in the bag.  I can't remember exactly but something like $4 at the restaurant with no guilt because it's made with all vegetables.  The bag of vegetable balls is more expensive at $7.99 but it lasted us 2 days and made several small meals.

The Coconut Curry Sauce

Coconut Curry Sauce Using Thai Red Curry

For the coconut curry sauce, we used a Thai red curry paste, you could use any Thai curry paste though.  Most Thai curries use coconut milk, so that is probably just a naming strategy on Ikea's part.  They are brilliant as far as knowing what customers will buy.  To go with the flow though I used two coconut oil to start the sauce off and give it more coconut appeal.  I used two cans of lite coconut milk, coconut milk is naturally high in saturated fat.  Use regular coconut milk if you're not worried about that, we do worry about it.

Adjusting the Spiciness

People often say something about how spicy Thai foods are.  This is usually because they don't know that you can have it adjusted.  My wife, Mod, worked at several Thai restaurants and there was no instance when they wouldn't adjust the spice level.  It's so easy, you just add more coconut milk to cool it down, problem solved.  If you like a little heat, I would start with 3 tablespoon Thai curry paste and taste it and then add more coconut milk if it's too much.  If you know you like mild, 2 tablespoon is significantly milder.

Rehabbing the Recipe

As a general rule, we try to avoid processed foods.  Processed, means additives and refining that adds stuff that throws off what our digestive system was designed for.   Thai curry pastes in the store are built for shelf life which often means adding sodium.  You should try our homemade curry pastes if you want less processing and fresher oils.  If you don't have a mortar and pestle you can use a blender to blend the paste.   Here is the link for our curry pastes and below is for the homemade red curry paste, like I used here.   We used whole grain quinoa for the side, similar to what Ikea offers at the restaurant, in quick Ikea style with 90-second cook-in-pouch quinoa.

Homemade Thai Red Curry Paste

Preparation of the Vegetable Balls

Honestly, this one needs little explanation, on the package it has directions for the microwave or the oven in simple Ikea style.  I went with the microwave whilst I heated the sauce, it says 2 minutes which is hard to believe so I did 2 minutes and felt them and didn't feel confident so I did another 2 minutes in the bag two times.  Too many scares about e-coli with vegetables on the news, let me know if I'm off base on that though.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of Ikea vegetable balls
• 2 tablespoon coconut oil
• 2-3 tablespoon Thai curry paste
• 2-3 cans lite coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Heat the coconut oil in a large wok on medium high.
2.  Add in the curry paste and stir-fry until fragrant.
3.  Add in the coconut milk, one can at a time, tasting and tweaking as needed.
4.   Turn down the heat and allow to simmer.
5.  Heat the vegetable balls however you choose, microwave or oven, see the bag.
6.  Heat the quinoa, if you are going for the restaurant style dish.
7.   Serve the balls covered with the sauce with the quinoa on the side.

Printable Recipe Below

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Copycat Ikea Vegetable Balls in Coconut Curry

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Thanks for reading so far! 🙂