It’s Veganuary, the UK event that happens every January and encourages more and more people to adopt vegan-friendly, plant-based lifestyles. This means that there’s no better time to get to know more about Sri Lankan cuisine. While the island’s cuisine seamlessly ties together many spices, aromatics and flavours, the country’s culinary traditions, for many centuries, have been largely plant-based, vegan, and planet-friendly, fostering sustainable food practices. So at Kolamba, our Sri Lankan restaurant in London this January, we are moving further beyond those Instagram-famous plant-based dishes, and diving deep into bold, rich flavours and time-honed recipes of the Indian Ocean island.

What makes Sri Lankan cuisine naturally vegan-friendly and plant-based

Unlike many other cuisines that use animal fats, Sri Lankan cuisine has, for generations, used plant-based ingredients like coconut oil and coconut milk. We fry our vegetables and sauté our herbs in coconut oil, and thicken our curries with creamy, rich coconut milk. 

In Sri Lanka, our lunches consist of several curries, usually eaten with red or white rice. Skip the meat-based curries and you’ll find that most of our vegetables and legumes (like masoor dhal, chickpeas, black-eyed pea and mung bean) are made into subtly-spiced aromatic curries using coconut milk.

Forcenturies, Sri Lankans have made use of an abundance of fresh vegetables,fruits and herbs in the island’s thick jungles, currying them, frying them and sautéingthem to create delightful spreads. Think of the banana flower, that’sstir-fried often in Sri Lankan kitchens, or jackfruit with many uses. This wayof eating means that nothing goes to waste in our households. While rawjackfruit is made into a curry, its seeds are either curried, smoked, or groundinto flour for aggala, sweet ball-like grated coconut and sugar snacks perfectfor evening teatime. 

At our Sri Lankan restaurant in London, our menu shines a spotlight on these age-old traditional philosophies, and the aspects of vegan, and plant-based diets of many Sri Lankans. Our everyday two-course lunch features patties stuffed with banana flowers, and toasted pumpkin curry with coconut milk and herbs like curry leaves.

Must-try vegan Sri Lankan dishes at Kolamba, our Sri Lankan restaurant in London

Dhal (Parippu)

A staple of Sri Lankan cuisine, dhal offers comfort. In Sri Lanka, we cook red split lentils in coconut milk, colouring the dish bright yellow with a pinch of turmeric. Finally, the lentils are tempered with herbs and spices (onions, garlic, curry leaves and mustard seeds among others), which are sauteed in aromatic coconut oil. The sound of the crackling mustard seeds in hot coconut oil and the smell of frying curry leaves, for us, signify the time of lunchtime at home. 

While dhal is often cooked with animal fat like ghee in many Indian cuisines, Sri Lankan cuisine only uses coconut-based oil and milk to thicken and flavour it, making it a delicious vegan curry.

Cashew curry

The sight of cashew apples turning yellow, orange, and red as they ripen over time, with the arrival of the Sri Lankan New Year, used to bring immense joy to us as kids. 

Making use of the abundance of spring produce, many Sri Lankan households cook deseeded cashews into a flavourful, subtly-spiced, yellow curry with coconut milk. Rampe or pandan leaves, which grow in bushes by the marshes or canals in every village, scent this creamy curry. 

This seasonal dish is dearly loved and makes for a great curry to eat with morning string hoppers, disc-like, steamed rice-flour nets that are a breakfast staple in Sri Lanka. It equally works well with kiri bath, rice cooked in creamy coconut milk. This gently cooked cashew curry is also available at our Sri Lankan restaurant in Soho.

Pol sambol

Undoubtedly Sri Lanka’s go-to condiment, pol (meaning coconut in the local language Sinhala) sambol is a red hot spicy, freshly grated coconut sambol muddled with onions, chilli, a dash of lime and salt. Some households add tomato or tamarind to sour it, while others add dried Maldive fish flakes for a subtle crunch. Skip the fish flakes and this everyday dish becomes a great addition to the Veganuary diet. 

Pol sambol is a no-frills, simple and humble staple of our childhood and it pairs well with everything. Think of fresh-off-the-oven bread, string hoppers, and a pot of steamed white rice with fried fish. ‍

Beetroot curry‍

Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free, the Sri Lankan beetroot curry brings us immense joy. Imagine your plate of white rice being coloured by a crimson-red, slightly sweet, thick coconut milk gravy—that was beetroot for me. This utterly gorgeous curry was one of the many dishes that accompanied the lunch table in our households. Earthy beets paired so perfectly with the creaminess of coconut milk, flavoured with mustard and fenugreek, Kolamba’s beetroot curry works well with a plate of aromatic basmati rice. 

Kohila fry

Kohila, a root vegetable, thrives in the humid, muddy marshes in Sri Lanka. I'll admit—it’s not the most favourite dish of my childhood, but as I grew up and learnt its superfood qualities, I slowly began to savour it. A fibery vegetable, kohila works wonders for your digestive system and is good for liver health. In our folklore, there’s a wide belief that kohila is also good for those who have a short temper. Sauteed with spices and onions, kohila fry is best eaten with a pot of white steamed rice and other curries like dal.

Explore Kokamba’s menu to savour more Sri Lankan vegan, and plant-based dishes.

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