Keto Prawn Curry
A Kerala style curry with coconut milk
Welcome to Curry Week on HK and we’ll be cooking up some amazing Keto curries. Today it’s a home style coconut prawn curry. This is one of the most basic curries with a very simple base and just a few ingredients. The base made from ginger,garlic, onion, tomato and chilles. Yes! you CAN eat both onion and tomato on Keto, watch my Keto 101 series for more info.
There are your basic spices and then the 3 stars of the show, curry leaves, coconut milk and kokum. Kokum is a plant from the mangosteen family and it’s sort of a sour dried fruit. We don’t actually eat it but we add it to the curry for a bit of sourness. It really adds that punch to the curry. Anyway enough jibber jabber, time to curry up and get cooking.
The origins of this curry
It was in Jan 2015 that I had the opportunity to cook for a great guitar player called Mattias IA Eklund and I cooked up a Freaky Fish Curry. This was back when Headbanger’s Kitchen was just a heavy metal cooking show where I interviewed metal musicians and fed them a dish named after their band or song. Mattias plays in a band called Freak Kitchen and I guess you can put two and two together. I was never into Indian food but since I started getting international musicians on the show, I had to up my cooking game. We have a maid (very common in India) who cooks lunch everyday for my parents (and me when I was not on Keto) and I learnt this recipe from her.
I realize Indian food seems intimidating but it’s really quite easy once you get the basics down and there are various ways to cook the same thing. So I tweaked the original recipe and turned it into this Keto version. I hope you dig.
Nutrition Info (Per serving)
- Calories: 263
- Net Carbs: 6g
- Carbs: 6g
- Fat: 17g
- Protein: 15g
- Fiber: 0g
This recipe makes 3 serving. Get this recipe on myfitnesspal.

Keto Prawn Curry
Ingredients
- 200 grams Prawns
- 200 ml Coconut Milk I recommend this one
- 1 tbsp Coconut Oil
- 1 Small Onion
- 1 small tomato
- 4-5 Cloves of Garlic
- 10 grams Ginger
- 10-12 Curry Leaves Buy Online
- 1/2 tbsp Mustard Seeds Buy Online
- 1 Green Chilly
- 1/2 Tsp Red Chilly Powder I use this
- 1/2 Tsp turmeric powder I recommend this one
- 1/2 Tsp Coriander Powder I recommend this one
- 1 Tsp Salt
- Fresh Coriander
- couple of pieces of Kokum Buy Online
Instructions
- Grind the onion, tomato, green chilly, ginger and garlic together to make a curry paste
- Heat the coconut oil in a saucepan and fry the mustard seeds and curry leaves
- Once the mustard seeds start to pop add in the curry paste along with the chilly powder, turmeric, coriander powder and salt and fry it
- Add about 30-50ml of water and cover and cook for 5 minutes
- Add in the kokum and the coconut milk and cook for a minute
- Add in the prawns and cover and cook for 3 minutes more
- Finish with coriander
- Serve with cauliflower rice.
What can you substitute for kokum? I have not seen it in our shops in Wollongong.
Anything that adds sourness. So you could just squeeze in some lemon juice.
Hello Sahil, won’t the onion and garlic caramelise adding sugar to the curry? That would mean not reaching ketosis , won’t it? I’m new to keto so this is very confusing for me.
Hi Shoba, sugar is sugar. We use 85% LINDT chocolate on Keto which has sugar as an ingredient in it and we remain in Ketosis after that. The reason being the quantity is small and spread out. You body will leave a state of ketosis close to the 40-50grams of net carbs range. Don’t worry about onions and garlic having sugar and all that. Just count your net carbs and stay under40-50 in a day if it’s coming from vegetables. if you are eating like a piece of Lindt 85% that has actual sugar then you need to be more careful. Keto allows berries as well which have natural sugar. It’s the overall quantities that make a difference.
How can I substitute curry lives? Can I use regular mustard instead mustard seeds?
Hi Krystyna, you can’t substitute either of the ingredients as they impart a unique flavour to the curry. You can however skip them completely. You can probably add some cumin seeds or powder as a replacement for the mustard seeds to kind of add a little more depth of flavour.
Is kokum keto friendly ?
Yes you can use it to flavour dishes. don’t eat it though.
Hey Sahil
Yesterday I made chilli paneer by some ppl said that onion nd tomatoes aren’t keto thing.. is that mean I ll nt be able to go to my keto sis??
Hi Mamta, please watch this video of mine for a full explanation but you can eat them in moderation. Video Link: https://youtu.be/D6Cy-pkl3Vs