Durban Curry shrimp is a spicy South African style curry. Made at home from scratch with fresh chillies, tomato, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, lime zest and spices this easy to make whole food curry is hot, fresh and delicious!

Curry has always been one of my greatest food love affairs. Whether it's Thai style like Thai Red Curry Tofu or Indian style, I haven't met a curry I didn't like.
When I travelled to South Africa, I was surprised to learn that curry was such a big deal there and I took every chance I got to eat curry in Durban. What I really loved about the curry there was that it seemed like it was the best of both worlds - the richness of an Indian curry along with the fresh fragrant citrus notes of South East Asian curries.
This Durban curry shrimp is a recipe that I created with the flavours of South African Curry in mind. You start by making your own homemade curry paste from tomatoes, onions and spices, then you finish the curry off with lime zest and coconut milk before adding the shrimp. From start to finish this dish took just over half an hour to make
Spicy, fragrant, fresh and flavourful this curry has truly got everything going for it.
There are some ingredients on the list that you might not find at your local supermarket but should be able to find in an Asian or Specialty supermarket. Aside from the new ingredients it may seem a bit daunting to essentially be making your own curry paste from scratch, but let me tell you this is MUCH easier than it may sound and the flavour that you get from starting with your own fresh ingredients is incomparable to any curry paste you can find at the store.
How to make Durban curry shrimp
Start by making sure that you have all your spices ready and that you have prepped your onions and tomatoes.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and add the fenugreek, mustard seeds and cumin seeds to the pan. Toast the seeds in the dry pan for a minute or two before adding the oil, onion, garlic, ginger and curry leaves.
Reduce the heat to medium low and cook the onions until they begin to turn translucent - about 10 minutes - then add the diced tomato, lime zest, coriander, turmeric, and sliced chilli.
Cook the mixture until the tomatoes have completely softened and most of their moisture has been evaporated leaving behind a thick tomatoey paste then add the coconut milk and bring to a boil.
Add the shrimp and cook for 5 minutes or until the shrimp have just turned pink.
Season with sea salt, and lime juice and serve sprinkled with chopped cilantro.
Tips for the Best Curry Shrimp
Speed up the prep work and give veggies a rough chop in your food processor.
Using the full 4 chillies makes this curry pretty spicy!! This is a hallmark of South African curries but start with 2 if you are unsure of how spicy you want it and if you know that you want it pretty mild also remove the seeds before adding the chopped chillies to the skillet.
If you can't find curry leaves lime leaves are a good substitute but if you can't find either you can also just omit them.
Dietary Information
This recipe for Durban curry shrimp is suitable for the following diets:
- pescatarian
- clean eating and Whole30
- gluten free, dairy free, and allergy friendly
- low carb and keto friendly with served with cauliflower rice (as I did)
- For vegetarian or vegan leave out the shrimp and throw in some cubed tofu instead!
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Durban Curry Shrimp
Ingredients:
- 1 Tablespoon avocado oil - (or other cooking oil)
- 1⁄4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 3⁄4 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
- 1⁄4 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 4 cloves garlic - chopped
- 1 inch ginger - chopped
- 10 curry leaves - (or lime leaves, or omit)
- 2 onions - chopped
- 1 lime - zest and juice of
- 3 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 4 red chillies - chopped
- 4 tomatoes - chopped
- 1 can coconut milk
- sea salt
- 1 pound shrimp (16-20 count)
- cilantro
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet to medium heat and throw in the cumin, mustard and fenugreek seeds then toast until you can smell them in the air.
- Add the avocado oil to the skillet along with the crushed garlic, chopped ginger, curry leaves and onion.
- Cook for 10-15 minutes or until the onion has cooked and turned transluscent.
- Add the lime zest, coriander, turmeric, sliced chili and the chopped tomatoes.
- Cook down until the tomatoes have completely softened and the mixture resembles a paste.
- Add the coconut milk, mix well and bring to a boil. Add the shrimp and cook for 5 minutes or until the shrimp have just turned pink.
- Season with sea salt, and lime juice and serve sprinkled chopped cilantro,
Notes
Nutrition
* nutritional information is calculated by online tools and may not be 100% accurate.
Sara Welch says
What a great recipe for busy weeknights! Adding this to my dinner line up for the week! Looks amazing!
Courtney says
Thanks Sara! Enjoy!
Jen says
This was such a flavorful change to our normal dinner routine. Thanks for spicing things up for us!
Courtney says
You're welcome! I'm so glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Tatiana says
This looks delicious! I love coconut milk-based curries, and this one looks spot on. Yum!
Courtney says
Thanks so much!!
Claudia says
I'm sure my boyfriend will love this! I can't wait to make it for him! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Courtney says
You're welcome! I hope you both enjoy it!
Irina says
OMG! I just love it! These Durban Curry Shrimp sounds so delicious! I cannot wait to try!