This is a winning curry combining comfort, heartiness and all the good things you want when the weather gets cold and you crave a friendly hug of food. You can prep the roasting of ingredients beforehand and it really does taste incredible the next day too. This is a vegan dish, although you can substitute chicken stock for the vegetable stock should you prefer.
The warming spices of cumin, tumeric and ginger with the addition of finely chopped scotch bonnets gives that welcome gentle heat which you can adjust to your preference.
This is a beautiful colourful flavoursome curry that lifts the spirits. When the weather is overcast and cold, we all need something to look forward to and I enjoy coming home to this dish knowing it will lift me emotionally and visually.
Ingredients - serves 6
1 tbsp of ground turmeric
1 tbsp ground cumin powder
1 tbsp ground ginger
5 tbsp of tamarind concentrate
1/4 scotch bonnet
2 lemon grass peeled and loosely crushed - then removed
4 kaffir lime leaves - removed at the end
1 lime
1 tbsp soy sauce
60g palm sugar
3 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
Small pack of cherry tomatoes
1 Aubergine
2 sweet potatoes peeled and cut into large chunks
1 small pumpkin outer skin cut off and cut into large chunks
2 onions coarsley chopped
5 cloves of garlic chopped
1 tin of coconut milk
50g coconut creme
1 pint of vegetable or chicken stock
1 tin of chick peas - discard the liquid
Medium bunch of Thyme leaves
Fresh basil to decorate
Generous pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Bag of Spinach
Black sesame seeds to decorate
Put cherry tomatoes in an ovenproof dish and drizzle with olive oil for 20 minutes until nicely charred and blistered. Remove and set aside. Roughly chop the onions, peel and roughly chop the garlic. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and pumpkin into large chunks. Cut the aubergine into large chunks or slices and fry in garlic until brown on both sides.
Cut the onions, garlic and lemon grass and fry in a saucepan. Add the tumeric, cumin powder and ground ginger and fry off the spices until they are cooked off but not burnt. Add the sweet potato and pumpkins and scotch bonnet (taking care to cut carefully and washing your hands thoroughly afterwards). Add the tamarind and soy sauce and vegetable/chicken stock. Continue to cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the kaffir leaves and thyme and simmer on a low heatfor a further 20 minutes until the pumpkin and sweet potatoes are soft.
Add a tin of coconut milk and coconut creme block and stir seasoning with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt. Add the tinned chickpeas and the juice of 1 lime and the palm sugar. Ensure you have removed the kaffir lime leaves, the lemon grass and thyme leaves.The fried charred aubergine and the roasted cherry tomatoes can be added before serving. I like to put freshly washed baby spinach in at the very end to ensure I get more green goodness. Season with basil before serving and sprinkle with black sesame seeds (optional).
This is a filling one pot dish and you can also serve with rice or bread or roti.
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