The best vegetable curry
Martha Collison's recipe makes enough curry paste for three curries – just freeze the leftover paste in small containers for up to a month
- Serves4
- CourseMain meal
- Prepare15 mins
- Cook35 mins
- Total time50 mins
Ingredients
For the curry paste
- 2 red chillies, 1 deseeded
- 2 Thai red chillies, 1 deseeded
- 1 shallot, roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 stalk lemongrass, roughly chopped
- ½ tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
- ½ x 25g pack coriander, stems only, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp Cooks' Ingredients Galangal Paste
- 2 tsp Thai Taste Fish Sauce
For the curry
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into bitesized chunks
- 1 small cauliflower, divided into florets
- 1 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil
- 400ml coconut milk
- 2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter (I use ManiLife Deep Roast)
- 75g cashew nuts
- 190g pack baby corn and sugar snap peas
- 1 lime, juice, more to taste, if liked
- 1 tbsp maple syrup or palm sugar to taste
- ½ x 25g pack coriander, leaves, roughly chopped
Method
Start by making the curry paste. Roughly chop the chillies and put into the bowl of a mini food processor or spice grinder with the shallot, garlic and lemongrass. Blend to a smooth paste, then add the remaining paste ingredients and blend again.
Preheat the oven to 220ºC, gas mark 7. Arrange the sweet potato on a baking tray. Bake for 5 minutes, then add the cauliflower florets to the tray and roast for 10 minutes more, until almost cooked through and golden here and there.
Heat the coconut or vegetable oil in a large, deep frying pan or saucepan with a lid. Add 2 tbsp of curry paste (see intro for freezing leftove paste) and cook over a medium heat, stirring continuously, for 5 minutes until fragrant. Add the coconut milk and stir well to combine with the paste. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes, then add 200ml water (measure it in the coconut can to get every ounce of flavour) and the peanut butter, then mix again.
While you wait, gently toast the cashew nuts in a small frying pan until golden brown and fragrant. Roughly chop and set to one side.
Add the roasted sweet potato and cauliflower to the sauce along with the baby corn and sugar snap peas. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes, until the corn and peas are cooked, but still crisp. Add the lime juice and taste the sauce – adjust with more lime, salt plus a little maple syrup or palm sugar, to taste, if needed. Serve topped with the toasted cashew nuts and coriander leaves.
Cook’s tip
Homemade curry paste may contain lots of ingredients, but the freshness is unmatched and the process is actually simple. If you’re short on time, try using Cooks’ Ingredients Red Thai Curry paste instead (but note that this contains fish).
Vegetable curries are delicious and a little lighter than their meat counterparts, but if you want to mix it up, try adding 180g raw prawns along with the peas and sweetcorn and simmer until cooked throughout, pink and opaque.
If you prefer curries that are intensely spicy and aromatic, add more Thai chillies to your curry paste and use an extra 1 tbsp of paste when making the sauce. Likewise for a milder curry, remove the seeds from all of the chillies in the recipe.
Nutritional
Typical values per serving when made using specific products in recipe
Energy | 2,330kJ/ 560kcals |
|---|---|
Fat | 35g |
Saturated Fat | 19g |
Carbohydrates | 42g |
Sugars | 17g |
Fibre | 11g |
Protein | 14g |
Salt | 0.6g |