Spicy Vegetable Curry – a family favourite

Spicy Vegetable Curry – great way to use up leftover veggies

This vegetable curry to my surprise, is one my brother the carnivore, adores. He even asked for the recipe a few times, though I don’t see him making any culinary efforts to date.

It’s really versatile: use a combination of what you have, and also useful for using veggies reaching their sell-by dates. It’s hearty and filling and I serve it with some pickle and rice – easy dinner, any day of the week.

Ingredients

Serves 6

25 ml olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

1 t yellow or black mustard seeds

1/2 t fenugreek seeds (optional)

2 green chillis, cut down the centre

1/2 t turmeric

2-3 t medium masala

1 t ground cumin

1 t ground coriander

3 medium carrots, diced 1.5 cm cubes

4 medium potatoes, diced 1.5 cm cubes

1 red pepper, diced

1 yellow or green pepper diced

2 T tomato paste

1/2 t sugar

250 ml vegetable stock, plus extra water

300 g French beans, trimmed and cut into 3-4 cm pieces

salt, to taste

Method

1. Heat a medium sized saucepan to medium, add olive oil and onions. Fry for three minutes or until translucent and starting to soften, stirring. Add cinnamon stick, bay leaf, mustard seeds and fenugreek.  Stir.

2. Add green chillis and powdered spices, stirring so they don’t burn. Add a little more oil if needed.

3. Add carrots, peppers and potatoes, mix to coat in spices. Add tomato paste, sugar and some salt. Fry for a minute. Turn heat up slightly.

4. Add stock and cover. Cook for 25 minutes, stirring and checking liquid. Add more if looks like it’s drying  and sticking to bottom of pan. Check veggies for tenderness. Turn heat down to medium-low.

5. Remove lid and add beans in last 10 minutes, depending on how thick the beans are. Adjust seasoning.

Finer beans will cook quicker and you want them to remain a little crisp.  The curry should thicken and not be watery, so allow to cook down if needed.

Serve with chopped fresh coriander and basmati rice or rotis.

Come follow me on Vine, Twitter’s 6 second video app: Food and the Fab