We’re on recipe #3 of my plant-based January series and this time we’re doing a pretty weeknight-friendly curry with coconut, aubergine, sweet post, chickpeas and kale. It feels like for how low-effort it is, it really shouldn’t have this much flavour, but roasting the vegetable releases a lot deliciousness whilst minimising hands-on cooking time!
INGREDIENTS
Vegetables:
Aubergine
Sweet potato
Kale
Tomato
Aromatics and flavour:
Shallot
Garlic
Ginger
Small chilli pepper (optional: remove seeds if you prefer less spice)
Turmeric
Chilli flakes
Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Tomato purée
Peanut butter
Vegetable stock cube
Fresh coriander (optional)
Lime (optional)
Curry base:
Coconut oil
Coconut milk / light coconut milk (you may just need to cook down light coconut milk for slightly longer)
Chickpeas (pre-cooked in a can, jar or carton)
TIPS & NOTES
There’s not much too this one which is why I love it on a weeknight but I’ll give you one tip to boost the flavour in these pre-ground spices. I recommend heating up the pan with the oil and then roasting the spices for around 30 seconds to bloom before adding in the aromatics. The flavour compounds in these spices are oil soluble so this method helps to maximise the flavour with no additional time or effort!
You can also play around with the vegetables in this dish, so long as you have sweet potato in the mix (since it makes up part of the curry base). I’ve done this with roasted cauliflower and okra instead of aubergine before and it was really delicious, so feel free to use up your random veggies that need eating! And if you like the idea of this curry but need to reduce the saturated fat in it for health reasons, you can obviously use light coconut milk, but you can also just use 1/3 of that can for creaminess, mixed with another 200ml of water and blend in a little more sweet potato to get that creamy feel without as much coconut (you’ll still get the flavour and aroma from that amount). Alternatively; light coconut milk is just coconut milk with water, so if you double the rest of the recipe, you can make a double batch and use normal coconut oil, refill the empty can with water and add that too for the same sort of thing!
Chickpea, Coconut & Vegetable Curry
An easy, weeknight-friendly plant-based curry packed with aromatic flavours
Ingredients
- 2 cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)
- c. 5cm of ginger root (scrape off bark if you like and roughly chop)
- 1 small green chilli pepper (de-seed if you like and roughly chop)
- 1 shallot (roughly chopped)
- 2 tsp of ground cumin
- 2 tsp of ground coriander
- 2 tsp of chilli flakes
- 2 tsp od ground turmeric
- 1 tbsp of peanut butter
- 1 tbsp of tomato purée
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- 1 large tomato (cut into chunks)
- 2 x medium sweet potato (peel, if you like and chop into small even chunks)
- 1 medium aubergine (cut into small, even chunks)
- 1 tin (400ml) of full fat coconut milk
- 200g of chickpeas (drained and rinsed well)
- 20g of coconut oil (melted)
- 80g of kale (de-stemmed and roughly chopped)
- A small handful (c. 2g) of fresh coriander (de-stemmed)
- Half a lime
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 200C
- Add the sweet potato and aubergine chunks to a roasting tin tossed together with 1/2 of the coconut oil and 1/2 of the dried spice mix (with the corainder, cumin, turmeric and chilli flakes) and season to taste with salt and pepper – roast for 25-30 minutes (tossing halfway through)
- When you have 5-10 minutes left of cook time for your roasted vegetables (ensure you check that they are almost done), heat the rest of the oil in a wide-based lidded pan over a medium heat – add the remaining dried spices and bloom in the oil for 30 seconds before adding the garlic, ginger, fresh chilli and shallot and seasoning with salt and pepper
- Once the aromatics are fragrant (this should take 2-3 minutes), add the peanut butter, tomato and tomato purée and allow the ingredients to melt down
- Reserve a tablespoon of coconut milk as a garnish (optional) and add the rest to a blender with the stock cube, aromatic / tomato / peanut butter combination and half of the roasted sweet potato – blend into a smooth curry base
- Add the curry base back into your pan and reduce the heat to medium-low, stir in the chickpeas and kale, cover and cook for another 5 minutes (until the kale is soft and steamed through)
- Serve the curry topped with the aubergine and remaining sweet potato and the optional drizzle of coconut milk, fresh corainder leaves and a squeeze of lime
Let me know if you try this plant-based curry!
Check out how I make this recipe here:
But First, Food 
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