I love curries. I think I could eat curry every day of the week, such an easy meal to make and they always taste so wonderful.
This easy vegan coconut curry was made yesterday because I had a few odds and ends left in the fridge that I didn’t know what else to do with. So this (and any) curry is great because you don’t have to be particularly rigid with the specified ingredients. Perhaps this is why I’m such a curry fan! I struggle to always follow a recipe to the letter, in my view, they need a bit of space for personalisation.
And as usual…this one can be filed away as another of my “make it up as you go along” recipes. As a result of my general cooking ethos, I just threw things together and it seemed to work. Sadly, I forgot to take any pictures of the finished dish as I was too busy eating it. Oops. BUT the above image shows it half way through cooking – the lentils are still solid and the whole thing hasn’t yet created the glorious hodgepodge of colour and flavour that you always get with a perfectly cooked curry.
I hope you enjoy.
Easy Vegan Coconut Curry
Ingredients:
Half an onion, finely diced
Two or three garlic cloves, minced
One broccoli stalk, chopped into thin rounds
Two small carrots, sliced
One large potato, chopped into chunks
A handful of halved green beans
A cup or so of red lentils
Half a block of Tofoo (or any tofu brand you like) chopped into dice sized cubes
Spices:
Two tablespoons of medium curry powder,
A teaspoon or so of turmeric (or a dice sized of fresh turmeric, grated)
A teaspoon or so of ground cinnamon
Two teaspoons of Ground cumin
Salt/pepper
A tablespoon or so of soya sauce
half a can of coconut milk
- Fry up the onion and garlic in a little oil – I used coconut oil.
- Add the spices and mix well
- Add the potatoes, carrots, green beans, broccoli, lentils and tofu and stir well with the spices. Add enough water to cover all and keep adding when the lentils soak it up. Bring to a high simmer and leave to bubble for ten minutes. Stir if it becomes too sticky and add water as necessary.
- Add the coconut milk and stir well. Leave to cook until the potatoes are soft and the lentils break up easily.
- Add more spices to taste – whatever you think it needs.
- I served this over brown rice, with mango chutney and poppadoms on the side.
If you have a slow cooker, I can highly recommend throwing everything in and cooking it across the day. The smell is gorgeous and the tofu/veg soak up even more of the flavour the longer it is cooking.
It also heats up again really well. In fact, it tastes better the second time round as the ingredients have even longer to marinade.
You can literally use any vegetables you have for this. It works great with cauliflower, broccoli, peas, whatever you have will only add more flavour to the dish.
Do you have a favourite curry recipe?
