This curry is a life saver when you have dribs and drabs of veg that you need to use up because you can’t be bothered to go shopping. Using the whole spices makes it taste so much better but it will still work with ground ones if you don’t have the seeds in your cupboard. It doesn’t take long to make and is best served with rice but works even with pasta if you’re desperate!
Ingredients:
Literally any veg you have in your fridge and want to use up. Things like cauliflower, aubergine, pepper, carrot all work really well (bare in mind that harder root vegetables take longer to cook so if you’re using things like sweet potato or squash then you may need to parboil or roast them first so they’re cooked through when all the other veg is).
4 cloves of Garlic
A thumb sized piece of Ginger
1 fresh Chilli or 1 tsp of Chilli powder
Tinned Tomatoes
Salt
Sugar
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Black Mustard seeds
1 tsp of Turmeric powder
Vegetable Oil
A handufl of fresh Coriander (optional)
Method:
Chop all the veg into bitesize piece and precook any root vegetables.
Mince the garlic, ginger and chilli as fine as possible.
Heat 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a big pan and then add the cumin and mustard seeds. If you can’t get hold of these you can use ground cumin and replace the mustard seeds with curry powder or garam masala.
Once the spices are toasted and starting to release their aroma, add the minced garlic, ginger and chilli and fry until golden.
Now add the veg and stir through so everything is coated in the aromatics.
Fry the veg down until it starts to soften and then add the tinned tomatoes. I haven’t included a specific volume of tomatoes because it totally depends on how much veg you end up adding but I would say roughly 1 can of chopped tomatoes for every 2 people you intend to serve.
Add a pinch of sugar to balance the tomatoes and salt to taste.
Let the curry simmer until the sauce starts to thicken and then roughly chop the coriander and add it right before serving.