Our Roasted Vegetable & Chickpea Curry Recipe

Fancy a spot of home COOKing? Below is the formally-secret recipe for our popular Roasted Vegetable & Chickpea Curry. It’s a bit of a faff, but a great introduction to making Indian dishes at home. Master it, then invent your own! It makes eight portions, but that’s just as easy as making enough for one, and it freezes marvellously (of course). Let us know how you get on at edwardanddale@cookfood.net

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 Cauliflower

200g Red Lentils

3 Red Bell Peppers

4 White Onions

4 Cloves Garlic

1 tin Chickpeas, drained and washed

1 tin Chopped Tomatoes

100g Baby Spinach, washed

200g Tomato Puree (or 100g Double Concentrated)

Fresh Ginger, 1 inch piece

2tsp Madras Powder (a good curry powder will do)

1tsp Turmeric

1tsp Ground Coriander

1tsp Ground Cumin

½tsp Garam Masala

Pinch Chilli Powder

4 Cinnamon Sticks

1 Bay Leaf

2tsp Granulated Sugar

3tsp Salt

Rapeseed Oil

Bunch Coriander

Technique

Curries are pretty time-consuming, so this is an 8-portion version. You can, of course, freeze portions for a later date.

Soak the red lentils in 200g of water overnight.

Dice the red peppers into 1 or 2cm squares. Chop the cauliflower into small florets, ideally no bigger than 3cm. Then chop the onions very finely, grate the ginger, and chop the garlic as finely as you can.

Heat 95g of oil and fry the garlic until brown, around 1 minute. Then add the chopped onions, salt, cinnamon sticks and bay leaf, and cook. Once the onions are nice and soft, add the ginger, all the spices and chopped tomatoes. Then cook on a low-to-medium heat for at least 30 minutes, until the oil is rising to the service, which should look like lots of tiny volcanoes erupting. You’ll need to stir regularly during this crucial stage to stop it sticking.

Heat your oven to 220c (200c fan). Toss the diced red peppers in a little oil and roast for 15-20 minutes. Once roasted put to one side.

Once the base of the curry is at the volcano stage described above, add 650ml of water, the tomato puree, sugar, cauliflower and soaked red lentils, and simmer for around 15 minutes, until the lentils are soft and the cauliflower has a slight bite. If the sauce has over thickened add a splash more water. Then finish with the drained chickpeas, roasted red peppers and baby spinach. Bring back up to the boil, stir in the chopped coriander and season if required.

Cooking time: 90mins (plus soaking lentils overnight).