Nothing beats a good curry – when I travel to the UK I search for a local Indian restaurant to try. There is always an interesting choice of vegetarian dishes explained by the fact that almost a quarter of Indians are vegetarian. For example, dhal, made with lentils; matar paneer, a spinach, pea and Indian cheese mixture; aloo gobi, a cauliflower and potato dish, and many more. Each curry dish contains its own mix of spices and families traditionally pass down their own particular blend. Some of the building blocks of spices used to achieve a curry flavor include coriander, cumin, ginger and chili’s. My choices are listed below.
Prep. and cook time – 30 minutes
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion – finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic – grated
2 inch piece of ginger – grated
1 tsp. cumin powder
1 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. turmeric
12 oz. pounds new potatoes – quartered
1 x can lite coconut milk
1/2 cup vegetable broth
10 oz. baby spinach
8 oz. frozen peas
1 tbsp. fresh coriander – finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp. lime pickle or mango chutney
Heat the oil in a large skillet. When nice and hot, add the onion and let soften before adding the garlic. Stir together and cook for a minute or two then add the ginger and stir. Mix all the spices together and tip into the pan, keep stirring for a couple of minutes until you can smell the spices.
Next come the potatoes, coconut milk and broth. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer with a lid on for 5 minutes until the potatoes are a little tender.
Mix in the spinach and let it wilt for 5 minutes.
Pour in the peas and cook a few minutes.
Make sure that the potatoes are cooked through before pouring in the lime juice and spooning in the lime pickle/mango chutney and sprinkling over the coriander. Stir again and serve straight away.
