An entirely fabricated and inauthentic North Indian-stylee veg curry, with definite Indian Restaurant influences. Nice to do with other vegetables too.

I serve this with basmati rice and extra yoghurt.

The recipe serves six.

Ingredients

Sauce

• about 200ml sunflower oil
• 4 medium-sized onions, chopped
• 2-3 medium red chillies, deseeded and sliced (quantity to taste)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 inch piece of ginger
• one 400g can of plum tomatoes, chopped
• salt to taste

Spice mix

• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp paprika
• 8-10 green cardomoms
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 4 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp ground black pepper

The rest

• half a small pumpkin
• one small onion, chopped
• large handful of spinach (or chard or other dark leaf), washed and chopped
• tblsp sunflower oil
• 3 tbsp plain yoghurt
• fresh coriander, as much as you like, chopped, to garnish

Directions

1. Make the sauce: fry the onions ginger and chillies gently in the oil until the onions have softened and turned transparent.Add the garlic and the tomatoes. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down a little. Allow to cool and use a blender to buzz it to fine, thick sauce.
2. While the sauce is cooking you can prepare the pumpkin. Preheat your oven to 200C and slice the pumpkin into thick segments. Bake on an oiled tray for 25-35 minutes until they turn golden brown and are tender when stabbed with a knife. Allow to cool a little, cut away the skin and chop into bite-size chunks.
3. You can also make the spice mix. Toast each spice in turn on a dry frying pan (no oil) and grind finely with a pestle and mortar. You can toast the cardomoms in their green husks but you only want the seeds inside for grinding. The spices should darken in colour, but not burn. You don't need to toast the turmeric or black pepper - just combine these with the other spices at the end.
4. Now to put it all together. Cook the spinach briefly in a large clean pan with a little more oil. Add the spice mix so it fries for a minute or two. Now add the sauce and the pumpkin. When it has all warmed through, stir in the yoghurt and the extra onion. Test for salt and it's ready to serve, garnished with the coriander.

Categories: Recipes

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