Recipes: Vegetastic

Today was another diet day, my first at home, and even though I made one last week, I fancied a curry.
However, I knew one thing, I wanted rice too!
The curry I made last week was chicken and vegetables, but the chicken added a lot of calories which meant we had to eat it on its own, and no matter how tasty it was (and it was very tasty!) I missed the presence of soft, fluffy rice in my bowl.
So this time it was simple, leave out the chicken!
I have never felt it necessary to always have meat for a main meal, a belief that was not shared by Arjan when we first started dating (there were many shopping trips that would end in arguments over whether or not we had to have meat for dinner and as poor students, it was not always something we could afford) as the Dutch are a very 'meat and two veg' kind of people.
My family are always happy to have a vegetarian meal every now and then, so long as it tastes good and fills them up, so I find I generally cook at least one meat-free meal whenever I come home, be it pasta, curry, risotto or soup.

Back to the curry!

One of my favourite dishes we order from our local Indian takeaway is called Bhindi Bahji, a fairly dry, heavily spiced okra curry, and when I found okra on tesco.com whilst doing a big shop for ingredients for me to come home to, I instantly decided they were going to be the star of this dish!

Okra Tikka Masala: serves 5

50g Patak’s Tikka Masala Paste = 132 kcal

1 tbsp Groundnut oil = 119 kcal

100g Passata = 320 kcal

300g Mushrooms = 66 kcal

350g Okra = 108 kcal

200g Frozen spinach = 55 kcal

200g Frozen peas = 136 kcal

5 boiled eggs = 385 kcal (77 kcal each)

total sauce = 935 kcal + eggs  = 1320 kcal

Per portion sauce = 155 kcal + egg = 232 kcal 

370g basmati rice = 477 kcal

Per portion rice = 95 kcal

Total per portion = 327 kcal

This amount of sauce will serve 6 but the eggs and rice was calculated for 5 so you will need to add another 75g uncooked rice and one egg for the 6th person. apologies for the confusing display of the calculations but I couldn't think of a better way to illustrate what adds on how many kcal so you can easily leave something off or add something on. 

• Heat oil in a pan, add the paste and fry for a minute, pour in passata and simmer
• Chop mushrooms into quarters if large or halves if smaller, button mushrooms can be left whole if desired (it’s purely a textural thing, do what you want with them really!)
• Wash and dry okra thoroughly, top and tail, chop into thirds or 2-3cm pieces (they will release a sticky slime, it will go away while cooking) I would add more in the future as I love them so much
• Rinse the peas and spinach under warm water to defrost slightly and remove large chunks of ice (use fresh if you can! I just had to empty out the freezers and these were already in there)
• Add all the vegetables to the sauce and stir to spread through, simmer for at least 30-40 minutes before serving (or until vegetables have softened) you can also make this ahead and switch the heat off then reheat for 15 minutes before serving.
• 20 minutes before serving place the peeled, boiled eggs on top of the curry, turn them half way through so they become coated in the sauce and heat evenly. 
• For the rice: add twice the volume of boiled water that you have of rice (e.g. 1 cup rice - 2 cups water) add salt and any spices you want (I used turmeric, cumin and a tiny pinch of cinnamon)
• Bring to the boil and cover, simmer until most of the water is gone and the rice is almost cooked then remove the lid, stir and allow to dry out a little. 
• Alternative rice recipe: add 1 part rice, 2 parts boiled water, salt and spices to a bowl, cover with clingfilm and microwave on high for 14 minutes (this is my preferred method but our microwave is broken) 
• optional: serve with chopped coriander, indian pickles, yoghurt, naan and chopped chili

Home-laid: a selection of eggs from our chooks, look at that pretty speckling and the blue eggs!

In to the pan!

 My parent's have a whole collection of Le Creuset pans, I love cooking in these 

A healthy dose of coriander and chili freshens this up beautifully

This was SO GOOD! I know I should be more modest, but I LOVE curry and I think this combination of vegetables is really nice; the peas add a slight sweet 'pop', the spinach seems to thicken the overall texture of the sauce, the mushrooms give that bite that could almost trick you into thinking it's a piece of meat and soak up the spices and the okra are just awesome!

Please try making this if you can! It's not a spicy dish (hence the added chilli) and you can alter the curry ingredients to suit your tastes!

Thanks for reading and come back tomorrow for cats!