RECIPE - Tomato and ginger, okra, aubergine and mushroom curry
- Mr T
- Jun 23, 2019
- 3 min read
This is a bright, fresh, vegetable packed 'curry', which needs no dairy (obviously) or nut milks, to keep the cholesterol down and to give other options when you're not feeling something 'creamy'....
Shopping list (makes approx 8-10 portions):
Broccoli, head x2-3 (I bought 3 as a head was only 100yen at Hanamasa!)
Spinach, packs x2
Shitake mushrooms, large bag x1 (HUGE bag at Hanamasa for 400yen!)
Okra, small packs x4
Carrots x2-4
Sweet potatoes, x2 large (I bought pre-cooked yaki-imo this time as they were the same price as raw!)
Aubergine x3
White onion x1
Garlic clove x3
Ginger, thumb-sized piece
Fresh tomatoes x2-4
Chopped/plumb tomatoes, tin x1-2
Coconut oil, sugar (I use organic coconut sugar), kaffir lime leaves, garam masala, paprika, turmeric, cumin, caraway seeds, red chilli flakes, salt & pepper, fresh coriander - these are all things I have in my cupboard permanently, so don't obviously shop for them every time, but you need all these items. I am growing fresh coriander at home, so have it on hand, but obviously buy it if you don't have it. This blend of spices is something I just made up, so leave out/substitute where necessary. Some items are obviously not essential e.g. if you don't have coconut oil, use whatever oil you have. If you don't have kaffir lime leaves, just buy a lime etc. This week I am using yaki-imo, steamed broccoli and carrots as the 'base' under my curry, rather than rice, to keep it all 100% paleo!
All the items below, cost me just around 2800yen from 'Niku no Hanamasa' in Sangenjaya and will feed me (lunch and dinner) for most of the working-week (8-10 meals). That's around 300yen per tasty, nutrient dense, hearty, filling meal:
Method:
Steam your broccoli and carrots and put to the side.
Cook your sweet potato, if you bought raw, in whichever way you see fit. If you bought pre-cooked yaki-imo like me, just pre-chop it into chunks for easy meal prep, put in a container when cool and store in the fridge!
Add coconut oil and all your herbs, spices & flavours to a large wok (I am rubbish at quantities, I 'eyeball' everything! I would say you need at least a teaspoon of each, and around two teaspoons of the garam masala and sugar. Approx four kaffir lime leaves crushed. Salt and pepper to taste).
Finely mince the garlic cloves and ginger and dice the onion. Add to the wok.
Chop the aubergine, okura and mushroom (keep them 'chunky') and set aside in bowls.
Turn the heat on your wok to medium-high and fry all the herbs, spices, garlic, ginger and onion until they become fragrant and the onion begins to become translucent.
Add the aubergine, mushrooms and okra and fry until they just begin to absorb the oil (not too long that they start to become mushy).
Dice your fresh tomatoes and add these. Fry until they begin to soften/collapse a little.
Add your tin(s) of tomatoes depending on how much sauce you desire. The fresh tomatoes should be adding to this sauce as well.
Bring to a simmer and allow flavours to develop, vegetables to soften and sauce to cook down for approx 10mins.
Wash and chop your spinach and fresh coriander. Fold this into your curry. You may need to add it in 2-3 batches depending on the amount of spinach (I like a lot!) and allow batches to soften into the curry before adding another.
Once the spinach has softened, taste the sauce and adjust salt/sugar/chilli. Then take off the heat to avoid over-cooking the spinach and it turning a dull-off-green.
Serving your tomato and ginger vegetable curry:
As always, it is completely up to you how you serve this/what you serve it with. I'm going 100% paleo this week, so the base is steamed broccoli & carrots and the oh-so-yummy pre-cooked yaki-imo! It is always an easy decision for me to have sweet potato/go 100% paleo when the supermarket's yaki-imo are big and cheap, as I LOVE the way they cook them. The centre is so sweet, moist and sticky and the skin has a lovely smoked/charred flavour to it and to top it all off the supermarket has done all the hard work for me at no extra cost!
When you are finished cooking / putting together your curry, it may look something like this:
Doesn't it just MAKESENSE to find alternatives to those classic 'creamy' curries? I love the way this curry is fresh, bright and 'zingy' making it an amazing contrast to creamy varieties. I mean I LOVE a creamy curry as much as the next person, but I like to have variety in my diet and I know that having creamy things all the time is not good for the cholesterol levels.
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