Sri Lankan Vegetable Curry

When it is freezing cold outside, the one thing that makes me happy is a nice warm curry. Something that I can pack up and take to work to heat in the microwave in the envy of my colleagues.

This is actually a slap dash recipe that I made with vegetables leftover at the end of the week. I knew I had green lentils and I knew I had potatoes and coconut milk so these ingredients formed the base of my curry. I also had some Sri Lankan curry powder from Seasoned Pioneers that works well with the coconut milk. The curry powder is dry roasted with a lot of warming spices such as fennel, cumin, cinnamon, cloves and cayenne. It has sweet as well as fruity notes similar to a Thai Massaman curry which is what the coconut milk picks up on. 

The remaining green vegetables I used were tossed in at the end mostly for colour but don’t add anything to the dish and can be substituted for other green veg you have. I think cabbage and other brassica work well to soak up the flavour of the sauce but I also tossed in some chopped up flat beans for an added crunch. The crunch is needed and can come in the form of easy cooking vegetables like broad beans, peas and French beans, alternatively you can use a non-salted mix-seed selection to sprinkle on the top.

I was worried that my boyfriend wouldn’t like this dish because it’s not the best looking dish in the world but to my surprise, he loved it. I think it is down to the combination of filling potatoes with the warming coconut curry base that sealed the deal. He even took some to lunch the next day!  The potatoes are essential to this dish to keep any meat eaters happy, as this is the ingredient I would consider to be the ‘meat’ part of the curry. Although I don’t think chicken or fish could substitute in the same way.  So whether you’re a carnivore or vegetarian, try this one out! 

Ingredients

2 tbsp Sri Lankan Curry Powder

1 can Coconut Milk

4 Potatoes, washed and diced

1 Onion, diced

2 cloves of Garlic, minced

½ cup of green Lentils, washed

2 red Chillies, roughly chopped (de-seed the chillies if you want it milder)

1 cup of green vegetables (in this case chopped Broccoli and flat Beans)

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

Recipe

Start by heating some oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the onion, garlic and chilli to the pan and stir until softened. Then add the curry powder, this has been dry roasted already so you can add it straight to the onions. Give a stir until the house is smelling fragrant. Pour in the coconut milk and mix well. Now you can add the potatoes and lentils, top up the pan with some water so they just cover the potatoes.

Cook on a medium/low heat for 25 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Finally add the green vegetables and cook for 5 minutes more. Serve over white basmati rice. Enjoy