Roasted Vegetable Korma
Curries are one of my favourite things to make – and eat. They pack so much flavour and are usually pretty simple and quick to cook.
This korma is a classic example. Although perhaps not overly quick!
Given that I’m trying to avoid going to the shops, this curry was inspired by using things up. Using what I had in the fridge – I recorded the weight of the veggies used, that way you can substitute in whatever veggies you have to hand – and complemented with pantry staples. The usual suspects – some spices, tomatoes and coconut milk.
ok, so I may have bought some paneer….
I decided to roast the veggies as there’s nothing worse than a veggie curry that turns to mush. Where you can’t tell what you’re eating. And it was such a great idea. They kept their shape and you could taste the individual veggies, despite being submerged in a super-tasty sauce.
We’ve been eating lots of legumes lately. They’re such a wonderful ingredient to make quick, easy dishes from and I would normally throw a tin of chickpeas into a curry like this. Instead I decided to pan fry paneer as the protein to go on top. Crispy and crunchy on the outside, the salty cubes were the perfect accompaniment to the veggie-rich curry.
If you’re vegan or don’t like paneer, replace it with a firm tofu that you cut up and pan fry in exactly the same way.
roasted vegetable korma topped with golden fried cubes of paneer – and cashews…YUM
There was enough curry leftover for the following night and it was even tastier. I think I actually prefer curries on the second night. And since there wasn’t much paneer left, I added roasted cashews. What a great idea. It made for truly delicious leftovers.
If you’re interested I have included step-by-step instructions for this korma below the recipe. If you’re just after the recipe, here it is…
Ok, allow me to indulge with just one more of my pics before you can have the recipe!
- 380 grams, approx ⅓ of a cauliflower, cut into florets
- a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil
- salt
- 350 grams carrots, cut into 1-2 cm thick chunks
- 410 grams pumpkin, cut into 2-3 cm square chunks
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 3 stalks celery, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 400 gram tin crushed tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 1 sprig, approx 20, curry leaves
- 130 grams, approx 1 zucchini, cut into chunks
- 85 grams, approx handful of green beans
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- pepper
- 1 bunch coriander, washed and finely chopped
- Heat oven to 190 degrees C and line a large baking tray with non-stick paper.
- Place cauliflower in a medium sized bowl. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, toss and tip onto one end of the oven tray. Repeat with carrots, then pumpkin. Place in the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes. Until lovely and brown, cooked through but not too soft.
- Into a casserole dish or large pot, add the sliced onion and celery, a glug of oil and saute over medium heat until soft and starting to brown, approx 7-8 minutes.
- Add garlic, ginger, ground coriander, cumin and turmeric and cook for a few minutes before adding the tinned tomatoes and some water from rinsing out the tin. Stir through and bring to the boil, before turning down to a simmer and cooking for about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the poppy seeds in a food processor or grinder and grind until fine. Add coconut milk and blend until you form a 'paste.'
- Transfer coconut milk/poppy seed paste to a saucepan, add the curry leaves, bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for about 10 minutes. Be careful not to let it burn..
- Transfer onion mix to food processor and process to a smooth sauce. Return sauce to pot. Rinse the food processor out with some water and add to the sauce, along with about ¼ teaspoon salt. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer.
- Add the coconut milk and stir through, again with a little bit water used to rinse out the saucepan.
- Add zucchini and beans and cook for 5 minutes with the lid off.
- Add garam masala, stir through then taste sauce and add salt as needed and some black pepper.
- Add roasted veggies and most of the coriander to the sauce and gently stir through.
- Serve with rice, pan fried paneer and garnished with remaining coriander.
How to make this korma:
chop veggies, put onto oven tray and roast
saute onion and celery
add spices, garlic and ginger
add tomatoes (I used roasted tomatoes rather than tinned, only as a have a glut of them currently!)
after they’ve cooked for a while, puree the onion tomato mix and add back to pot – meanwhile process poppy seeds and coconut milk, then cook with curry leaves in another pot before mixing all together
first cook zucc and green beans for 5 mins before adding roasted veggies
add coriander, taste to check if it needs more salt
Otherwise your curry is ready to eat!
but this is a much better, more appetising photo 🙂
