Vegetable jalfrezi

The great thing about this curry is the slightly sweet and sour flavour from the capsicums. Do experiment with other combinations of vegetables such as zucchinis, eggplant or potatoes once you've mastered this version. Use the recipe as a guideline and start incorporating all of your own favourite veg.

serves 8

Ingredients

• • 1 medium onion
• • 1 fresh large red chilli
• • a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
• • 2 cloves of garlic
• • a small bunch of fresh coriander
• • 2 red capsicums
• • 1 cauliflower
• • 3 ripe tomatoes
• • 1 small pumpkin
• • 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
• • groundnut or vegetable oil
• • a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
• • a knob of butter
• • ½ a 283g jar of Patak’s jalfrezi curry paste
• • 2 x 400g tins of tomatoes
• • 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• • 2 lemons
• • 200g natural yoghurt

To prepare your curry

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• Peel, halve and roughly chop your onion
• Finely slice the chilli
• Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic

To prepare your curry

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• Pick the coriander leaves and finely chop the stalks
• Halve, deseed and roughly chop the capsicums
• Break the green leaves off the cauliflower and discard

To prepare your curry

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• Break the cauliflower into florets and roughly chop the stem
• Quarter the tomatoes
• Carefully halve the pumpkin, then scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard

To prepare your curry

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• Slice the pumpkin into 2cm thick wedges, leaving the peel on but removing any thick skin, then roughly chop into smaller pieces
• Drain the chickpeas

To cook your curry

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• Put a large pan on a medium to high heat and add a couple of lugs of oil and the butter
• Add the onions, chilli, ginger, garlic and coriander stalks and cook for 10 minutes, until softened and golden
• Add the capsicums, pumpkin, drained chickpeas and jalfrezi curry paste

To cook your curry

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• Stir well to coat everything with the paste
• Add the cauliflower, the fresh and tinned tomatoes and the vinegar
• Fill 1 tin with water, pour into the pan and stir again

To cook your curry

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• Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 45 minutes with the lid on
• Check the curry after 30 minutes and, if it still looks a bit wet after this time, leave the lid off for the remaining 15 minutes
• When the veg are tender, taste and add salt and pepper – please season carefully – and a squeeze of lemon juice

To serve your curry

• Delicious with poppadums or rice (see Fluffy rice) and with a few spoonfuls of natural yoghurt, a sprinkle of coriander leaves and a few lemon wedges for squeezing over