Tag Archives: Vegetable

Hidden Vegetable Curry with Warm Flatbread

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A while ago my friend asked me to make her a veg packed sauce for pasta and pizza that didn’t seem packed with veg. I came up with “A Sauce for Jenny“. Full of tomato, carrot, onion, garlic and squash it packed a punch in the vegetarian sauce stakes and was a hit with her vegetable phobic son. I have since found out that a number of other friends have been making the sauce and having equally as positive results with it.

Pasta is a staple in our house but tonight it was the turn of the rice and a mild vegetable curry to go with it.

I had some left over new potatoes that needed a culinary use so I combined these, sliced up, with a can of chick peas, a couple of roughly chopped carrots, half a de-seeded and finely chopped red chilli, some frozen peas, frozen sweetcorn, some very finely sliced greens, a teaspoon of mild curry powder and about  200 ml of coconut milk to create a mild sauce that is packed with vegetables.

There is no hard and fast rule about what vegetables can go in it or in what quantity but I always serve it with a little boiled rice and some warm flat bread as the novelty of scooping up the curry and rice with the bread helps get most of it in J’s mouth and less of it in the bin!

  • 5 boiled new potatoes, halved or quartered
  • Can of chickpeas, drained
  • Clove of garlic, crushed or chopped
  • Half a red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
  • 2 carrots, roughly chopped
  • A cup of frozen peas
  • A cup of frozen sweetcorn
  • A handful of finely sliced spring greens
  • A tablespoon of olive oil
  • 200 ml of coconut milk
  • Teaspoon of mild curry powder

Heat the oil in a large lidded pan and add all the ingredients apart from the coconut milk. Saute the vegetables until beginning to soften (or warm through the potato) before adding the coconut milk. Pop on the lid and cook for about 15 minutes. Serve with rice and warm flat bread.

Tofu (cheese) and Chinese five-spice

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I first introduced J to tofu a few months ago. It was out on the side in the kitchen and he thought it was a block of cheese, so I tentatively offered him a small piece fully expecting it to be spat out as soon as it hit his taste buds but I was wrong. Within seconds he was asking for “more cheese please”. The tofu was a basil infused variety and very tasty indeed. As a family we don’t eat too much meat and J eats less than us. I guess it’s a texture thing and I am told by my parenting friends that they have the same thing with their kids so I was delighted that he took to tofu as it is an excellent source of protein.

A few weeks ago I was idly browsing Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstall’s River Cottage Veg Everyday searching for something vegetable packed and tasty for dinner when I came across the recipe for Winter stir-fry with Chinese five-spice. As with a lot of vegetable recipes the vegetables can be changed to accommodate whatever you have kicking about in the fridge and I thought this would be an ideal dish to throw some tofu into. The only thing I didn’t have was the Chinese five-spice and I wasn’t confident that a) I actually knew what it was or b) I could substitute it for something equally oriental. So I headed to the supermarket.

The spice star anise is distilled to make star...

I picked up the container of Chinese five-spice and tossed it in the trolley without so much as a glance at the label. I didn’t even think to look at the contents of ingredients until I was too far into cooking to turn back. If I had I am certain that I would never have discovered the delights of this dish.

There is so much I shouldn’t like about Chinese five-spice. It contains star anise and fennel, two things right at the top of my food hell list. It also contains cloves, something else I can take or leave and cinnamon – the Marmite of the spice world.

I was just about to tip the spices into the wok when I decided to read the back of the container. I almost stopped to recoil in horror, abandon the dish and reach for the baked beans but I decided that the worst that could happen was that my portion went in the bin and I had to move straight on to the pudding.

I fried up some thin slices of carrot, leek, spring cabbage, a handful of peas and a few sliced mushrooms with red chilli and garlic until they were soft and then quickly transferred to a warm bowl. Then I threw the cooked egg noodles into the hot pan along with the spices*, vinegar and soy sauce and warmed for a few moment. At this point, completely off recipe, I added a good handful of toasted cashews and the sliced tofu. After that the vegetables were tossed back in and served immediately with a squeeze of fresh lime in warmed bowls.

The spices add a slightly aromatic flavour to the vegetables which is in no way over powering. J loved it and it has become a firm favourite on our menu. It is also a great way to encourage a bit of vegetable trying and can be eaten easily with little fingers. The vegetables remain sweet and full of flavour with a hint of crunch.

*I would say to add the vegetables in what ever quantity you like, I alter them to suit how many are around the table but I generally leave the spices in the same quantity: half a teaspoon of sugar, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of rice wine and half a teaspoon of Chinese five-spice.

When I finished writing this blog post I noticed that one of the photographs that the WordPress Media Gallery thought would be a good addition was of the Spice Girls. So here they are – Sport, Posh, Ginger, Scary and Baby. Not a star anise in sight!

English: Spice Girls performing their final co...

English: Spice Girls performing their final concert in Toronto, Ontario on February 26th, 2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)