planet vegan scotland

No, calm down. I haven't made 660 curries. It is the title of a wonderful book by Raghavan Iyer bought for me by my dear friend Lisa.

At first I was a bit overwhelmed by this tome of a cookbook, until I realised how it should be used. It's not one of those coffee table books that you flick through looking at the shiny pictures. Instead it is a treasure chest full of curries, biryanis, breads, pickles relishes and raitas, to name but a few and the best way to use this book is to choose the ingredients you want to use and then have a browse through the index. You won't be disappointed.

You will be surprised to hear that the first ingredient I looked up wasn't mushrooms. I decided I wanted a curry using spinach and so I came to Spicy Potatoes and Spinach with Blackened Chiles and Coconut Milk. I changed it a little, using chilli flakes, instead of dried red thai chiles, baby new potatoes instead of russet potatoes and I changed the spices a little. Here is my final recipe.






















Spicy Spinach and Potato Curry

2 tbsp oil
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
16 baby new potatoes, quartered (approx 1 ½ cm pieces)
240g baby spinach
400ml coconut milk

Dry roast the seeds in a hot pan for a few minutes. Don't allow to burn. Grind the spices in a pestle and mortar.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based pan. Add the spices and allow to sizzle for a few minutes before adding the rinsed and chopped potatoes. The oil will sparks, so put the lid on until it settles, then stir occasionally for the next 5 minutes.

Stir in the salt, turmeric and chilli flakes. Then pour in the coconut milk and stir to deglaze the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer gently, with the lid on for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Rinse the spinach and then add to the pan. There is no need to chop it, it will wilt down as it cooks. Stir well before serving.

Serves 4-6

I served up this curry with our favouite Chickpea Curry, rice, chutney and chapatis. I will blog about the chapatis soon. They were great fun to make and I was very impressed when I realised there were flames involved. I managaed to make them without being burned, but I did smash a kilner jar reaching for my camera at the table. Ooops! Graham wasn't impressed as this is the third thing I have smashed this week, fourth if you include the teeny, tiny jam jar that fell out a cupboard as I opened it today.

I was ably assisted in the kitchen by my friend Andrew who had come for dinner and Graham, well he sat back and enjoyed the meal knowing he was in charge of clearing up afterwards. Cooper quietly supervised from the armchair in the corner, throwing in the occasional comment.



I am entering this dish into this month's SOS Kitchen Challenge, which is jointly hosted by my good friend Ricki over at Diet, Dessert & Dogs and Kim over at Affairs of Living, this month the challenge is to create a health conscious dish suitable for a vegan diet containing spinach.

If you would like to enter a dish, here are some of the guidelines:

* Simply cook up a recipe–whether yours or someone else’s with credit to them – using spinach
* In general, please use only whole foods ingredients (minimally processed with no artificial flavors, colors, prepackaged sauces, etc.)
* Use whole grains and whole grain flours only; no refined white flours or sugar (but either glutenous OR gluten-free flours are fine)
* Please ensure that recipes are vegan (no animal products whatsoever, including meat, fish, chicken, milk, yogurt, eggs, honey), or include vegan options
* Include only natural sweeteners (no white sugar, nothing that requires a laboratory to create–such as splenda, aspartame, xylitol, etc.). Rather, use maple syrup, agave nectar, brown rice syrup, coconut sugar, dates, yacon syrup, stevia, etc.

You have until the 20th of May. Email your submission to soskitchenchallenge@gmail.com