{Recipe}::: Quick and easy coconut vegetable curry

We are overdue for a grocery shop. Matt is on night shifts at the moment and I just cannot fathom heading to the shops to do a weekly shop with the girls at the moment. Actually....there is nothing worse I could think of!

As the day went on, I knew we didn't have any meat left, but I thought we might have enough produce to whip up some sort of a risotto.

It was around 3pm when I had a look in the pantry to discover...we had only about 1 tablespoon of risotto rice left! Darn!! What the heck were we going to have for dinner?! I thought, oh we could have omelettes, but no...out of eggs. Oh, I could make a pizza...no, I dont fancy bacon and pumpkin pizza!

I put my thinking cap on and had a look at the seemingly sad looking vegetables that were left in my fridge. I had about 3 carrots, a 1/4 pumpkin, 5 sticks of celery, a head of broccoli, a handful of sad looking spinach, and a punnet of cherry tomatoes as well as some potato and onion and garlic. I thought, hmmm its going to have to be some sort of vegetarian meal, obviously, with a whole lotta mixed vegetables!

Lets make a vegetable curry!

Luckily, I always have a good supply of coconut milk and coconut cream in my pantry as they would help this meal along alot! Here is the recipe:

Coconut Vegetable Curry

2 Tbs coconut oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tins coconut cream (270ml each)

2 Tbs curry powder

1 Tbs maple syrup

1 Tbs Tamari (or soy) sauce

2 Tbs Vegetable stock paste 

1 cup water

1 pinch salt

5 sticks celery, cut in chunks

2 carrots, sliced and quartered in chunks

4 potatoes, cut in chunks

1/4 pumpkin, cut in chunks

1 head of broccoli, cut into pieces

punnet of tomatoes

1 cup frozen peas

handful of spinach

Heat the coconut oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and stir until softened and fragrant.

Add coconut cream, curry powder, maple syrup, tamari, vegetable stock paste, water and salt and stir. 

Add celery, carrots, potatoes and pumpkin. Pop the lid on and bring to the boil. When boiling, reduce to a simmer and let sit until the vegetables are soft (approx 15 minutes).

Add tomatoes, broccoli and peas and cook through.

Turn off the heat and add spinach and stir through until wilted.

Serve with basmati rice and pappadums. Add some coconut cream or coconut yoghurt (or normal yoghurt) for the kids.

You can be as flexible as you like with this meal. Any vegetables would do: sweet potato, cauliflower, zucchini, etc. Experiment with what you have. This is a fabulous way to use up leftover vegetables in your fridge before you do a new grocery shop! If you don't have Vegetable Stock Paste, a simple vegetable stock powder would be fine. And it isn't even that necessary, it would taste just as amazing without it!

I hope you enjoy this recipe! Let me know if you give it a go!

xxx