A simple hearty curry to serve with lots of fluffy rice or soft warm naans. It keeps well the day after too, but I doubt there will be any left.
Diwali, the festival of light
Today marks the start of Diwali, the Festival of Light. The festival lasts five days and it is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains across the world. This celebration is not part of my tradition or religion, but I absolutely love it and celebrate it since I moved to London.
London is a magical melting pot. You can sit on a bench of its many parks and see the world passing by. You just need to travel to a different tube station to find yourself in a different country. London is chaotic, dirty, and expensive but its diversity is priceless. You can be a Londoner no matter where you come from.
I have always been fascinated by Indian culture, or shall I say cultures? Such a vast region with incredible traditions, most delicious food, and colourful art scene. This area taught the entire world how to use spices and gave us many gifts, including shampoo, yoga, buttons, chess, cataract surgery and of course curry.
A random encounter
When I moved to London, I found a flyer saying that Neasden temple was celebrating Diwali. I couldn’t believe my luck! I passed by the temple many times by bus and every time my jaw dropped when I saw the heavily decorated white building. The most incredible palace, like the one you see in the movies. It was just a matter of time before finding a good excuse to visit.
My partner and I joined the celebrations of Diwali and we had the best time. We silently walked within the temple walls admiring its beauty and greeted by the warmest welcome. The volunteers were so lovely and explained to us their prayers and traditions.
I got a bit lost and couldn’t find the exit, so I missed the fireworks, but people told me they were stunning.
We were about to go home when we smell cardamom, cumin, and saffron. We followed our nose and found a huge food stall bursting with people and with food wonders at every corner.
I ate everything I saw. I was just buzzing from one stall to another asking people what they had on the plate and ordering the same. I tried to learn the name of the new food, but it was so much stuff and I was so happy that I forgot most of the names.
I rolled back home with a smile from ear to ear. I couldn’t believe to have had the opportunity to join such an important celebration and felt determined to learn more about this wonderful country.
Since then, I started to read more about India, discovered many London Indian restaurants, and enjoyed cooking it at home.
I decided to start talking about Indian cuisine in the blog from our favourite curry. It is probably not the most traditional, please forgive me, but we regularly make it at home. It fills your belly very quickly, it’s so easy to make and I do recommend it.
Happy Diwali everyone 🕯️
Sweet Potato Coconut Curry
Course: MainsDifficulty: Easy10
minutes25
minutesA simple hearty curry to serve with lots of fluffy rice or soft warm naans. It keeps well the day after too, but I doubt there will be any left.
Ingredients
- Garam Masala Spice Mix (see notes)
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cardamom
- Vegetables
1 big red onion
15 g fresh ginger (or 1 tsp ground ginger)
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 bay leaf
500 g sweet potatoes
200 g carrots
400 ml coconut milk
200 g baby spinach
1 can of chickpeas (including aquafaba)
- To serve
15 g fresh coriander leaves (optional)
Basmati rice or naan bread
- Food cupboard & equipment
Sunflower oil, salt, pepper, and hot water
A big casserole pot
Method
- Peel and finely slice the onion and mince the ginger and garlic cloves.
- Add them in a casserole pot together with all the spices
- Stir in for five minutes then add one spoon of water and two spoons of tomato paste. Reduce the heat and keep stirring for five more minutes – don’t rush, this step is essential to pass on all the flavours of the spices to your curry.
- Peel the sweet potato and carrots and cut them into 2 cm chunks. Add them to your curry base with two spoons of hot water and stir for 5 minutes.
- Pour the coconut milk – make sure to give a good shake to your coconut milk can first.
- Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, add a few spoons of hot water if the curry sticks to the pot.
- Stir in your fresh baby spinach and let your curry simmer for 5 minutes over low heat. It might seems you have way too many spinach but these will quickly reduce in volume once you stir them in.
- Add the chickpeas and acquafaba in, this will give a nice thickness to your curry. Stir and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Mmmh it smells so good.
- Serve with hot basmati rice or naan bread.
Notes
- The list of spices needed to make Garam Masala is quite scary. If you don’t have these spices at home and don’t think you will need any of them in the future, please don’t buy them. You can easily just buy a god pre-made Garam Masala spice mix (available in most supermarkets) or even a Garam Masala paste. And if that is not available, don’t despair, just use three spoons of mild curry spice mix. We won’t tell anyone and your curry will equally taste delicious.
Looks delicious 😛 I can’t wait to try this one!
Thank you so much 😘