HEARTY, RICH Vegetable Curry {Vegan}

This vegan curry has a range of delicious vegetables and textures. There's also protein and a flavoursome sauce so that you don't miss meat at all! Full of winter vegetables it will fill you up in the most delicious way!

I wanted to develop a vegan curry that was both full of goodness and had enough protein in place of meat. Enter this vegan curry. When people go vegetarian or flexitarian sometimes they forget that you need protein. Even Mr NQN who grew up in a vegetarian family did one time when I went away to Europe for a few weeks and he thought that he could subsist on pasta and sauce. He got quite sick from the lack of protein.

In this curry chickpeas provide the protein in place of chicken. A 400g/14oz tin of chickpeas has around 76grams/2.7ozs of protein while a similar weight of chicken has 108grams/3.8ozs. Couple the chickpeas with a range of vegetables and you have a hearty, delicious meal. I used a range of vegetables from pumpkin, green beans, fairy eggplant, potato and peas. If you want to keep track of your protein intake, the vegetables with the highest amount of protein are bean sprouts, peas, spinach, corn, beans and chickpeas.

This curry smelled so delicious cooking that even little Teddy Elliott started begging for some of it! I mentioned before about how Teddy was feeling a little put out by the presence of Mary, the neighbour's dog. Mary is an absolutely sweet senior moodle who we take for a walk and a bit of company as her owner works long hours. Mr NQN lets himself in the neighbour's apartment and collects Mary every day and then brings her back after she has had a walk and a bit of time with us.

Teddy used to find her presence a bit perturbing. Whenever Mary would come over for a pat Teddy would run from the other end of the apartment for a pat too in a massive display of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). It was as if he wanted to say, "You love me too right?". He used to follow her around, shadowing her, sometimes trying to push her around. Mary used to stick up for herself and let him know that she might be older but she was no pushover.

Now he and Mary have come to some sort of a truce. I took Teddy out for a walk but we only had time for a quick pee and then I had to go out. When we walked past Mary's balcony Teddy turned towards the door to go to get Mary and when I walked the other way he started whimpering and softly barking. Then Mary came out on her balcony and started meeping too and the two of them were simultaneously trying to plead with me to go and get Mary. It was adorably sweet and I think he now knows that Mary is just a friend, not a potential sibling!

So tell me Dear Reader, did you ever have sibling rivalry as a child? Do you take monitor your protein intake?

Vegan Curry

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 35-40 minutes

Serves: 6 with rice

• 3 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
• Oil for frying
• 3 sprigs curry leaves
• 2 large onions (around 500g/1.1lbs), peeled and diced
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
• 4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2 cups/500ml/16.9flozs. vegetable stock
• 2kgs/4.4lbs vegetables (I used a mix of potato cubes, pumpkin cubes, whole fairy eggplant, tinned chickpeas, green beans and peas)
• 200ml/7flozs. coconut cream

Step 1 - Heat a very large pot on medium heat. Add the turmeric, curry powder, cumin and mustard seeds and dry fry until the mustard seeds start to pop.

Step 2 - Add oil, 2 sprigs of curry leaves (reserve 1 for decoration), onions and saute for 5-7 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and tomatoes and saute for a few minutes until the tomatoes have softened. Then add the stock and the hardest vegetables like the potatoes, pumpkin, carrot and whole fairy eggplant. Cook for 20 minutes or until just starting to soften (the exact time will depend on how small you've cut the pieces).

Step 3 - Then add the other vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower that will take 5 minutes to cook. The remaining vegetables only take 1-2 minutes to cook through like the chickpeas, green beans and peas so add these last. Turn the heat down to low and add coconut cream. Add last sprig of curry leaves at the end and serve with rice.