Indian Feast
Indian food is probably the most perfect cuisine for vegans. It’s packed with flavour, spice and aromatics, and there are loads of dishes that are already vegetarian or vegan naturally.
These recipes will give you a good idea of how to build a vegan feasting menu for family and friends, and I promise that neither you nor your guests will miss out on anything —there’s texture, spice, depth, warm, cool and all the wonderful comforts of eating a curry on a Saturday night.
First off we have the chickpea curry, then there is a side of brown lentil dhal, a side of crushed potatoes, and a wonderful red, spiced coleslaw. There are also quick additions of tamarind and date chutney, mango chutney and a coriander and mint raita! You should also buy lots of popadoms, vegan naan and make a simple cardamom, brown rice.
So, let’s plan a timetable. If you are having a dinner party on Saturday night, I would recommend starting the prep on Thursday. I know this seems a little OTT but the curries definitely benefit from a little maturation and it’s nice to not be rushed off your feet the whole weekend. So, with that in mind, it’s Thursday night, let’s get to work!
Mango Chutney:
Firstly, take the flesh of two ripe mangoes and slice.
Then dice half a red onion a pop it in a pan over a medium heat. Add one tsp of mustard seeds to that and watch as they start to jump. Now you can add the cumin and cardamom pods.
Stir the spices together before pouring in four tablespoons of granulated sugar and around 6 tbsp malt vinegar. Add 10 tbsp water to that and let it combine for just a minute before adding the mango. Now add the diced chilli, the extra hot chilli powder, and the zested lime and juice. Allow it to simmer for 2 hours on a very low heat, stirring often in the beginning and adding water if it looks a little dry.
Once you are happy with the softness of the mango you can blitz half of the mixture and add that back into the pan to warm through. Turn off the heat and let it cool in the pan before decanting into sterilised jars and storing in the fridge.
Chickpea Curry Method:
So it’s still Thursday night and we need to get to work on the star of the show — chickpea curry.
Start by chopping up the potato and boiling for 20 minutes.
Then we need to put together the spice blend. Add all of the dried spices into a grinder and pulverise until it resembles sand. Next, fry the sliced onion in a pan over medium heat with a little rapeseed oil. Once the onions are translucent add in the spice blend.
Make sure you cook this out properly. If you don’t you’re in for a world of weird, metallic tasting pain, which your curry (and you) may never recover from.
After around 5–8 minutes the spices should be smelling good and you can now add the tomatoes, mild green chilli, tomato purée and minced garlic.
Next, mix the tamarind pulp in a separate bowl with a little warm water and get your hands into it. Squeeze it all together and remove any hard stones you find. Then add that into the pot.
Now add 100ml water and throw, although not literally, it into a pre-heated oven at 180c for 15 minutes, covered, just to let the flavours combine.
While this is happening mix 20g of coconut milk powder with 20ml water — I like to have this in as it keeps for ages and I can use it for all sorts of things and at any strength/thickness I want.
And add a small bunch of very finely diced coriander stalks to the pot, along with the drained, diced potato, the chickpeas and 40ml water.
Next place the remaining spices — the grated ginger, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and cardamon pod — in a small muslin cloth.
I like to do this so I can easily remove it later without the worry of biting into a cardamom pod by mistake. But of course you can just chuck it into the pot, just warn your guests!
Now, put that back into the oven and turn it down to 150c and leave it for at least two hours.
Once this time is up, take it out of the oven and give it a good stir and remove the muslin cloth. Have a quick taste and adjust the seasoning.
If you have time place it back in the oven for another two — four hours but if not, put it in the fridge and you can do the additional cooking time on Friday night.
Once it has cooked for the 6ish hours, you can put it in the fridge and let the flavours combine overnight, but before you seal it up in it’s Tupperware bed you have to do something a little weird…
Brew yourself a nice cup of tea. Make it strong and then add two reduced sodium stock cubes to it. Remove the tea bag and slake together 20g of coconut milk powder with a little liquid. Then pour the whole lot over the curry. It can sit like this until Saturday morning or afternoon, when you reheat it, preferably in the oven on low for a couple of hours.
At this point the chickpeas are soft, the spices are mellow and complicated, and there is a good level of heat. Serve it with a good squeeze of lime juice and more coriander leaves.
Dhal Method:
This can be done on the Friday night. You start by slicing the onion and putting that into a warmed pan with a little oil.
Once that is translucent add all the spices to a spice grinder and sift.
Add the spices to the onions and cook out for a few minutes before adding in the lentils. Then add the stock cube which has been dissolved in 300ml water, tomato purée, fresh ginger and garlic.
Clamp a lid on and put it straight in an oven at 120c. Leave it in there for at least six hours !I know! — checking it every hour or so and adding water as you go (I added around 300ml extra in total). The lentils should be soft with a little bite giving this curry a really meaty texture.
It’s now Saturday afternoon and you are mostly prepared. The next few steps are pretty quick and you can easily knock them together to give your party an added sense of effort.
Crushed Potatoes Method:
Simply boil the baby new potatoes in water before tipping onto a baking sheet. Wait until they’ve cooled and then crush them down with your fingers.
Drizzle in a little rapeseed oil and the finely ground spices and bake in the oven at 180c for about 30 minutes until crisp and golden around the edges.
Coleslaw Method:
Grate half a head of red cabbage and three carrots into a bowl. Then finely slice four spring onions and add that into the mix.
Add a very generous grinding of spicy peppercorns, salt and the juice of half to one lime, depending on it’s size. Refrigerate and serve cold, in place of the onion salad you often get with Indian dishes.
Tamarind and Date Chutney Method:
This chutney is so super quick and easy, it’s a little embarrassing. Chuck all the ingredients into a jar, stick the lid on and shakey-shakey.
Mint Yoghurt Method:
Stir together two tablespoons plant based plain yoghurt along with half — one tsp mint sauce. Add a small bunch of finely chopped fresh mint and coriander and a quarter tsp of chilli powder and ground cumin.
Serve all three chutneys cold from the fridge with plenty of popadoms.
I also served rose scented chocolate pots for dessert. I followed my own chai-spiced mousse recipe but omitted the chai spices in favour of a few capfuls of beautiful floral rose water.
After having a heavily spiced dinner it was perfect to end on a decadent perfumed dessert.
Ingredients
Chickpea Curry:
Spice blend: quarter tsp hot chilli powder . 1 tsp coriander seed . 1 tsp cumin . 2 tsp garam masala . 1 tsp onion granules . half tsp ground ginger . 1 tsp ground turmeric . pinch sea salt . 5 peppercorns .
tin of chickpeas . half a red onion . half garlic clove . 5g fresh ginger grated . 2 bay leaves . 1 brown cardamon pods . 1 cinnamon stick . 4 tbsp tomato purée . half large mild green chilli . 1 salad tomatoes . 150g potato diced and boiled . 1 tbsp tamarind pulp . 20g coconut milk powder mixed with a little water . 2 reduced sodium stock cubes . half lime juice . coriander leaves . 2 tbsp plain plant based yoghurt .
Brown Lentil Dhal: cup brown lentils . half red onion . 2 cloves . 1 star anise . 1 tsp coriander seed . 1 tsp cumin . 1 tsp garam masala . half tsp hot chilli powder . half tsp fennel seeds . 3 cardamom pods .1 bay leaf . half large cinnamon stick . 5g fresh ginger grated . 1 garlic bulb . 2 tsp tomato purée . reduced sodium vegetable stock cube dissolved in 300ml water. coriander leaves
Crushed Potatoes: 1kgs baby new potatoes . teaspoon vegan butter or rapeseed oil . 1 tsp cumin . quarter tsp fennel seeds lightly pulverised . one fragrant brown cardamom pod, also pulverised. 1 tsp chilli powder . top with spring onions, green chillies, coriander leaves and lime wedges
Coleslaw: half red cabbage . 3 carrots . 4 spring onion . juice of half — one lime . salt . ground peppercorns
Tamarind and Date Chutney: 2 heaped tsp tamarind pulp . 5 tsp date syrup . pinch extra hot chilli powder . quarter tsp onion granules . quarter tsp fresh ginger, grated . salt . 6tbsp hot water
Coriander and Mint raita: 2 tbsp plant based plain yoghurt . small bunch coriander . small bunch fresh mint . quarter tsp chilli . quarter tsp cumin . salt . half tsp mint sauce .
Mango Chutney: 2 mango . 1 medium chilli . zest and juice lemon . zest and juice of one lime . 2 tbsp sugar . 2 cardamom pods . half tsp cumin . 1 tsp mustard seeds . pinch extra hot chilli powder
Nutrition
Who cares? Serve with plenty of popadoms and enjoy the feast.
