Fruits & Veggies Monday #30: "Fresh Veggies & Legumes for Mmmmm-azing Homemade Curries!"

I could eat curries 'til the cows come home (as they say).  Or until it comes out my ears.  Homemade curries are such a wonderful way to fill your family with an endless variety of nourishment, each curry different and beautiful in flavour, colour, texture, and smell, and you can use absolutely any kind of vegetables and fruit in them that you like (and even ones you don't, because you can disguise flavours so easily!).  

Back in my 'ignorant days' I bought those jars of ready-made curry sauce, and focused instead on the meat in the dish, as if that were the most important part of the meal.  But after becoming vegetarian my attention was drawn to how bland and sloppy most of those processed curries were... not to mention full of sugar and artificial rubbish.  So instead I found a simple recipe for a homemade curry base-sauce and I've never looked back!  I just adapt what I do every time, depending on what kind of veggies (or fruit) I have in my kitchen on the day I fancy making one.  But recipes aren't even necessary (except perhaps the first couple times you make them), as you can't really go wrong!

So, today I have for you a curry made from butternut squash, turnip, red onions, garlic, green lentils, aduki beans, chickpeas, tomato passata, coconut milk, and spices (medium curry powder, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, coriander).

Directions:

Peel and chop the squash and turnip into chunks.  Steam for about 15 minutes until softened (but not squishy... we want to retain as much nutrients as possible!)  I used half of each veg here.

Whilst the veggies are steaming, put the lentils (200g) into a pan and cover with cold water (I use rainwater that I collect and filter for cooking with).  Simmer for about 20 minutes until tender, drain and set aside.

Peel 2 onions and a whole bulb of garlic (at least), and blitz in a food processor or blender until fine.  Saute on moderate heat in a large frying pan (I use a little coconut oil for this) until softened.

Add the squash and turnip, and mash in the pan with a veg masher.  I like to leave some a bit chunky... all adds to the texture.

Drain and rinse the aduki beans and chickpeas thoroughly.  I'm cheating here using canned beans, but I usually cook them from dried and freeze in small jars so I always have a good supply for cooking.  For directions, please see my post Batch Cooking & Freezing Beans (from Dried)- The Easiest and Most Efficient Method

Add the beans, lentils, tomato passata and all the spices to the pan.  Give a good stir.  Carefully add the coconut milk and try not to slop it all over the cooker as you mix it in (I try yet my pan nearly always overfloweth...)

And there we have it!  Serve with rice or whatever takes your fancy.  One tasty dinner.  In fact, more than one tasty dinner, as a full pan like this should provide two people about three or even four meals.  I leave it to cool, then put in jars and freeze for those lazy days when I don't want to cook.

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("5 Cs" shared with kind permission from @kiwideb)