Simple Vegetable Peanut Curry

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

2 red chillies

1 courgette (zucchini)

1 red pepper

1 medium sized sweet potato (you can substitute this for mushrooms or any other veggie to shorten the cooking time)

2 carrots

Handful of sugar snap peas

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin of coconut milk

3 tbsp tomato puree

2 tbsp tamari (or soy sauce)

1 tbsp maple syrup

3 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp hot sauce

Juice of 1 lime

Handful of spinach

2 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp cumin

Salt/pepper

To serve:

1 1/2 cups of brown or white rice

Coriander

Toasted peanuts or cashews

Instructions:

1. Start by cooking the rice as instructed on the package so that it's done by the time you're finished with everything.

2. While the rice starts to cook, begin chopping your vegetables so that everything is ready to go once you start cooking. Use whatever vegetables you have/prefer or use the ones from this recipe.

3. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a wok or pot and start to fry the onion, garlic and chillies for a few minutes.

4. After that has cooked for a few minutes, add in the spices with a splash of water so that it doesn't stick: curry powder and cumin.

5. If you are not using sweet potato, then you can go ahead and throw in all of your remaining chopped vegetables. Stir it so that the spices coat all of the veggies for a minute. Skip to step 6.

• If you are going to use sweet potato, add in the cubed sweet potato first and give it around 15 minutes to cook on its own (with the coconut milk and chopped tomatoes in steps 6 & 7) before adding in the rest of the vegetables and cooking for a further 15 minutes. This is because the sweet potato takes much longer to cook and you don't want the rest of the vegetables to get too soggy if it's cooked for too long. Disregard this step if you are not using sweet potato!

6. Once the vegetables are evenly coated in the spices, you can add in the chopped tomatoes, coconut milk and tomato puree.

7. In a separate small bowl, whisk the peanut butter, tamari, maple syrup, hot sauce and lime. It may also be helpful to add in a splash of hot water too. You don't necessarily need to mix it in a separate bowl, but I find that it helps break up the peanut butter rather than putting it straight in the wok. Add this mixture to the wok, bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to simmer for 5-10 minutes.

8. Add in some salt/pepper and chilli flakes if you want more spice.

9. For the last minute of cooking, add in a handful of spinach and stir it into the curry as it really only needs a minute to wilt.

10. The rice should be ready to go by now and you can serve it all together with a handful of coriander on top!

11. If you want to be really fancy, you can also add some toasted peanuts or cashews to the top!

#vegancurry #peanutcurry