Cook with us week #13 - Vegan - Fragrant Vegetable Curry with Pea Flour Roti Pancakes

Nothing fancy, nothing grand, just a fragrant spicy Vegetable Curry served with fluffy long grain Basmati Rice, Pea Flour Roti Pancakes & a refreshing Cucumber Salad with a minty Balsamic dressing.

I am a carnivore who knows nothing about vegan cooking, but I love vegetables, pulses, fruit, nuts & grains, so really enjoyed googling all the amazing vegan dishes one can make. I could quite easily be persuaded to convert!

However, I chose to go with something I make occasionally, and that is a pucker Durban Vegetable Curry (Vegan) that also contains one onion (Mystery ingredient).
I will be attempting to make a Pea Flour Roti Pancake for the first time, so hope that works!

Walking through the garden looking for curry leaves, I was surprised to discover my curry leaf tree had berries, apparently edible, but the pips are toxic so leave those alone!
When googling facts about the berries I learnt to my surprise that this tree belongs to the citrus family; it's botanical name is Murraya koenigii.

See the black & reddish green berries at the top. A flowering shrub and others happily grow alongside the Murraya koenigii.

Ingredients for this fragrant Vegetable Curry:

Quantities can be altered to suit.

• Spices: 5ml Jeera (Cumin) seeds, 5ml Mustard Seeds, Cinnamon sticks, Star Anise, 3 whole Cloves, 10 - 25ml Masala, 5ml Coriander (Dhania) Powder, 2ml Roasted Coriander Powder, 10ml Turmeric, 2ml Asafoetida Yellow Powder
• Curry Leaves & fresh Dhania
• 1-2 whole Chillies, deseeded
• 1 Onion
• Garlic
• Ginger
• 3 Potatoes
• 2-3 medium Brinjals (Eggplant/ Aubergine)
• 2 Carrots
• Small bunch Green Beans
• 3 Tomatoes
• 3/4 cup Peas
• 3/4 cup Whole Kernel Corn

Firstly to tell you a secret my Gujerati friend Jashiela told me; cook the diced potatoes separately or else it takes forever to soften once it touches the curry spices.

Another secret guys and dolls; if in a hurry, this curry can be made by using frozen mixed veg & canned tomatoes, cuts down on prep time quite a bit & tastes almost as good!

Firstly, dice all vegetables.

Heat a nice big glug of Coconut Oil in large saucepan & add spices & garlic.

Add onions & sautee.

Add diced Brinjals & stir fry.

Add carrots, beans, tomatoes & curry leaves, salt to taste, stir & cover.
Cook till vegetables are soft.

Add corn & peas (I had to use frozen), cook a little longer with lid on.

Add pre-cooked potatoes, stir and cook over a very low heat.

Add extra curry leaves & fresh Dhania into the fragrant Vegetable Curry, cover with lid and let it stand so flavours can mingle.

Vegetable Curry looking nice & spicy after stirring.

I was tempted to make pucker Rotis, but even Jashiela tells me that she still battles to make them, she rather buys them. As it was late in the day and hubby was getting ravenous; plus he's a diabetic so I cannot let him wait too long; I decided to make roti pancakes with pea flour.

Ingredients for Pea Flour Roti Pancakes:

• 1/2 cup Chilli Bites mix - a spicy Pea Flour mixture with the addition of baking powder
• 1/4 cup Cake Wheat Flour
• Approx 3/4 cup Water
• Chopped Dhania leaves

A pancake like batter was obtained by whisking all ingredients together.

I'm not afraid of making pancakes and was fairly confident this could work, but still a tad uncertain.

I used a heavy cast iron pan, placed a little coconut oil in base, heated the pan and poured a thin layer of batter in.
Pancake cooking nicely with tiny bubbles forming, everything looking good so far :)

Now for the tricky part, to turn the pancake without breaking...and it worked!

Fragrant Vegetable Curry served with fluffy Basmati Rice, Pea Flour Roti Pancakes & a simple refreshing Cucumber Salad - grated cucumber with mint & white Balsamic dressing.

That is the end of my vegan story, hope you enjoyed my vegetable curry!

Hope to see you cooking along with us at #cookwithus this week or the next.
You not only stand to win sbd and learn new cooking tricks, but also meet awesome people!

A quick recap of the whole process:

Original Content by @lizelle
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