Vegan Dinner Recipe: Baked red curry

I don't know why there's a difference, but baked curry kicks normal, cooked-on-the-stove curry's arse. I don't know why or how, but seriously, once you've had a baked curry you'll start feeling disdainful about curry cooked any other way. This is a household favourite, and when word gets out that this is dinner, there's no way anybody's got other plans. This recipe serves three, and I serve it with steamed rice. There are never left overs!


This recipe is an out-of-the-cupboard, left-over-veggies spectacular. If you keep a jar of red curry in your fridge (check the ingredients and ensure no fish sauce for a vegan experience!) And a couple of cans of coconut milk and chickpeas in the cupboard, you basically have a winner any time! It's really easy, and can be prepped in ten minutes. The only thing that stops it from being a quick meal is that the cooking time is about an hour, so make sure you get started a little earlier.

Here goes!

Ingredients:

For the blend:
A garlic clove
A tablespoon of lime or lemon juice, whatever you've got
A tin of coconut milk
An inch of ginger, chopped roughly (to make it easy on the poor old blender)
Half a tablespoon of soy sauce
Two teaspoons of red curry
A quarter of a cup of almond butter (I use macro almond spread from Woolies, it is SENSATIONAL)
Half a teaspoon of salt

The other stuff:
A can of chickpeas
A chopped onion
Three cups of chopped veggies. For this curry I used cauliflower, green beans, carrot, mushrooms and zucchini, but sometimes I like to use potato, sweet potato, snow peas, capsicum... be creative, and it's fine if you want to go nuts and add more than three cups BUT don't go more than four or you'll have to add a bit more coconut milk.
Two kaffir lime leaves.

FIRST. Heat your oven. About 160, 170 degrees celsius. The slower the bake, the more delicious the curry. Take my word for it.

Stick all the ingredients for "the blend" in your blender.

 Blend. Thoroughly.

Now pour the mix into a baking dish, like a lasagne dish or similar.

Add the chickpeas

Add the veggies

Give it a good stir. Cover it in tinfoil tightly. You don't want it browning too fast.

That's all the prep!

Put it in the oven with the tinfoil on for at least forty minutes.

After forty, forty five minutes, take the tinfoil off and put the curry back in the oven to finish off. At the same time, cook your rice (if you're having it with rice, which I recommend).

And you're done!

Okay, it doesn't look like much. Put it in a bowl with rice and garnish it with a bit of coriander or a wedge of lime, and I swear to you it is one of the best curries you will EVER eat.