Today we are cooking a dish full of Indian flavors – vegetable korma! This delicious dish is loaded with potatoes, carrots, green peas and green beans. For me, this dish feels like comfort food – it is creamy, perfect for winter days and is also full of delicious flavors.
The amount of ingredients seems discouraging, but I can assure you that half the list are just spices. You can get them easily in any supermarket, and once you buy them, they will last you for a long time. The secret of this dish is that it should have a very creamy texture. The choice of vegetables depends only on you, you can add cauliflower, zucchini, pumpkin or corn, whatever your heart desires.
TOFU – in this recipe, tofu is an optional ingredient, there is no need to add it, because the dish itself is very nutritious. But if you fancy adding tofu, just dice it and let it sit in the sauce for a few minutes to absorb the aroma of the dish.
STAR ANISE and the rest of the spices – remember that you need to “activate” the spices, and you can get it done by roasting the spices on a pan at the beginning of the process, so that they get the right temperature and begin to release aromas, just like in the recipe. Note with anise, one star is really enough, even when you’re making double the amount of food.
INGREDIENTS (4-5 servings)
- 2 potatoes
- 2 carrots
- ½ cup green peas (frozen)
- ½ cup green beans (frozen)
- 1 tofu (optional)
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- a piece of ginger (1 cm)
- can of coconut milk (full fat)
- a handful of cashews
- 200ml of passata
- 1 star anise
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of coconut flakes
- ½ teaspoons: cardamom, garam masala, cumin, coriander, turmeric, hot pepper (or chilli)
- 0.5L of water or broth
- 1 lime
VEGETABLE KORMA – PREPARATION
- Start by soaking the cashews in water and putting them aside for 30 minutes to let them soften a bit. When they are soft, drain them and pour them into a tall container, add in coconut milk and blend thoroughly.
- Put the chopped onion, garlic and ginger into a hot frying pan and fry, add anise and cinnamon to fry.
- When the onion is golden, add the diced carrots and potatoes and fry for another 5 minutes. Then add in all the dry spices and let it fry for a few more minutes to “open” the aromas, then add the peas and beans.
- Add the previously prepared cashew paste and passata, add water or broth. Cook for about 15 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently until the potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, cook the rice.
- Finally, take out the cinnamon and anise, add the lime juice and toss the tofu cubes. Serve with fresh coriander.
