Veggie Ideas – Squash, Spinach & Coconut Curry

First things first, this dish is not your average veggie curry – you know the one: cauliflower, green beans and potato… excuse me while I yawn myself to sleep and fill up on naan bread! If you are looking for some great veggie curry ideas, especially ones you can adapt on the fly then this is a winner.

Of course, the star of the show in this recipe is butternut squash, but it is one of the last things to go in the pot. This means that you can split the sauce at this point and make a meat/fish version too. The idea here is that the veggies and carnivores in your life get the same tasty curry base for National Curry Week.

I am not a vegetarian

12 years ago one of my sisters first embarked on vegetarianism… she ate meat again at one point but has since returned to a meatless, mostly vegan diet. My other sister is a pescatarian. When I was 18 I gave up meat too, but it lasted about three weeks and I woke up with a bad head and memories of scoffing a chicken curry at the end of the night. Needless to say I wasn’t fully committed. I have had fits and starts with meat in the past but I have never been a vegetarian. At uni, I basically ate a veggie diet, but this was more to do with prioritising my cash for a night drinking wine in Matt and Phreds – who needs meat when you have a glass of house red right?!

I am veggie curious

I am not vegetarian but I have always been veggie curious. 12 years ago if you ate out and had a veggie diet then your choices were limited to a veggie moussaka, the aforementioned boring veggie curry or a side of chips. These days we are spoilt for choice. With the rise and rise of veganism, societies attempt to reduce our carbon footprint and of course, the mass realisation that actually… eating less meat is good for your health. We have seen the veggie food scene explode! And I love good food! For me, it doesn’t matter if that is a stellar bacon butty or a veggie curry – if the food tastes good, I’ll eat it!

The flexitarian diet

These days we have found a lifestyle that works for us. On the whole we eat a pescatarian diet (fish twice a week) the rest of the time we eat mainly vegetarian and we usually have meat once a week… If it’s more no one gets told off! We eat this way for lots of reasons but mainly we eat this way because recipes like this make it sustainable.

If you are looking for veggie curry ideas then I am happy to tell you that your search is over, it’s time for business!

Make your time work for you

In this video, I start my prep while the children eat breakfast. This is a great idea if you find you have pockets of time to prep your veggie curry and limited time at the end of the day to cook it. I sometimes struggle to pull everything together if we have been out all day and don’t get home with much time to spare.

It’s a great idea to spend a bit of time upfront prepping this veggie curry. It saves chaos and destruction at the end of the meal. I still have those cooking experiences but thankfully, these days, they are few and far between.

Ideas for serving this veggie curry

You can go as little or large as you like with curry. Midweek I am tempted to serve this with something like my cauliflower, courgette and garlic brown rice (recipe to follow in the future).

But if you want to make it a bit more special you can add a whole host of special sides. I like to fill ramakins with different chutneys, make chilli onions and a raita, fry some fresh poppadums I buy these and bake Indian snacks like onion bhajis or my homemade samosas which freeze well and I will write about in the future.

We love a good ruby!

We love a good curry in this house, I like a fair amount of heat and sometimes I have been told I go a bit over the top. Over time I will share more ideas for veggie curry with you and I hope they find a place at your table.

Veggie Ideas – Squash, Spinach & Coconut Curry

Of course, the star of the show in this recipe is butternut squash, but it is one of the last things to go in the pot. This means that you can split the sauce at this point and make a meat/fish version too. The idea here is that the veggies and carnivores in your life get the same tasty curry base

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Course Dinner

Cuisine Indian

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 whole butternut squash
• 260 g bag spinach washed
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 400 ml coconut milk
• fresh coriander to garnish

Instructions

 

The Squash Prep

• Peel and roughly chop into large chunks/strips/cubes. Uniformity isn't important here.
• On a baking tray add the squash, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle generously with garam masala and whole cumin seeds. If you only have ground then go with that.
• Roast in a preheated oven at 180ºC Fan/Gas 6 for 25 mins. You want the edges of the squash to start to brown

Prep the rest of your veg

• Grate, crush or finely chop 5-6 cloves of garlic (I use 10 tiny ones in the video because we love garlic)
• Grate a thumb size piece of ginger.
• Finely chop 1 red onion.
• Finely slice 4 red birds eye chillis. If you prefer a mild curry then amend accordingly.

Cooking the curry

• Drizzle your pan with a little oil and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Fry gently until there is no moisture in the pan and the onions start to stick.
• Meanwhile add your whole cumin, coriander seeds, mustard seeds and cinnamon stick to a dry frying pan and toast on medium heat.
• Add the spinach to the onions, garlic and ginger and stir. Cook this until there is no moisture/water in the pan and the mixture starts to feel stiff.
• Remove the spices from the heat and transfer into a pestle and mortar as soon as you hear crackling/popping. Set the cinnamon to one side. Grind your whole spices with your pestle and mortar.
• Add your turmeric and curry powder to the pestle and mortar and mix through.

Splitting the curry

• At this stage in the video I split 1/4 of the onions and spinach mixture into a small frying pan to make a chilli free version for the children.
• I also added 1/4 of the ground spice mix to the smaller pan. If you aren’t making more than one version then keep it all in the same pan.
• Add your sliced chilli and the rest of the ground spices to the big pan (or all of it if you are only making one version).
• Stir both pans and allow to fry for 1 minute.
• Add the coconut milk. If you are making one version then add the whole can to the pan. I add 1/4 of the milk to the children’s and the rest to ours.
• Mix the coconut milk in to the curry and then add the squash. If you are making a meat/fish version this is the opportunity to split the sauce before adding the squash.
• Stir in the squash, put the lid on the pan/s and leave to gently simmer for 10 minutes before you serve.

Notes

You can go as little or large as you like with curry. Midweek I am tempted to serve this with something like my cauliflower, courgette and garlic brown rice (recipe to follow in the future). But if you want to make it a bit more special you can add a whole host of special sides. I like to fill ramakins with different chutneys, make chilli onions and a raita, fry some fresh poppadums I buy these and bake Indian snacks like onion bhajis or my homemade samosas which freeze well and I will write about in the future.

Keyword squash, spinach and coconut curry