Vegan Sweet Potato and Kale Curry

Katy Watson shares her recipe for an easy vegan curry to celebrate World Vegan Day 2019 – perfect as the nights start drawing in and winter gets truly underway!

Happy World Vegan Day! How about treating yourself to a delicious curry this evening. This is one of my favourite meals to make and is super easy (if you cheat with the curry powder) and full of goodness. It’s not spicy so good for everyone! You can also freeze portions of the curry for tasty week-night meals in a hurry.

This is based off Lucy Watson’s recipe. I’ll include the curry powder recipe Lucy suggests but I usually don’t have time or the ingredients (it’s a lot of seeds) so I use approximately 1tbsp. of Madras mild curry powder but feel free to edit the amount you put in to suit your taste!

This recipe uses sweet potato but if you have any pumpkins lying around from halloween, this curry would work great with pumpkin or another member of the squash family too! With so many pumpkins expected to be thrown away again this year, do your bit to reduce food waste!

60% of consumers admit to not using flesh of the pumpkin they carve.

If you are feeling inspired and fancy learning more about veganism, there’s lots of documentaries on YouTube and Netflix, including the recently added, ‘The Gamechangers’. Incorporating vegan meals into your diet is better for the environment, your health, and the animals!

Serves 4

Ingredients

- 2 tbsp vegetable oil

- 1 onion, finely diced

- 2.5 cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and grated

- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

- 4 cardamom pods

- 1 tsp ground turmeric

- 1 tsp Sea salt

- 750 g sweet potatoes, cut into 2.5cm chunks

- 400 ml vegetable stock

- 400 ml coconut milk

- 80 g red lentils

- 150 ml coconut cream

- 3 large handfuls of kale, cut into bitesized pieces

- 100 g roasted unsalted Cashew nuts

- Basmati rice, to serve

For the curry powder…

- 1 tsp black mustard seeds

- 1 tsp fenugreek seeds

- 1 tsp cumin seeds

- 1 tsp fennel seeds

- 1 tbsp coriander seeds

- 1 small handful of dried curry leaves

Or you can use 1tbsp. of Madras mild curry powder

Method

Curry powder:

To make the curry powder, measure out a scant teaspoon or tablespoon of each spice. Put all the ingredients for the curry powder into a small frying pan over a low heat. Toast the spices gently for 5 minutes or until they become fragrant. Don’t over-toast them or let them brown too much or the curry powder will be overly strong and bitter.

Remove from heat and leave to cool. Grind in a coffee grinder or mortar until fine. Leave to one side.

Curry:

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and then cook the onion for 8 minutes or until softened and beginning to brown.

2. Put in the ginger and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes.

3. Add the cardamom pods, turmeric, curry powder and salt.

4. Stir for 30 seconds then add the sweet potatoes, stock, coconut milk and lentils.

5. Stir well, then cover and bring to the boil.

6. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

7. Stir the curry well and add the coconut cream and kale.

8. Cook for 5 minutes, then stir in half the cashew nuts.

9. Serve the curry, sprinkled with the remaining cashews, serve with rice.

About the author: Katy Watson is our Food and Drink editor and an English Literature Masters student at York. She loves reading, badminton and her two guinea-pigs.