Description:
Recipes from Winter 2021 issue of True Natural Health
‘Images and text from In Praise of Veg by Alice Zaslavsky; photography by Ben Dearnley. Murdoch Books, RRP $59.99’.
Ingredients:
1 tsp ground turmeric
⅓ cup (80 gm) coconut yoghurt
1 tsp salt flakes
750 gm savoy or white cabbage (about ½ cabbage)
1 Tbsp coconut oil
3 curry leaf branches
1 brown onion, thickly sliced
1 long green chilli, split, plus extra sliced green chilli to serve
250 gm white-fleshed potatoes, cleaned and chopped into 2 cm pieces
400 ml tin coconut milk
1 Tbsp caster sugar
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup (140 gm) frozen peas
nigella seeds, for sprinkling
steamed basmati rice and flatbreads, to serve (optional)
Curry paste
1 Tbsp coconut oil
4 garlic cloves, bruised and peeled
3 cm knob fresh ginger, peeled and‑sliced
2 tsp mild chilli powder (we used Kashmiri)
1½ tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp freshly-cracked black pepper
Method
Mix the turmeric, yoghurt and salt together in a medium-sized bowl. If you’d like the cabbage as ‘steaks’, cut the cabbage into four thick wedges, including the core. For a ‘pulled cabbage’ curry, remove the core and separate the leaves. Add the cabbage leaves or wedges to the turmeric mixture and stir to coat well.
For the curry paste, heat the coconut oil in a wide heavy-based frying pan over medium-to-low heat. Add the garlic and ginger and gently fry, stirring, for 2 – 3 minutes, or until a light golden brown. Add the remaining curry paste ingredients and cook for another 1 – 2 minutes, until aromatic and darkened slightly. Transfer to a blender with ⅓ cup (80 ml) water and whiz until smooth.
Place the pan back over medium heat and add the coconut oil. When the oil is hot, add the curry leaf branches and cook for 1 – 2 minutes or until crisp. Remove using tongs and drain on paper towel.
Add the curry paste to the pan, along with the onion, green chilli and potato and cook for 4 minutes, until caramelised, stirring frequently. Stir in most of the coconut milk (reserve a drizzle for serving), along with the sugar and 1 cup (250 ml) water. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes, or until the potato is half-cooked.
Add the cabbage, with the marinade. Cover and cook, stirring or turning the cabbage halfway through, for 15 minutes, or until the cabbage has softened and the potato is cooked through.
Stir in lemon juice and peas, then remove from heat. Cover and leave to stand for 5 minutes to warm‑through.
To serve, scatter the curry with the crispy curry leaves, nigella seeds and extra chilli, and a final drizzle of coconut milk. This curry yields quite a bit of gravy, so you may like to serve with basmati rice and flatbreads, or on its own as more of a soup.
Serves 4
