Onion and Courgette Curry

Hello hello hello

I have been most neglectful over the past week or so, and for that I must apologise – life has got busy all of a sudden!  I had family over to visit and am revising for some exams, so haven’t really been cooking much of excitement, let alone had time to write about it.

However, there are a few recipes I must catch up on, this one concentrating on onions.  I think that onions are a much-ignored vegetable – added to any number of dishes as a base ingredient, but rarely cooked up in their own right.  Therefore, this was an experiment in emphasising love of onions and one which I will definitely be doing again!  This recipe was about right for 2 of us, so scale the ingredients up if you’re cooking for many people.  It’s a fairly dry curry (and also dead simple!), but you could add a tomato-based sauce if you wanted something moister.  Play around with the ingredients – my version was fairly mild and fresh, but you could make it spicy with the addition of some chilli or more ginger.

Love love

Gemma xx

Onion and Courgette Curry

A fairly uninspiring photo, which does not do this meal justice!

Several white onions, finely sliced (I used about 5 small onions)
1 courgette, diced
2 tomatoes, cut into large dice
2 tsp curry powder (ours was brought back from Turkey, so I have no clue what’s in it!  Use your favourite blend.)
1 tsp nigella seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp onion powder
3 – 4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 inch piece fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped

1. Heat a little oil in a pan until very hot and add the onion and courgette.  Immediately turn the heat down fairly low, and fry the veg until the onion is soft, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, grind the remaining ingredients in a pestle and mortar to form a paste.  It might take quite a while to get everything to mush down enough, but it’s worthwhile in the end.
3. Turn the heat up slightly under the veg, and add the curry paste, stirring well.  Be careful not to burn the spices – they must be cooked through, but not bitter.  Taste the curry and adjust the spices to taste.  Add the tomato close to the end of cooking.
4. Serve with your preferred side dishes (we had ours with mini naan bread, red pepper pakoras and chutney, but rice works just as well).

Advertisements

Tagged: curry, curry paste, onion curry, onions, spices, vegetable curry