Aubergine curry – a Veganuary special

In the spirit of Veganuary, I’ve decided to share a vegan recipe with you all.  I love my food and I love variety – that includes vegan meals some nights of the week throughout the year.  It’s good for my arteries, climate change and the list goes on! 

I went to an Indian restaurant in 2019 with a group of friends who are mostly vegetarian and vegan, so we decided that on that night we’d order only vegetarian and vegan dishes from the menu to share.  One of these dishes was an aubergine curry and it reminded me how delicious aubergines are! The next week I went about trying to emulate that curry and this recipe was born.  It’s easy to forget to use aubergines but they really are such a good vegetable and at around 136 calories per aubergine, it’s a great low-calorie ingredient too.

It may look like you need loads of spices for this recipe, but I can assure you that except for turmeric which this recipe doesn’t call for, all the below spices form the bases of most curry recipes and they certainly are not forgotten about on my spice rack.

Ingredients:

glug of olive oil

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic

Roughly 1cm by 3cm piece of ginger

1 hot chilli

1 heaped teaspoon coriander powder

1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin

1 heaped teaspoon garam masala

1.5 heaped teaspoons smoked paprika

6 large tomatoes

1 dessert spoon brown sugar

2 aubergines

1 dessert spoon vinegar

1 dessert spoon lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Serve with:

coconut natural yoghurt alternative

smoked paprika

fresh coriander

rice and/or flatbread

Method:

1. Remove the skin of the tomatoes by pouring boiling water over the tomatoes and keep them in the boiling water for a minute or so. Drain the water and then start peeling the tomato skins with your hands. The skin should come away easily. Put aside.
2. Use a thick-bottomed pan, cover with a glug of oil and heat slowly over low heat. Dice your onion into little pieces and add to the heated oil.
3. When the onion is translucent, add the crushed garlic and the finely chopped ginger and chilli. Let it cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. When cooked, add the coriander powder, ground cumin, garam masala and smoked paprika. At this point, if the mixture looks a bit dry add a bit more oil. It is important that the spices are in oil to ensure they cook properly. Make sure you’re using low heat as the spices can also burn easily.
5. Once the spices are cooked (it usually takes around 2-3 minutes), add the peeled tomatoes and gently crush them with a masher until they burst and the juices pour out. Add the brown sugar and simmer for around 10 minutes.
6. Now start adding the aubergines. I like cutting the aubergine in squares as I go along and add them to the pan immediately. This is mostly because the aubergine goes brown otherwise – not that you would notice in this curry!
7. Let the curry simmer for around 30 – 40 minutes, depending on how soft you like your aubergines. I like mine quite soft so usually let it simmer more towards 40 mins but it really depends on my mood.
8. Add the vinegar and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
9. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt sprinkled with smoked paprika, fresh coriander, rice and flatbread.

Hope you like the recipe as much as I do!