Category: Recipes\

Easter Eats – Chickpea Coconut Curry

Annette1 Comment

There are no family recipes handed down through the generations here, no fluffy hot cross buns or crispy pork crackling secrets. That’s not my kind of cooking or eating. Don’t get me wrong, I love hot cross buns, it’s just that mine are from Woolies.

I shared a photo of my dinner on Instagram last night, like millions of people do, and someone asked me if my recipes are kept anywhere.

Chickpea Coconut Curry

That reminded me, I have a blog! I should be sharing my recipes. Doh!

Chickpea Coconut Curry

Vegetarian curry featuring sweet potato, chickpeas, zucchini and coconut milk.

  • 1 large sweet potato (peeled and diced)
  • 1 tbsp curry powder ( more or less to taste)
  • 1 tsp chili powder (more or less to taste)
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder ( more or less to taste)
  • 1 tin chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
  • 1 large zucchini (roughly diced)
  • 1 handful cherry tomatoes ( )
  • 1/2 medium capsicum (roughly diced)
  • 1/2 tin coconut milk ( )
  • dried parsley ( a couple of shakes)
  1. Gather your ingredients, a sharp knife, your chopping board and a frying pan.
  2. Put a frying pan on a medium heat and add olive oil (or a neutral oil of choice). Peel and dice the sweet potato. Add the sweet potato to the pan.
  3. Dice the zucchini roughly. Allow the sweet potato to begin to caramelise, then add the curry powder to the pan. Give it a stir to coat the sweet potato.
  4. Add the zucchini, and the chili and garlic powder. Let them cook for a few minutes, then add your drained chickpeas and the cherry tomatoes.
  5. If you want to help the veg along a bit, add about 1/4 cup water to the frying pan. Let the heat and water do their thing while you chop your capsicum. Give the pan a stir to keep everything moving.
  6. Now add about half a tin of coconut milk and the capsicum. You want enough liquid so the veg and chickpeas are having a nice paddle about, but not drowning. Shake on some dried parsley if it seems the right thing to do.
  7. Let everything simmer away until your sweet potato is cooked to your liking.
  8. That’s it. You’ve made an incredibly simple, not-at-all authentic curry.
  9. Serve with rice or whatever takes your fancy.

My style of cooking isn’t exact. I cook by feel mostly. 

If you like onions, start with sliced onions, let them soften, then add your sweet potato. 

If you don’t like zucchini, use broccoli or beans. Substitute away, just cook from densest ingredient (sweet potato/potato) to lightest (capsicum).

Want to throw some fresh spinach in at the last minute, go nuts! 

The only outcome you’re after is tasty! 

And there you have it, an absolutely nothing to do with Easter recipe, save that I made it on Good Friday 2020.

I think the leftovers are calling me, food blogging makes me hungry.

I hope you’re having a cosy #stayathome Easter break, and that there are hot cross buns and chocolates within reach. Please let me know if you try and make this curry – and if I’ve left something obvious out of the recipe – tell me that too! (I left out the cherry toms, which I realised while I was heating up my leftovers – I’ve added them now. Phew.)

Cheers,
Annette xx

Sweet potato and zucchini fritters

Annette7 Comments

It is fair to say that I spend a lot of time thinking about food.

It’s such a shame that the joy of preparing and eating good food gets crushed under all the fretting and fear that can attach itself to what we eat. Is this meal high protein, low fat, good fat, sugar free, low potassium, phosphate rich, ethically sourced, paleo, vegan friendly, freezer friendly, calorie controlled, suitable for left handers?? I’ve lost m appetite just typing that absurd and absurdly long sentence,

Anyone who follows me on social media knows that a fair few plates of food feature in my weekly snaps.

I plan my weekends around what I need to buy, and what I’ll cook for myself, not only to enjoy while I spend two days in my pjs, but to get me through the week to come.

Due to popular demand – I believe at least two people have asked – I’ve decided to start sharing recipes on my blog. Huzzah!

It’s very important to state that my recipes are just the recipes of a ‘servantless Australian cook’, to bastardise a Julia Child reference.

They’re not double tested in a beautiful test kitchen a la Donna Hay. They’re not going to guarantee you glowing skin and life-changing weight loss, they’re just recipes of the things I enjoy making, and eating. And they are wilfully imprecise! I don’t measure and weigh everything, I use lugs, sprinkles, handfuls and clatterings, they’re my versions of standardised measurements.

Many of the things I cook are just riffs on existing recipes. My general rule of thumb is that I’ll follow a recipe closely the first time I make it, more than once if it’s got unfamiliar processes or ingredients, and then I freestyle a bit.

As someone on a low sodium regime, that’s the first thing I omit. there’s no salt added to anything I make. I substitute coconut aminos seasoning for soy sauce, I don’t use jarred ingredients as much these days. and I do use a lot more herbs and spices. Basically, I just cook and eat and enjoy myself.

One of my favourite things to riff on is a fritter recipe. Last weekend I cooked these sweet potato and zucchini fritters and they were great!

Sweet potato and zucchini fritters

Simply delicious vegetable fritters.

  • 1/2 sweet potato (peeled)
  • 1 zucchini
  • 1 handful corn kernels
  • 1 tsp garlic (minced)
  • dried herbs of choice – basil, oregano, chili flakes
  • just enough feta (crumbled)
  • 1 cup self-raising flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 lug good olive oil

  1. Peel the sweet potato and take the ends of the zucchini.

    Using a box grater, or food processor, grate the sweet potato and zucchini and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the corn kernels to the grated veg. 


    Next, add a heaped teaspoon of minced garlic to the grated vegetables. 

    Flavour this with any combination of herbs and spices you like.  I usually go for lots of cracked black pepper, with basil, oregano and chili flakes. 


    Add the cheese next.

    Fold the mixture gently, then add your eggs and flour and mix until everything is combined, and you’re happy with the consistency of the batter – how’s that for imprecise!  


    Get a fry pan and whack it on the heat. Oil up your pan a little, let it come to a medium heat then put heaped dessert spoonfuls of your veg batter into your pan. 


    I can usually fit three or four fritters in at a time. I flatten the spoonfuls out a little to form fritter-y shapes.


    Don’t turn them too early. You want a nice golden brown fritter. 

    Once they’re ready to flip, flip them. Let them cook through on the other side and then transfer to a plate with a few pieces of paper towel on it. 

    Repeat the spooning, flattening, waiting and flipping until all your batter is gone. 

The beauty of fritters is you can serve them with any number of things.

I used a microwave packet of coconut rice and some blistered tomatoes with these, but I’ve also served them in rolls with leafy greens, on toast with a poached or fried egg, or next to a bit of chicken. 

They are great for a simple dinner, excellent for next day lunchboxes, weekend brunches, after school snacks or meatless Mondays. 

If you’re feeding a crowd, double or triple the recipe. 

These quantities made enough for me to have for dinner and then leftovers the next day. 

And most importantly, substitute anything I’ve used with something you’d prefer. Recipes are guidelines, not dogmas. Employ your own judgment liberally! 

I hope you have a go at these fritters. Let me know if the recipe works for you.

Even though I’m not 100% happy with my recipe plug in lay-out, I am hitting publish, because like cooking, you have to just give things a go. Tweaking can wait.

Fritters wait for no-one!

Happy cooking.

 

Annette x