This flavorful, mild shortcut curry featuring sweet potatoes and cauliflower is one of my all-time favorites. Scooped up with flatbread or mounded over quinoa, it's a warming, filling meal that reheats well all week long. Since adding this quick curry to my repertoire years ago, I've learned a lot more about Indian cooking techniques, and the way that flavor is carefully layered into curries. This, however, is not one of those authentic recipes; it won't give you that kind of complexity. This is a Westernized, no-cooking-down-tomatoes, pre-mixed spices kind of curry. It is, nonetheless, delicious and accessible—I make it from memory at this point.
There is one "extra" step involved in my recipe, which is roasting the sweet potatoes and cauliflower in the oven for half an hour or so before adding them to the curry sauce. For me, this fits well into my weeknight schedule, when I'm in the kitchen for an hourish anyway making dinner, packing lunches, unloading dishwashers, or procrasti-baking cookies instead of doing those things. But I wouldn't slot this recipe in for an evening when we have forty-five minutes between soccer and bar mitzvah prep, you know?
Here's a quick overview: While the vegetables are in the oven roasting, you fry up a chopped onion, then add garlic and ginger paste to the party. (At this point, if you want to add meat, you can add chicken breast tenders to the skillet and brown them up.) One tablespoon curry powder, one tablespoon garam masala, mix in the tomato paste, then pour the coconut milk on top. Get the pot up to a simmer and add the greens and peas. When the roasted vegetables are nice and caramely-crisp, add them to the curry pot, toss, and simmer some more while you set the table.
Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Curry (parve)
Ingredients
Curry sauce:
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 2 tsp minced ginger
- ¼ cup tomato paste/concentrate - 60ml
- 1 Tbsp garam masala
- 1 Tbsp curry powder
- 1 (14oz) can coconut milk - 400ml
- 1 tsp salt - or more, to taste
Instructions
Prep the vegetables:
- Preheat the oven to 385°F / 195°C. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and the cut the cauliflower into florets. Place the sweet potato and cauliflower on a sheet pan lined with parchment. Roast 30 minutes or so, until softened and crisped.
- Meanwhile, chop the kale (or other greens) and set them aside. Measure out a cup of frozen peas and set them aside to defrost a bit while you continue making the sauce.
Make the curry sauce:
- Heat the coconut oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to soften and brown.
- Add the ginger and garlic to the pan and cook for another minute or so. Add the curry powder and garam masala and cook for another minute or so, until the spices are fragrant. Stir in the tomato paste. Stir well, and allow to cook for several minutes more.
- Add the coconut milk. Season with salt. Stir well and bring to a low boil.
Cook the vegetables in the curry:
- Add in the greens and frozen peas. Stir well, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 7-10 min.
- When nicely carmelized, remove the cauliflower and sweet potato from the oven. Add them to the curry pot. You can water if the sauce is too dry, ¼ cup at a time.
- Simmer over a low flame for 5-10 more minutes. Serve right away, or reheat later.
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