Deborah Ryan's vegetable curry recipe

Burned through your Christmas card money and have nothing to live on?

That cash dollar that your relative sent, instead of buying an actual present, really feels like the jackpot going out on December 26th, and even better whilst hungoverly perusing sales with what little you have left.

This recipe will help because it makes a lot of food, filling your freezer and the void that all of that money left.

When I started college, I would always want to make some sort of curry for dinner but never really knew how. My mum sent up curry powder along with some other spices when I moved to my student flat. This only reminded me of inebriated teens munching dodgy chips outside a nightclub, and not really the authentic curry I had envisioned.

After a few trials and errors, this is now my basic curry recipe. It works with chicken, lamb, fish etc. but I normally use it for vegetable curry to use up any leftover vegetables that may have been forgotten.

This may seem like a lot of ingredients. It is, but you’ll use the spices in a lot of other cooking. Especially when you’ve hit rock bottom of poverty and only eat the same thing for a week.

I use purple sweet potato in this recipe, as I found it in the shop and felt the need to buy this alternatively coloured potato.

Exciting, I know. Feel free to use any colour sweet potato you like. Cooking the aubergine and the sweet potato in the oven may seem like extra effort, using both the hob and the oven, but they cook while you make the sauce so it’s all ready in 30 minutes.

Ingredients
1 onion
1 small leek
1 aubergine
1 sweet potato, purple or otherwise
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of coconut milk
1 tin butter beans or chickpeas
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp. garam masala
½ tsp chilli flakes
Pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Large handful of spinach

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Wash the sweet potato and aubergine well. Chop into 1-inch chunks. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Lay the sweet potato on one half and the aubergine on the other. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 mins until soft and golden brown.

Meanwhile, peel the onion and finely chop it.

Slice the leek down the middle and give it a rinse under the tap to get rid of any leftover dirt. Slice it into thin half-moons.

Heat some olive oil into a pan and fry the leek and onion gently, you just want to soften it. Add a pinch of salt.

If your student house is organised enough to having matching lids for your pans, well la-di-dah, go ahead and cover the pot, stirring occasionally. Sweat the veg for about 10 minutes until their translucent and soft.

Add the spices and fry for a few seconds, stirring to stop them sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Add your coconut milk and the tomatoes. Let this reduce for a few minutes, then add the roast veg and rinsed butter beans. When you’re ready to serve, stir through the spinach.

I also make a cucumber raita to go with curry to feel fancy. Chop half a cucumber finely and mix it through a few tablespoons of natural yogurt. Add salt, pepper and a clove of grated garlic. Spoon this over the top and enjoy.