Baked Potatoes with a Chickpea Curry

ONE DAY MORE!! (You could say the musical bug has bitten me hard in the past few days) Just one more day until I can return to the blissful lands of cheese, chocolate and scrambled eggs. I’m so so set for a good mac and cheese right now! I’ve really enjoyed being vegan, and despite the awkward repeats of ‘I’m sorry, I’m a vegan’ at almost every offer of food, it’s been a fun challenge. However with the frenzy everyday life and the challenge of eating in college, come the 1st Feb I’ll be reverting back to vegetarianism.

With things past comes things learnt, so here’s the 3 most important things I’ve learnt from my vegan month:

1. Chickpeas are life – I definitely couldn’t have lived without these this month! From hummus, to aquafaba to straight old chickpeas in something like this, they’re a real useful staple in a vegan diet – especially as they’re so versatile.
2. Flavour is underrated – I’ve also found that it’s really important not to compromise on flavour just because you’re limited to plants. So often I was eating bland vegetables with hummus and pita bread, which whilst delicious does lack an oomph of flavour and it made meals really dull and limp. This does use a lot of spices, which I understand that if you’re on a budget you might not be able to get them all, but even some pre-made spice mixes and paprika can be a really good way of getting flavour punched into your meals.
3. Food food and more food – Most importantly this month I had to remind myself just to keep eating and that there was a lot more out there that I could eat than I originally thought (Oreos and Jelly Tots are vegan – take note!). In the first few days I was either starving or living on carbs, but neither made me feel at all satisfied. But as soon as you’ve found your niche in the vegan food world you forget your restircted diet and just start getting on with life!

Recipe

Serves 2 (plus extra chickpea mix!)

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 2 Large potatoes
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 1 Onion
• 9 Garlic cloves
• A thumb sized piece of root ginger
• 1 tbsp Ground coriander
• 2 tbsp Ground cumin
• 1 tbsp Garam masala
• 1 tsp Ground paprika
• 2 tbsp Tomato puree
• 800g Chickpeas
• 400g Chopped tomatoes
• 100g Creamed coconut
• 100g Spinach to serve

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200˚C. Microwave the potatoes for 15 minutes on a high heat and then put them into the oven for about 30 minutes until crispy on the outside.
2. Now make the paste for the curry. Peel and finely chop the onion. Then put the oil and chopped onion into a pan and fry for about 8 minutes until softened.
3. Spoon the mixture into a food processor and add the peeled garlic, peeled ginger, and ground spices. Then add the tomato puree, onions and a pinch of salt and blitz to a smooth paste.
4. Transfer the paste back into the pan and cook for a couple of minutes over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the chickpeas and the chopped tomatoes. Stir to mix and then leave to simmer for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the coconut and 2 tbsp water and simmer the mixture for another couple of minutes.
7. Serve with the baked potato and spinach!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x