Cauliflower And Potato Masala

A lightly spiced Indian side dish ...

The first cookbook I ever bought was in 1990. It was The Complete Indian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar. I was 20 and had never eaten any cuisine other than traditional English made by my mother - oh and the odd lasagna or spag bol at the local Italian. The picture on the cover looked so exciting to me and even though it cost 20 pounds, I bought it and would spend ages reading through all the recipes. It was years before I actually made anything from the book, as a lot of the spices were not easy to come by in a little village in South Yorkshire at the time. This recipe is based on one from the book. It uses simple ingredients but packs a punch flavour wise. It’s best served as a side dish as its not overly saucy.


Ingredients

1 onion chopped
Half a cauliflower broken into florets
2 medium potatoes peeled and evenly chopped
Veg oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 inch ginger grated
2 garlic cloves grated
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 to 1 tsp chilli powder (amount up to you)
2 large ripe tomatoes chopped
200ml vegetable stock
1 cup frozen peas
1 red chilli finely chopped
2 tsp garam masala
Chopped fresh coriander
Half a lemon
Ground black pepper


Method

Add a couple of tbsps of oil to a lidded pan and place over a medium heat. Add your cumin and mustard seeds and as soon as they start to splutter, add in your onions and fry for about 10 minutes until they are soft and taking on a little colour. 

Turn down your heat a little and add in the garlic and ginger. Stir to combine and fry for a minute or two. 

Add in the turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin and chilli powder and fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the tomatoes and stir well to combine.

Now its time to add your potatoes and the vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and place the lid on the pan. Cook. Until the potatoes are roughly half cooked.

Add in the cauliflower florets, stirring well, then cover the pan again and simmer until the vegetables are tender. Add a splash more stock or water if you feel its needed at this point. 

Stir through the peas, chopped chilli, garam masala, black pepper and cook for roughly 5 minutes more.

Remove from the heat, add a squeeze of lemon, stir through a good amount of chopped coriander and serve.​

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