About a month and a bit ago a made a vegetable curry in the slow cooker that lasted me until last week, divided up in portions in the freezer, it was my grab and go lunch I didn't need to think about. It was so easy to make I should have shared this earlier so you could have also been making it while it's been crazy cold here. But anyway - here it is now so now you too can know how to make this delicious and very easy vegetable curry which takes no time and all except some forward thinking and then forgetting about it for about 6 hours.
The recipe is from a cookbook I received called 'Slow Cooking Central - Family Favourites' by Paulene Christie. This book shows that you can make pretty much anything in your slow cooker, from cauliflower cheese to pull-apart bread to all sorts of curries, stews and soups to meatballs to even a whole chicken (yep a whole chicken in the slow cooker). There is no faffing about in the kitchen or hunting high and low for weird ingredients with this book. It's simple and has some great classics that you can make in the slow cooker to make winter a little easier.
I decided to make the Coconut Curry Vegetables one Sunday so I had a warm and comforting dinner when I came in from my basketball game because it's all too easy to order takeaway and pick it up on the way home when it's just you and its cold and it's Sunday. I chucked all the veggies in the pot, along with the curry powder and coconut milk at about midday and let it bubble away on low for pretty much all afternoon until I came home at 6:30pm. The kitchen smelt so delicious and all I needed to do was whack on the rice cooker and I'd have dinner in 15 minutes. Perfect amount of time for a shower and to get into winter pyjamas, uggs and a dressing gown.
To make this recipe even easier, she suggests you can use frozen vegetables which means this is a recipe to always have up your sleeve even when there are fresh veggies or even no sad veggies in your crisper, which is what I had to use up. I used a mixture of sweet potato, carrots, potato, kale, cauliflower and broccoli. I had to add about a cup of water when I checked on it able halfway through but I think this is only because I didn't use frozen vegetables which would have given off a little water when thawed and cooked. At the very end I added a splash of fish sauce and soy sauce to give it some extra saltiness. Yum.
Coconut Curry Vegetables
Recipe extract from Slow Cooker Central Family Favourites by Paulene Christie.
Serves 6 as a side dish
Preparation 15 mins
Cook 4 hours
Cooker capacity 5 litres
1 small sweet potato, cut into chunks
5 baby red potatoes, quartered
1kg frozen mixed vegetables, such as carrot, beans, broccoli and cauliflower (see note)
400ml can light coconut cream
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon mild curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1. Combines the sweet potato, potato and frozen vegetables in the slow cooker.
2. Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over vegetables.
3. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour, then low for 3 hours or until the potato is tender. Serve.
Notes:
You can replace the frozen vegetables with the same quantity of fresh ones if you like. Use whatever you have on hand and cut into smallish chunks.
Some slow cookers cook more slowly than others, so use the high setting for longer if the potato is taking a long time to become tender. Keep the size of the potato chunks small, mo more than half the size of a golf ball.
If you want a thicker sauce, stir in extra thickening 10 minutes before serving: use a slurry of another 1 tablespoon of cornflour and 1 tablespoon of water.