If you're a meat eater and you're desperately trying to get more veggies into your life then
this my friends is the recipe for you, it's an easy win it's a great veggie chilli. This
chilli is chock-a-block with flavour, texture and excitement. Yet it's simple to make and packed
with goodness. I'm gonna use like cooking methods to drag out every last bit of flavour into this
dish, no compromises at all, so it starts over here and I've got tomatoes and peppers I've got
sweet potatoes I've got onions, there's so much veg in this dish. Four of your five fruit and
veg a day in one meal. So look first up we're going to take just a little wedge of each veg
and this is going to make the most amazing sort of vibrant salsa later on.
Save your wedges and with the rest of the veg I have a great tip to get intense flavours
starting with three torn-up peppers. Let's use our griddle pan to char up these veggies.
Peppers are amazing, more vitamin C than most veggies, beautiful sweet and delicious. And
then we have the two sweet potatoes just cut them into like four centimetre chunks. They're sweet
but when you cook these on a grill you're going to get that really smoky flavor. 2 red onions,
also into four centimetre chunks. And then look in here it's crackling which gives that smokiness,
that's what I want from a good chilli. In a separate pan add a tablespoon of oil
plus a teaspoon of cumin seeds and smoked paprika, then go in with the soft charred
peppers. And this is what I love about this recipe the rhythm is fantastic. As we take one out we
put another one in, and each time there's a batch of veggies done we'll put it into the stew pot.
Add a kick with the zest of 1 lemon plus 4 cloves of sliced
garlic. And at this point we can go in with the sweet potatoes and the onions.
Finally griddle 4 half tomatoes, add to the pot and we've quickly created a base for this chilli
busting with chargrilled flavour. I'm gonna use a tin of cannellini beans, the whole lot. So you
can hear you're going from frying to simmering and then you want to add one and a half tins of water,
a little salt, a little pepper, and then some chili sauce. Just a tablespoon
to give it that hum of heat. Lid on top. Simmer for 30 minutes. And then what I want to do now is
cook the rice, now of course you could use regular white rice no trouble at all but I want to use a
rice that's a bit different, I want to use a black rice. You can get it in the supermarkets,
it is more nutritious than your regular white rice it's got more fiber it's absolutely delicious. 250
grams goes in, cover it with water, and just boil that up. As that ticks away it's time to create
the most delicious fresh and crunchy relish. Let's make a beautiful salsa. Finely chop those wedges
of veg. First, sweet potato. Can you eat sweet potato raw? Yes. It's got a nuttiness to it as
well as the sweetness which is fantastic. Then, peppers. Tomato, all of the vegetables represented
in the chilli is going to be in the salsa. Onion, and add zing with lemon juice and chopped mint.
What we want a salsa to be is a slap around the face of flavour. For cool contrast, ripple chili
sauce into 4 tablespoons of natural yoghurt. It's like fire and relief all in one. And finally heat
some tortillas on a hob. 20 seconds is all you need just enough to warm it up and there you go.
Let's plate it up. This black rice it's so good, and the flavour is really moreish and sweet. The
chilli, tear through some of this mint, just a little bit of green is going to be gorgeous.
Go in with a big old spoon of our chilli and take a little tortilla fold it in quarters.
Let's hit it up with the salsa colour, crunch, then we're going to go in with that refreshing
yoghurt and chilli. And then just pick over some mint leaves. Wow - come on!
Time to eat.
Mm. It's so tasty. This is a clever one because it's really fun to make. The techniques are
amplifying flavor but there's big chunks of veg in there. Four of your five fruit
and veg a day in one dish, but layer upon layer of flavour, give it a try. Delicious.
I've got a curry for you that's going to blow your mind it's so beautiful, colourful, quick,
tasty, it's going to surprise people. This my friends is a tomato curry,
yep you heard right a tomato curry. Fear not lovely people this dish is
packed with fragrant herbs and spices and cooked in a creamy coconut sauce.
So first up let's just talk about tomatoes for a bit because when I grew up it was just like your
regular plum tomatoes and the case is now we've got choice look at that. I've got 1.2 kilos,
different colours different shapes different sizes... life is exciting. So what I need to
do first is blanch the tomatoes so that skin can come off, so that the tomato is able to absorb
more flavour. And if you just run your knife around the top like that you'll remove that core.
And then boiling water here for about 45 seconds.
If you look in the water can you see how this skin is just shrinking back?
And then get them into a little dish. We'll cool it down pretty much straight away.
What you can do is literally just squeeze it and out it comes, absolutely perfect.
Let's talk curry base. Peel and chop 2 chillies, 4 centimetres of ginger,
and 4 cloves of garlic. And of course you can just whack all this in a food
processor but I love doing this old school, all by hand, from scratch, because it's so
straightforward and simple. And then I've got one ingredient that is a game changer, these
are curry leaves and... oh. You get them in good supermarkets, farmers markets,
you get them in areas of course where there's a large Indian, Sri Lankan population. Find them.
Whack them in some olive oil and add in a teaspoon of cumin seeds, mustard seeds and fenugreek.
What we're going to now do is create layer upon layer of flavour. I'll cut it into quarters. So
just click off the petals. We're not going to put a big hunk of meat in here right so we need
the veggies to have bigger textures you know, the vegetables are the hero so let's treat them
as such. And we can add these lovely fragrant flavours. So at this point we're going to go in
with our tomatoes, look at the way the spices just stick. Then just a couple of things to finish off.
2 teaspoons of mango chutney for sweetness and a tin of coconut milk. It will give it a creaminess
it will give you that tropical feeling. So 20 minutes with the lid on just a gentle simmer to
get all those flavours going. I'll have a little clean down, this will be ready and raring to go.
Oh! So now let's just reduce that down to a consistency that you like, maybe five minutes.
But that is a very humble beautiful, beautiful curry, and there's an optional extra that you can
do to take it into another sort of stratosphere and that is using saffron. These little stamens
from the crocus flower will give the curry the most delicious floral honey-like flavour. It's an
amazing thing and that tiny little bit of effort actually really does make all the difference.
So look we're all done, ready to serve up. I'm then going to take this beautiful curry.
Plenty of juice guys. Look at that.
A few toasted flaked almonds and that my friends is the incredible tomato curry, let's do it.
Plenty of colour. Let's get amongst it.
Wow. Every time you think you've tasted it all it keeps on giving flavour and
flavour and flavour. You have to have a go at this because what you can get
from a handful of humble vegetables is phenomenal.
I want to give you my favourite stuffed vegetable recipe.
Roasted aubergines loaded with amazing fragrant Indian spices, this is next-level delicious.
So the genius of this dish all starts here with a homemade aromatic curry paste. Got one onion,
just peeled and quartered. 4 centimetres of beautiful fragrant zesty ginger. 4 garlic
cloves. I've got 2 chillies which I want to just take the ends off and remove the seeds just to
get rid of the excess heat. I'm just going to cut the stalks off of the coriander, the whole lot.
Whizz the lot up in a blender. This dish is a one-tray wonder, get it on a low heat
with 2 tablespoons of ground nut oil. Now I'm going to add the spices, very very exciting
the combination here is guaranteed to give you success. Lightly fry a teaspoon each of cumin,
fenugreek, turmeric, mustard seeds and garam masala, with a handful of fresh curry leaves.
This will bring new life to your curries, please look out for this. You'll see the mustard seeds
popping like popcorn. And this is all about the development of flavour it's exciting cooking,
no more boring veg, no way. Tip in your aromatic curry paste for another 5 minutes.
We need a few more flavour enhancers. First up, mister mango chutney. All those flavours the
sweetness of fruit, you want a nice tablespoon. Then we're going to be using tamarind. It's sweet
and sour and tangy and a couple of tablespoons just gives the most amazing flavour that makes
your mouth water. And then last but not least, peanut butter. 2 tablespoons goes in.
Just want to season it. And then I'll turn this heat off now
and we want to get stuffing. So let's get these aubergines, I've got two types. So
first up let's go for the type that you're bound to find in a regular supermarket,
and if you go down in the markets you're going to find little aubergines like this, perfect for
stuffing. I'm just going to go not quite to the end, I want to go into quarters just like that.
Perfect. And then when it comes to these fellas I've got a little ingenious way for flavoring
and stuffing. Just get like a couple of spoons, put it beside your aubergine,
and just slice down and the knife won't go all the way through. It's not just to look
good which it will, but of course when you open it up it's like a little concertina...
come on you know you like that. Grab some of your paste and just ram it in there
and cover the whole thing. I'm just going to rub the paste. Get all those flavours in there.
Fry each side for a couple of minutes, pour in a tin of coconut milk, and squash in 250 grams of
ripe cherry tomatoes. The juices will add to the sauce. All I'm going to do now is cover it, create
a little bit of humidity. That's going to allow the aubergines to go from being spongy to really
creamy and substantial. So this is going to go in the oven for 40 minutes at 190 degrees Celsius
which is 375 Fahrenheit, and about halfway through the tin foil comes off and then we get roasting.
The smells are incredible. And look at that, come on guys. That is not your everyday curry.
Now I've cooked some lovely basmati rice, and then over to these incredible aubergines.
Just nick a little bit of the regular aubergine.
Coriander over the top. And there you go. Right, enough chatting. Putting it together with those
classic things poppadoms, some rice, a little simple green salad just with lemon juice over
the top, a nice cold beer, happy days. Get the old poppadom action. let's get in there.
Mm. That is so bloomin' delicious. The aubergine the way it's been cooked and stuffed; creamy,
soft, phenomenal. The layers of flavour are all there, beautiful,
get amongst it get those spices going and get stuff in your veggies. Good times.