Cooking for vegetarians terrifies me. Having been a vegan for a few bleak months (an experiment I abandoned after repeatedly hallucinating about ice cream), I know from personal experience that meat makes everything taste better. I will never forget the haunted look in my vegetarian friend’s eyes as he gazed into a frying pan sizzling with bacon fat before he tore himself away to prepare his dinner of chickpeas, pesto and pasta. However, this week I invited my friend round for dinner before panicking and realizing with hours to go before Sainsbury’s closed that I had no idea what to make. Inspired by my friend’s description of vegetarianism as basically being ‘a thousand ways with a chickpea’ I decided to stick with the basics and make chickpea stew, and in case that failed, red Thai vegetable curry. As it turned out, my paranoia was completely unfounded – both dishes are incredibly easy to make as well as reminding me that my distain for vegetarian food is really only the product of my own lack of imagination in the kitchen.
Chickpea Stew
- 1 can chickpeas drained
- 1 tin of tomatoes
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 sweet pepper
- Spinach
- ½ bunch parsley
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon cumin (optional)
- ½ cube vegetable stock
Fry the onion on a medium heat until golden, then turning the heat to low, add the coriander, cumin and chopped pepper. Once the pepper is soft, add the tin of tomatoes along with some hot water (about half the volume of the tin) with the vegetable stock dissolved in it. Bring the mixture to the boil and then reduce to a simmer, stirring in the chopped parsley. After leaving to simmer for about ten minutes, add the spinach and as soon as it has wilted, it’s ready. Perfect for lunch or as a side.
Red Thai Vegetable Curry
- A selection of pretty much any vegetable you have in your cupboard/fridge (I used two sweet peppers, an aubergine, 2 courgettes and a pack of mushrooms)
- 1 tin of coconut milk
- 1 onion
- 1 tin water chestnuts
- 1 tin bamboo shoots
- Red Thai curry paste (I’d recommend using 5 heaped tablespoons of ‘Thai Taste’ red curry paste from Sainsbury’s as it’s suitable for vegans and vegetarians or seeing what you can find in the supermarkets on Mill Road)
Fry the onion in a frying pan with the curry paste until the onion is cooked through. Add the chopped vegetables and sauté over a medium heat. Transfer the vegetables to a pot, add the coconut milk, bamboo, water chestnuts and enough water to just cover the vegetables. Cook over a low heat until the vegetables are cooked through. Serve with fragrant Thai jasmine rice.
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