A Kerala Kitchen curry for the weekend

It's almost the weekend, and maybe you are looking forward to an Indian takeaway. Or perhaps you're in the mood to make a curry at home, from scratch. Get the best of both worlds with this vegetable-curry recipe from the popular Kerala Kitchen restaurants in Baggot Street and Stoneybatter in Dublin.

"It's as close as you can get to coastal Indian cooking without flying to Kerala and inviting yourself to dinner. Brings us back to long days on Kovalam beach," says Grainne Flynn, who runs the restaurants with her husband Lewis Cummings.

There is quite a long list of ingredients required. But if you poke around in your spice cupboard, you may find that you already have most of them.

Kerala Kitchen Kovalam subji curry (vegetable curry)

Serves four

Ingredients
1 large red onion, chopped
1tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1tsp garlic, crushed
½ head broccoli, cut into florettes
½ head cauliflower, cut into florettes
2 carrots, diced
Handful green beans, roughly chopped
1 red chilli
4 tomatoes, chopped
4 curry leaves, fresh or frozen
1 sprig fresh coriander, chopped, for garnish (about 1tbsp of leaves)
1 bay leaf
4 green cardamom
1 green chilli, seeds removed and slit in half
1tsp tamarind pulp
¼tsp turmeric powder
½tsp cumin powder
½tsp coriander powder
½tsp chilli powder
½tsp black mustard seeds
100ml coconut milk
Salt to taste

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Method
1 Heat oil in a pan. When it is hot, add green cardamom, whole red chilli and mustard seeds and cook until they crackle.

2 Add curry leaves, chopped onions, bay leaf and green chilli, and cook till the onion turns brown, stirring continuously.

3 Add chopped ginger and garlic, and cook for two minutes. On a low heat add turmeric, cumin, coriander and chilli powder. Add chopped tomatoes and cook for five minutes.

4 Add all of the vegetables to the sauce along with a cup of water. Cook for five minutes.

5 Add tamarind paste and coconut milk and cook till the vegetables are tender, then add salt to taste.