Jamie Oliver's Vegetable Jalfrezi

Photo: David Loftus and Chris Terry

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This sweet and sour curry is a winter fave of the Naked Chef, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. The recipe is from his cookbook Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals. (One of The Daily Green's Best 2009 Cookbooks!)

SERVINGS
8

INGREDIENTS
1 medium onion
1 fresh red chile
a thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
2 cloves of garlic
a small bunch of fresh cilantro
2 red bell peppers
1 cauliflower
3 ripe tomatoes
1 small butternut squash
1 15-ounce can of garbanzo beans
peanut or vegetable oil
a pat of butter
1/2 cup of jalfrezi or medium curry paste
2 14-ounce cans of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 lemons
1 cup natural yogurt

PREPARATION

To Prepare Your Curry
1. Peel, halve and roughly chop your onion. Finely slice the chile. Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic. Pick the cilantro leaves and finely chop the stalks. Halve, seed and roughly chop the bell peppers. Break the green leaves off the cauliflower and discard. Break the cauliflower into florets and roughly chop the stalk. Quarter the tomatoes. Carefully halve the butternut squash, then scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard. Slice the squash into inch-size wedges, leaving the peel on but removing any think skin, then roughly chop into smaller pieces. Drain the garbanzo beans.

To Cook Your Curry
2. Put a large casserole-type pan on a medium to high heat and add a couple of lugs of oil and the butter. Add the onions, chile, ginger, garlic and cilantro stalks and cook for 10 minutes, until softened and golden. Add the peppers, butternut squash, drained garbanzo beans and jalfrezi curry paste. Stir well to coat everything with the paste. Add the cauliflower, the fresh and canned tomatoes, and the vinegar. Fill 1 empty can with water, pour into the pan and stir again. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and leave the lid off for the rest of the cooking time. When the veggies are tender, taste and add salt and pepper -- please season carefully -- and squeeze of lemon juice.

To Serve Your Curry
3. Delicious with pappadams or any fluffy rice recipe and with a few spoonfuls of natural yogurt, a sprinkle of cilantro leaves and a few lemon wedges for squeezing over.

From Jamie's Food Revolution, by Jamie Oliver. Photographs by David Loftus and Chris Terry. Copyright © Jamie Oliver 2008, 2009. Photographs copyright © David Loftus and Chris Terry 2008, 2009. Published by Hyperion. Available wherever books are sold. All rights reserved.

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