Whole-Foods Plant-Based Passanda
Description
A sweet, fragrant curry.At last! At last! After three weeks of obsessing about how to produce a completely whole-foods plant-based passanda, I have finally cracked it! No animal products, no refined ingredients, no salt, no sugar and no added oil...just beautiful healthy veg, pulses, nuts and spices.
For those who use the Dr G point system, it's a 7!
Ingredients
- 5 cardamom pods
- 1 and a half tbsp tomato puree
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- Half tsp grated fresh ginger
- 4 figs
- Half tsp turmeric
- 2tsp garam masala
- Half tsp cinnamon
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- One third of a cauliflower
- 1 pack baby corn
- 100g spinach
- 1 tin/carton drained and rinsed chickpeas
- 100g cashews
- 100g ground almonds
Directions
- Chop up the cauliflower and put aside to allow the sulforaphane to develop
- Crush the cardamom pods with the end of a rolling pin or pestle and remove the husks, just leaving the seeds
- Put seeds in a food processor along with the tomato puree, the garlic, ginger and figs. Add a drop of water if the processor is struggling. Process together until they form a paste. Some processors cope better with larger quantities - if yours does, maybe do twice the quantity of the flavour base and freeze half of it for next time.
- Gently dry fry the onion for a few minutes
- Add turmeric, garam masala and cinnamon to the onions and continue to fry for a minute
- Add the tomato puree, the figs, garlic and ginger paste and combine well with a little drop of water to prevent sticking.
- Add the remaining vegetables including the cauliflower and stir occasionally - put a lid on to steam the ingredients. Check regularly to make sure the veg aren’t sticking to the pan.
- Place the cashews in the processor (no need to clean it from the tomato paste!). Blend with about a mug of water until it’s a medium-thick, creamy consistency.
- When the veg are cooked to your taste add the chickpeas and stir well.
- Add the cashew cream and stir thoroughly. Just before turning off the heat add the ground almonds and stir. If the texture of the sauce is too thick for your taste, add small drops of water until you reach your desired consistency.
- Important step! Leave for about 10 minutes with the lid on before serving to allow the flavours to develop. It’s even better re-heated the next day.
- Serve with rice, quinoa, naan bread or boiled potatoes.
