Sustainable foods. Many people over the years have turned their noses up even considering alternatives to meat. Having been gifted the new cook book for my birthday by Atul Kochhar – Curry everyday. 100 simple vegetarian recipes. This book my friends has opened my eyes for sure. I will blog about this in my next blog in more detail. Now to get on with the curry.

Ingredients- 100g of cashew nuts left to soak in water for an hour then patted dry. Sunflower oil, 200g of tofu ( I didn’t have tofu so I used halloumi) 2 tbsp of curry powder, 1 tsp of cornflour, 1 tin of jackfruit pieces, 10cm piece of cinnamon stick, 4 shallots finely diced, 1 tbsp of garlic and ginger paste, 1/2 tsp of Kashmiri chilli powder, 1 large aubergine cut into bit size pieces, a large pinch of saffron threads soaked in 4 tbsp of water, 250g of natural yogurt, 2 tomatoes finely diced, sea salt and coriander to finish.

Method- once the cashew nuts have soaked for an hour, pat them dry on kitchen paper then blitz in a blender until you have a fine mixture / paste.

Drain the jackfruit pieces and pat dry with kitchen paper.

Mix the curry powder and cornflour.

Added the dry jackfruit and coat the pieces with the curry / cornflower mix.

Heat the sunflower oil in a wok. Add the hard cheese, halloumi in my case but you can use tofu or paneer. Once they have started to colour remove them and set aside.

Using the same oil gently fry and brown your jackfruit pieces. Do not over cook them. Fry in small batches so you don’t lower the temperature of the oil. Once cooked again set aside.

With a new pan, heat a touch more sunflower oil and fry off your diced shallots and cinnamon stick.

Cook the onion until it’s taking on a nice colour. Add the garlic and ginger paste, chilli powder & cashew nut paste plus the remaining curry powder from the bowl which didn’t stick to the jackfruit. Cook this for a minute or so stirring as you do.

Add the diced aubergine and a good pinch of salt followed by the soaked saffron threads and water they were in. Add enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Once the sauce has reduced after 20 minutes add the yogurt, tomatoes, cooked halloumi & jackfruit and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

The finished dish is amazing.

Add a little extra salt if required and chopped coriander. I served mine with basmati rice.

I would highly recommend this book from Atul. It’s amazing. So many simple and easy recipes.

Thanks for reading ❤️