Cape Malay Vegetable Curry
Potato, green beans and cauliflower in a fragrant, mildly spiced Cape Malay sauce with cream or coconut milk. One pot, big flavour, ready in under 30 minutes. Serve with roti, yellow rice and a tomato sambal.
Cape Malay cooking is one of South Africa's most distinctive food traditions, born in the Cape from the culinary knowledge of enslaved and indentured people brought from Indonesia, Malaysia and India in the 17th and 18th centuries. Their spice knowledge transformed Cape cooking forever, giving South Africa dishes that are unlike anything else on the continent. Mild, fragrant and slightly sweet, Cape Malay curry is the gentler cousin of the fiery Durban style, and it is the one that converts anyone who thinks they don't like curry. In the UAE, all the spices are easy to find, and the vegetables are standard supermarket stock. This is the kind of weeknight dinner that makes your whole apartment smell like home.
Ingredients
- 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes
- 60 ml canola or sunflower oil
- 200 g green beans, stem ends removed and halved
- 125 ml fresh cream or coconut milk
- 125 ml water
- 1 medium head of cauliflower, broken into florets
- Cape Malay curry spice blend
Method
- In a small pan, fry the onion in oil until soft and golden. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a minute. Add all the ground spices and bay leaves and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant. Stir in the tomato paste, sugar and salt. Set the spice base aside.
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat until smoking. Add the potato cubes and fry, stirring, until lightly browned and semi-cooked, about 8 minutes.
- Add the green beans and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add the spice base, cream or coconut milk and water. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer.
- Add the cauliflower florets and stir through.
- Cover with a lid and simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes until the cauliflower and potatoes are tender.
- Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove bay leaves before serving.
- Serve with roti or yellow rice, and a tomato sambal or cucumber raita alongside.
Notes
Method
- Fry onion in oil until golden. Add garlic and ginger, cook for a minute. Add all spices and bay leaves, stir for 30 seconds. Add tomato paste, sugar and salt. Set aside.
- Heat oil in a large saucepan until smoking. Fry potato cubes until lightly browned and semi-cooked, about 8 minutes.
- Add green beans and fry for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the spice base, cream or coconut milk and water. Stir and bring to a simmer.
- Add cauliflower florets and stir through.
- Cover and simmer on low for 10-15 minutes until vegetables are tender.
- Remove bay leaves, taste and adjust seasoning.
- Serve with roti or yellow rice, tomato sambal and cucumber raita.
Coconut milk gives a slightly richer, more fragrant result than fresh cream. Both work well.