I went out for dinner last night with my partner and some old school friends (and SOs) to an Indian restaurant in Melbourne called Gaylords. It was exquisite, though I somehow ended up with an *extra-*hot vegetarian Vindaloo. It didn’t list that it included paneer, which was annoying, but it did, so it was not vegan. But it was exquisite. It inspired me to make a vindaloo of my own. I’ve used other people’s recipes, or book recipes, for years now, but I’ve not tackled a vegan vindaloo yet. To be fair, I’m not entirely convinced it should be called a vindaloo, though of course there is so much variety in these curries that it probably doesn’t matter. Anyway… for the base of this recipe I used Madhur Jaffrey’s Goan Pork Vindaloo recipe (from her Quick & Easy Indian Cooking, which is written for a pressure cooker, which I don’t have!)

I’ve not tried the original recipe, but it served as a decent basis to build mine off. So I want to acknowledge that source material.

This recipe also differs from, as far as I can tell, a lot of Indian cooking because it is baked in a cast-iron pot (pot-roasted?) rather than cooked on a stove, or a pressure cooker. Also note that this is a recipe designed for bulk cooking so that my partner and I can take food to work with us over the coming days.

General ingredients: #

1x large potato + 2x medium potatoes, loosely cubed in various sizes

550g firm tofu, cubed

~2-3 cups of (soaked/cooked) chickpeas. I used dried, which soaked for about 12 hours.

Couple of handfuls of green beans, with ends removed.

1 tin of whole tomatoes

1 tin of coconut milk

1-2 tbsp of coconut oil

Curry paste ingredients & method: #

  • 1.5 tbsp brown mustard seeds
  • 1.5 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
  • 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar + more as needed (I used white as I ran out of AC)
  1. Using a large mortar and pestle, grind the mustard seeds and vinegar into a paste that still has quite a bit of texture.

To this paste, add:

~12 large cloves of garlic

~1 medium red onions, loosely chopped

3 heaped tsp of ground turmeric

3 heaped tsp of ground coriander seed

3 heaped tsp of ground cumin seed

3 heaped tsp of cayenne pepper

3 dried kashmiri chilis

~1 tsp of asafoetida powder

2 level tsp of salt

~9-15 dried curry leaves

~3 tbsp of red wine vinegar

  1. Pulverise until a chunky paste consistency is achieved.

Method: #

  • Preheat oven to 160C (fan forced), with large cast-iron pot (with lid) inside

  • In a separate frying pan, heat on a hot heat the coconut oil.

  • Once hot, add about 1/3 of the curry paste and fry until fragrant

  • Add the cubed tofu and fry until it starts to absorb the colour of the paste

  • Remove hot pot from oven, transfer contents from frying pan to pot

  • Add the remaining paste and fresh ingredients

  • Add tomatoes including juice, then use scissors to chop them up

  • Add coconut milk and about 1/2 a tin of extra water

  • Put the lid on and put it in the oven for about an hour and a half, stirring every 30 or so minutes.

  • Once the hour and a half is up (or the potatoes/chickpeas are nearly cooked through), turn the oven up to 200C (fan-forced) and cook for a further 30-40 minutes until well-reduced and a thick, clinging gravy exists and the tomatoes have basically turned to liquid. Sauce should be a dark caramel colour by this stage.

  • Serve with basmati rice or whatever you want.

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