Cauliflower Chickpea Curry @MaddieDayAuthor

MADDIE DAY here, with an easy vegetarian curry adapted from a recipe in my favorite Indian cookbook.

Many moons ago, I heard about Madhur Jaffrey, who had a long-running Indian cooking show on British television. I bought her cookbook, Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery, and have been using it ever since.

You can see how well-loved it is. In years past, I sometimes spent an entire day making a main dish, a vegetable side, a chutney, a pile of chapati, and a dish of raita to serve at a dinner party. Nowadays I adapt one dish as I go, since I mostly make dinner for two.

It's been a cool spring here, except for a few scorching days last week, and stirring up a fragrant and delicious curry served over hot basmati rice was just the ticket one evening.

Cauliflower Chickpea Curry

Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery. Adding the chickpeas and peas was my addition, and I subtracted the original cayenne and chili peppers, since i can't eat hot-spicy food any more. We ate this as a main dish, but you could also omit the chickpeas and serve it as a side with chicken or fish.

 

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower, broken into 1 ½ inch florets

1 onion, diced

1 1-inch cube of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped or grated (I pre-ground mine in the mini food processor and froze it an ice cube tray)

Olive oil

4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ground cardamom seeds

1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained

½ teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 cup frozen petite peas, thawed

Directions:

Put onion and ginger into small food processor or blender with 4 tablespoons water and blend until it becomes a paste.

Heat 5 tablespoons oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the cauliflower and stir fry until a medium-brown. Remove cauliflower with a slotted spoon to a bowl. 

 

Add onion-ginger mixture. Stir and fry for one minute. Add garlic and continue stirring for another minute. 

Add tomatoes, cumin, and cardamom and stir until a medium-brown. Add turmeric, curry powder, chickpeas, lemon juice and salt. Stir and turn heat to low. 

Add cauliflower and any juices, plus three tablespoons water and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook on gentle heat, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Add peas, stir, and cover again, cooking for five more minutes or until cauliflower is tender.

 

Serve hot over rice.

Readers: If you enjoy Indian food, what's your favorite dish (or cookbook)? If not, what kind of cooking from another country would you choose?

🫛🍛🍅

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 Murder at the Rusty Anchor,

 A Case for the Ladies,

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Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.