Spiced coconut veggie stew and onion fritters

Last night, we decided to have a bit of an Indian lockdown feast. For the non-veggies, I did some very easy chicken tikka - chicken breasts marinated for a few hours in yoghurt, lemon, salt, garlic, 1/2 tsp chilli and 1/2 tsp ground coriander, then baked in the oven for 20 - 3o minutes until cooked through and a bit charred on the edges. I also cooked my spiced coconut veggie stew, which I’ve got written in my notebook but don’t ever seem to have published on here (I’m warning you now about these photos - I wasn’t expecting to write about this). We didn’t bother with rice (Charlie bought naan breads from the supermarket) and I made these yummy little onion fritters adapted from a recipe that a lovely (man! I’ll tell you more soon) friend told me about and wow - it was delicious. I wasn’t going to write about it but it was SUCH A FEAST, it needs to be shared.

Spiced coconut veggie stew

1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 tsp salt
1 leek (split lengthways and rinse well before chopping)
1 large sweet potato, chopped into small chunks
1 red pepper, chopped
1 tin chickpeas, drained
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp hot chilli powder
1 tin coconut milk

Onion fritters

2 large onions, finely sliced
1 tsp salt
100g gram (chickpea) flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1 egg
About 50ml milk
1/2 green chilli finely chopped
Chopped coriander

Firstly, if you’re making the marinated chicken, pop that in the oven at about gas 4/180 C and get it cooking.

Also, slice the onions for the fritters, sprinkle over a teaspoon of salt, stir, and leave them somewhere while you make the stew.

So for the veggie stew, you can bung in any old veggies really. It’s brilliant for getting rid of that fridge gravel that you have left: a single leek… a sweet potato that’s just a bit past its best… bung them all in. So heat the oil in a heavy based pan, add the onions and leeks, sprinkle with salt and cook gently until lovely and soft and fragrant. Now, add in the sweet potato and red pepper, drain the chickpeas and add these too. Now for the spices: add the cumin, turmeric, coriander and chilli powder. You can add some fresh chilli if you want too. Pour in the coconut milk (you can swoosh the pan out with some hot water and add that too if you like). Bring to the boil, pop on a lid and cook for 15 - 20 minutes until the veg is cooked through.

Meanwhile, make your onion fritters. Pop the gram flour in a bowl (top tip from my buddy Rubbish Wife, who makes amazing baked onion bhajis - it’s gluten free, so it makes a lovely, light, non-stodgy fritter, plus it’s a pretty yellow colour and has a mild nutty taste). Don’t forget the baking powder and coriander, then add in the egg and enough milk to make a thick batter (don’t go mad - keep it really stodgy). Stir in the chilli and coriander, then stir in the onions.

Heat a frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of oil, then drop big tablespoons of the mixture into the pan. Cook until they’re really brown on one side before flipping them over. They puff up a bit and OMG they’re so lush. I popped them into the oven with the chicken while I cooked a second batch.

And that’s it. Serve the veggie stew with the fritters and naan breads, and slice the chicken over the top for the non-veggies. Delicious. Promise I’ll do it again soon and take some better photos too 🙂