This recipe is inspired by Indian cooking queen Madhur Jaffrey. I still have her Indian Cookery book from the 1980s! Indian food is mostly naturally gluten free (apart from some of the breads). You can leave out the chilli and the cayenne pepper if you don’t like your food to be too spicy. I added the lentils for protein but you can leave those out and serve it as a side dish. Make sure you save the leaves of the cauliflower to use instead of the cabbage in this soup or as a side vegetable. You can fry them with some mustard seeds and serve with the curry.
Serves 2-3 Cooking & prep time 45 minutes
1 cauliflower broken into florets
1 small onion peeled and chopped
2.5cm piece of ginger peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
3 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped
3 tablespoons red lentils (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 large tin of tomatoes (about 200g) or 3 fresh tomatoes peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 green chilli finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
Fresh coriander to garnish
Heat the oil medium-high heat in a saucepan and fry the garlic until medium brown.
Remove the cauliflower with a slotted spoon and put it in a bowl. Add the onion and garlic and fry for about a minute. Add the lentils (if using) and the cumin, coriander. Stir to coat the lentils in the oil and spices. Add the tomatoes and stir, breaking them up with a wooden spoon.
Add turmeric, cayenne, chopped chilli, lemon juice and salt. Stir and turn heat to low. Add cauliflower pieces and 3 tablespoons of water. Cover and cook for 5-10 minutes until lentils are soft.
Stir in garam masala and serve garnished with fresh coriander.
