Main Vegetarian Lunch

Cauliflower, Sweet Potato & Chickpea Traybake with Coriander Sambal

The brilliant thing about this recipe is that your oven does all the hard work to make a flavour-packed curry; freeing you to blitz up a bright and zingy sambal

10 minutes prep, 50 minutes cook

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsps coconut, rapeseed or vegetable oil

2 tbsps mustard seeds

1 x 400 ml tin of coconut milk (ideally full-fat)

Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated (shredded)

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 tsps ground cumin

1½ tsps ground turmeric

1 tsp sea salt flakes, plus extra to taste

1 large cauliflower, outer leaves removed, cut into wedges through the stem

2 sweet potatoes, cut into wedges, (don’t bother peeling the skin)

100g spinach, washed

1 x 400g tin of chickpeas

Coconut and coriander sambal:

3 tbsps coconut chips

Handful of coriander leaves

1 green chilli, deseeded

Juice and grated zest of 1 lime

¼ tsp sea salt flakes

Method

First, preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Melt the coconut oil in a large, deep tray on the stove over a high heat, then add the mustard seeds and fry for 1–2 minutes, or until they begin to pop.

If your stove isn’t gas, this can be done in a frying pan then transferred to the tray, or even done in the oven. Stir in the coconut milk, ginger, garlic, cumin, turmeric, salt, cauliflower and sweet potato.

Transfer to the oven and roast for 40 minutes, stirring halfway through.

To make the sambal, blitz together the coconut chips, coriander (stalks and leaves), chilli, lime zest and juice, and salt with a few splashes of water in a food processor, until you get a rough texture.

You can also do this by chopping and mixing everything by hand.

Remove the tray from the oven and set aside the cauliflower and sweet potato to make space for the spinach and chickpeas. Stir until the spinach is wilted, adding a splash of water if it’s a bit dry.

Heat the chapatis in a warm oven or, carefully using tongs, hold over the gas flame on your cooker for a few seconds.

To assemble: divide the curried chickpeas among four plates, top with the roasted cauliflower and sweet potato, then spoon over the sambal. Serve with the chapatis on the side for mopping up the spiced roasting juices.