This recipe is a variation of Rasa’s beetroot curry and it accompanied the huge beetroot we got in our Growing Communities veg box this week. Its something different to do with your beetroot and an unusual vegetable for currying. I’ve made it twice now – it is really delicious, but don’t try cutting any corners with the process; do push the pureed spring onion tops and pistachios through a sieve, and do cut the beetroot into matchsticks; I skipped this the first time round and the texture just wasn’t quite right.
Ingredients
- 500g Beetroot
- 50g shelled pistaschios
- 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
- 6 cardamom pods
- 1tsp fennel seeds
- 3 fresh chillies
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 2 bunches spring onions
- 100g fresh coconut, grated
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 200ml plain yoghurt
Method
Boil the beetroots until tender and peel them under cold running water, then chop them into thick matchsticks. Toast the pistachios in the oven or on the hob. Crack the cardamom seeds and remove the seeds, discarding the pods. Slice the white ends of the spring onions and chop them finely. Drop the green ends into a pan of boiling water for a few seconds then plunge them into cold water. Chop them carsely and put them into a food processor with the pistachios, cardamom seeds and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and blend, adding a little cold water in a slow stream until you get a thick butsmooth puree. Pass this through a sieve, fine enough to take out any coarse pieces of scallian – into a small pan. Hlave the chillies lengthways, and chop them into slices. Heat another tablespoon of olive oil in a shallow pan and cook the sping onion white bits, the chillies, ginger, mustard and fennel seeds over a medium heat, stirring for 5 minutes, then add the beetroot and coconut and the pistachio and green onions paste, and cook for 5 more minutes. Season with salt and stir in the yoghurt just before you serve.
Rasa is a vegetarian South Indian restaurant on Stoke Newington Church street, Hackney, London N16
Hi Em,
You’re a lifesaver posting this recipe up. My friend cooked it for me about a year ago, and it was a revelation-delicious! When she suggested ‘beetroot curry’ I thought hmmm sounds a bit bland! But it reminded me what a difference making a curry paste from scratch with fresh ingredients can make.
I’ve been promising to cook it for my flatmates since then, and when I searched the internet for the recipe your blog was the only one I could find – thanks!
I was having quite a mission in Brixton today trying to find yellow mustard seeds – the shops in the market only have brown or black. But I was heeding your advice to stick exactly to the recipe and was determined to find the yellow seed – came up trumps in Brixton Wholefoods which has this brilliant system with about 100 old sweet type jars filled with all sorts of spices, you weigh them and bag them yourself – so can in theory buy enough for just one recipe and pay about 5p!
On the same subject, I found this book called ‘The Spice Routes’ recently – I’m loving it, part history of the spice trade – interesting to find out where spices actually originate from – it’s also part travelogue and lots of recipes too. I’ve told my flatmates I’ll cook them a dish from each country in the book, hope it doesn’t take me so long to get around to as the beetroot curry!
Just been taking a look around your blog, will check out your other recipes too!
Dee
p.s those fiddlehead ferns look fascinating. The fern is my favourite plant, I love the fact that it was one of the first plants on earth, around when the dinosaurs were! Would be really interesting to eat some!