Beetroot curry
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Vegetables and Vegetable recipes
To say I love beetroot would probably be an understatement. To say I adore it, am obsessed by it, think about it far more than is healthy, is probably a more accurate statement.
Which means, this has been a GREAT week. On the weekend I purchased the hugest bunch of fresh, baby beetroot I’ve ever seen. Plus, yet more beetroot arrived in my vegetable box this week. Oh dear, how awful, an excess of beetroot.
It gave me the chance to make one of my favourite dishes ever – a beetroot and tomato curry, from Madhur Jaffrey.
Why beetroot? Well firstly, it is of course, the most gorgeous colour. Plus it’s incredibly flexible – you can use it raw in salads, or wrap it in foil with a few herbs and some olive oil and then bake in the oven. You can add it to a tray of roasted vegies and you can even use it in a sandwich.
Beetroot is also, of course, really good for you. It’s high in fibre and packed full of the carotenoid antioxidants. It’s known in naturopathy as a food that assists the liver and gallbladder. Plus it’s high in vitamin C and folate, although some of these are lost when you cook it. For more about the healthy-ness of beetroot, take a look at my post on the nutritional value of beetroot.
When I was growing up in the UK, you could only buy whole pickled baby beetroots in glass jars and these were really quite sophisticated. As long as you had a special pickle fork, you could serve them at a party, or as part of a smorgasbord lunch. I LOVED the special pickle fork, thought it was really quite the grooviest kitchen implement, therefore loved beetroot, because I got to use the fork.
Cut to 1988, when I moved to Australia and suddenly beetroot was a sandwich and burger ingredient – how bizarre was that? While I wholeheartedly embraced this new use of beetroot, it was only when I started using the fresh stuff, that the obsession started. In fact, one of my first uses of fresh beetroot was this curry. Even more trivia – my first published recipe included beetroot – it was for vegan chocolate & beetroot cake with a spiced beetroot glaze (which I shall post in the next few days).
Enthusiastic? Yes. Obsessed? Almost certainly.
So here it is, probably my favourite recipe ever. I usually serve this with dal and rice, in fact this time, I made the lentil & cabbage dal.
Beetroot & tomato curry
This recipe is from Madhur Jaffrey’s Eastern Vegetarian Cooking . I’ve made very few changes to the original recipe as it’s pretty much perfect – except that Madhur uses fresh tomatoes and I always make it with tinned – mainly because I can never be bothered to peel that many tomatoes. This time I also added mushrooms, for a change.
Oh yes, while it’s even better the next day, this time I discovered the leftovers are exceptionally good over a baked potato! Serves 4.
- 900g raw beetroot
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
- 1 whole dried chilli
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 800g tin of tomatoes
- 200g button mushrooms, cut in half
Cut the leaves and stalks off the beetroot, peel and cut into roughly 2cm cubes.
Heat the oil in a medium sized pan, with a lid. Once it’s hot, add the cumin seeds and chilli, stir once and add the garlic. Stir for about 10 seconds and then add the turmeric. Stir once and add the tomatoes (with juice) straight away. At this point the mixture will hiss and spit. Just put the lid on and wait for it to calm down.
Add the beetroot and mushrooms and then season with salt. Bring to a simmer. Then turn the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for about 45 mins – 1 hour, or until the beetroot is tender.
- Jaffrey, Madhur, Eastern Vegetarian Cooking, Arrow, London 1990.
Nutritional information per serving
- Total kilojoules: 673 kJ
- Protein: 6g
- Fat: 4g
- Saturated fat: 0.5g
- Carbohydrate: 25g
- Fibre: 9g
- Sodium: 246mg (without adding any salt)
- Number of vegetable serves towards your daily total: 2 serves
- Additional nutrients: LYCOPENE, beta-carotene, potassium, niacin, folate
20 October, 2006
Comments
wow learn something new everyday…up till now betroot was used in burgers and the left overs would be juiced.
i’m a big beetroot fan too but i’ve never tried a beetroot curry before. the beetroot in burgers/sandwiches thing is such a beloved aussie obsession. and yes, i’m always distraught if it’s not included in my burger!
Hi there Emily & Helen – beetroot is a fine, fine ingredient to include in many things and this stew / curry works really well. I also use it grated in salads a lot – I love mixing it with a yoghurt dressing. The sweetness of the beetroot contrasts nicely with sharpness of the yoghurt and it also goes a lovely pink colour.
Bonjour I absolutely LOVE beetroot. In my opinion it is the food of the gods and most other food is pretty rubbish. Viva la beet!
Thanks for dropping by cookster – I totally agree with your beetroot sentiments. My favourite, favourite vegetable.
Here is another mouth-watering recipe of beetroot.
This is beetroot cooked in an Indian way, using some indian spices which are available at any indian grocery store all over the world.
Ingredients:
1. 2-3 beet roots, medium sized
2. one medium sized onion
3. cumin seeds
4. mustard seeds
5. grated coconunt (desicatted)
6. sabzi masala
Items 3-6 are avaialble in Indian grocery market.
1. Peel the beetroots and grate them. peel onion, cut into small pieces or chop it.
2. Heat a frying pan, add 1teaspoon of olive oil or veggie oil and warm it.
3. when the oil is warm add, 1/2 tsp of mustard and cumin seeds and allow them to splatter.(take care the oil should be neither too hot that the seeds pop out nor lukewarm that the seeds are not fried instantly).
4. Add onions and fry them while mixing till they become golden brown.
5. Add 1-2 tsp of the sabzi masala and 1tsp of grated coconut to the pan and fry it gently in low-flame for about 15 seconds.
6. Add the grated beet roots and fry them for 2 min.
7. When the beet root starts sticking to the pan (remember this is not a deep-frying as the oil previously added was just 1 tsp- to minimise the effective fat- ) sprinkle some water and close the lid of the pan and cook at medium- low flame
8. Open the lid every 3-5 min, check if the water is enough , add if it less and fry till the veg is cooked peoperly and is of the required consistency.
9. Add salt to taste.
10. Optional: garnish with fresh coriander leaves (available in indian store), if required.
This menu is not only tasty but also nutritious as nothing is lost out of the beetroot while cooked and whatever is bleeding from the beetroot still remains in the pan and could be eaten up. Besides using this as a side-dish for rice/tortilla it could be also added in bread/bagel/burger sandwiches and tastes yummy!
Your recipe sounds delicious Aru, thank you so much for posting it. Beetroots are in season here in Sydney again, so I shall try this out soon. I’m intrigued by the combination of coconut and beetroot.
Husband made this last night. It was delicious. Especially like the addition of mushrooms. It made quite a bit, we had some for dinner and still have another 3 serves! Great with brown rice and lentil cabbage dhal. The dhal was a bit watery when first made but after reheating, the flavours thickened up. Excellent and different use of both vegetables.
Lovely dinner Sue, so glad you enjoyed it.
SOUNDS DELICIOUS!!
Mmmm…I wanna inform, the pigment in beetroot is not karetonoid, but Betalain. It gives red colour and antioxidant function for beetroot.
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