This dish has three component parts - a vegetable curry with chickpeas, spiced tofu and aromatic rice. It is particularly nice topped with a little coconut yoghurt.
I tend to not make my curries firey hot because my digestive system can't cope with it! But it does still have spices and a nice flavour. If you like chillies then go ahead and add as much as you like.
It's also worth noting that the aromatic rice is made with a rice cooker (since that's what I use all the time - they give great results). I am sure you could get a similar result if you use a saucepan with a lid, however I can't guarantee it!
For low-FODMAP, this recipe contains no onion (very unusual for a curry!) and garlic-infused oil rather than fresh garlic. Make sure you rinse the chickpeas, and although there is 200g chickpeas in the recipe, a safe low FODMAP serve is around 42g grams. You can reduce the amount of chickpeas as needed, depending on portion size.
Serves 3-4.
- 1 cup of basmatic rice (white or brown)
- 1 or 1.5 cups of water (for white/brown rice respectively)
- 4 cloves
- 4 cardamom pods
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp tumeric
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- 1/2 tbsp garlic-infused oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 2cm piece fresh ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/4 tsp tumeric
- 200g chickpeas (half a tin)
- 200g tinned tomatoes (half a tin)
- 300g frozen spinach
- 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 250g pressed tofu
- 1/4 tsp nigella seeds
- 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/4 tsp tumeric
- handful chopped cherry tomatoes (optional)
- handful fresh spinach (optional)
- For the rice - add rice, spices, stock cube and water to the rice cooker and switch on!
- To start the curry add the mustard seeds to a pan with the vegetable oil and wait until they start to 'pop'.
- Add the carrots and ginger and fry until softened, then add the chickpeas and the ground spices. Continue to fry for a couple of minutes. You could add chilli powder, or chopped fresh chillies at this stage if you like.
- I normally defrost the spinach for a couple of minutes in the microwave, then add along with the tomatoes
- Add salt to taste.
- Leave the curry to simmer for at least 20 minutes. Add water if needed.
- Meanwhile cook the spiced tofu. Chop the pressed tofu into bitesize pieces.
- Heat the oil in a separate pan and fry the tofu until browned.
- Add the nigella, cumin and fennel seeds and the tumeric, along with some salt. Continue to fry for a couple of minutes.
- Then add the chopped cherry tomatoes and fresh spinach (if you are using them).
- Hopefully by now the rice will have finished! Serve the curry and tofu with the rice and top with some coconut yoghurt.