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Vegan Eggplant and Chickpea Curry | Vegan Ca Ri
Ca Ri Chay is a Vietnamese vegan curry, a fragrant blend of vegetables and tofu simmered in a coconut milk-based sauce infused with lemongrass and curry spices.
Ingredients
Baked eggplant:
- 3 large eggplants, cut into 2 inch pieces
- olive oil
Marinade:
- 2 14 oz medium or firm tofu, cut into 1-2 inch pieces, deep fried
- 2 cans garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 Tbsp mushroom powder
- 2 Tbsp vegan fish sauce
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp Vietnamese curry powder, or any type of yellow curry powder, preferably Madras
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp annatto oil
- 1 tsp shallots, chopped
- 1 tsp garlic, chopped
Annatto oil:
- ½ cup avocado oil, or any neutral oil
- 1 Tbsp annatto seeds
Ingredients:
- 2 cups carrots, peeled, cut into 2-3 inch length
- 2 cups potatoes or sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 2-3 inch length
- 1 large shallot, chopped
- 1 inch ginger, peeled, smashed
- 2 Tbsp garlic, chopped
- 3 bay leaves
- 4 lime leaves, optional
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 Tbsp Vietnamese curry powder, or any yellow curry powder, like Madras
- 1 tomato, quartered
- 1 liter coconut water, plus 2 cups
- 1 liter vegetable broth, plus 2 cups
- 2 14 oz cans coconut cream
- 1 Tbsp mushroom powder
- 3 Tbsp kosher salt
- 3 stalks lemongrass, cut into 5″ pieces, smashed
- 1 onion, quartered lengthwise
Garnish:
- bean sprouts
- cilantro
- green onions, chopped
- basil, rau ram, culantro and/or mint leaves
- lime
Optional:
- steamed rice
- vermicelli noodles
- French baguette bread
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Cut eggplants into medium size pieces. Place on baking pans that are lined with parchment paper, and drizzle them with olive oil. You might need 2-3 baking pans.
- Bake eggplants for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, remove the baking pan, turn eggplants over and put back in the oven to bake for an additional 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and peel skin of eggplant, discard and put eggplant meat in a bowl.
- Heat deep fryer to 380 degrees and fry tofu until they are nice and light brown.
- Marinate baked eggplant, fried tofu and chickpeas with all the ingredients in the marinade. Put aside and prepare the rest of your ingredients.
- Make annatto oil by first heating up ½ cup oil. Once oil is hot, remove from heat and add 1 tablespoon of annatto seeds. Don’t let the oil get too hot, or it will burn the annatto seeds. Strain and put annatto oil aside for cooking later.
- In a pot, on medium high heat, add ¼ cup annatto oil to a pot.
- Fry chopped shallots and ginger for a few minutes until shallots are soft.
- Then add garlic, bay leaves, lime leaves and tomato paste and cook for another minute.
- Take two tablespoons of the curry powder and fry with onion mix to bring out the curry flavor.
- Add the marinated baked eggplants, fried tofu and chickpeas, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and pour in coconut water, vegetable broth and coconut cream. Add mushroom powder, salt and lemongrass stalks.
- Bring to a boil and then lower to medium heat and let simmer for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes of simmering, add quartered onions and then turn off heat immediately. This is so the onion will be nice and crunchy still.
- Throughout the cooking process, make sure to occasionally scoop the foam off the top.
- Serve with either rice or with vermicelli noodles and eat it like a soup, or dip with French baguette bread.
Nutrition
Serving: 1portion | Calories: 1058kcal | Carbohydrates: 81g | Protein: 31g | Fat: 74g | Saturated Fat: 44g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 17g | Sodium: 5017mg | Potassium: 2278mg | Fiber: 24g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 7803IU | Vitamin C: 36mg | Calcium: 355mg | Iron: 10mg
Equipment
- 8 quart pot
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Cailynn Pham
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