Easy, fresh and tasty

For quite a while, 90% of my vegetables came in the form of those frozen wok mixes. Its alright and fairly healthy and all, its just that you need to spice the fuck out of everything you make because veggies seem to lose a lot of their natural flavor when frozen. Also, unless you have a bonfire-sized open flame on top of which you wok those frozen veggies, their texture will be also more akin to floppy celery than the crunchy goodness you should be striving for.

Of course its extremely bothersome to not use any canned/frozen stuff and still manage to make something that has variety in it. Thats why I usually opt to use fresh veggies as the base ingredients and complement that with something that comes out of a can or bag. Here is an example of something quite easy and definately tasty. The Rajah Curry paste which I use is available in almost every shop, and costs about a fiver. It will however spice your food for the next 2 months, so it's easily worth it. The recipe below demonstrates how with fresh ingredients, you can create something that is light, tastes good and doesn't require the spice rack of a thai masochist to have flavor.

Curryfied Veggies á la Tuomas

For 4 people easily


1 medium-sized cauliflower
2 carrots (you should buy organic carrots, they're much better and not that expensive)
1 red pepper
1 small diced onion
½ can of kidney beans
1 small bag of frozen peas
Dash Of cream

5 cloves of garlic
½ fresh chili pepper (you can buy them in packs of 3 or 4 at the vegetable section and take forever go bad)
5dl of water
1 cube of veggie stock
3-4 big teaspoons of rajah brown curry paste (see introduction)
200dl can of crushed tomatoes


1. cut garlic into small slices and chili into small bits. Place in small pot with a bit of olive oil. Sautée.
2. Add can of crushed tomatoes, put to low/medium heat, heating it up so that it bubbles ever so slightly. Stir occasionally. In the meantime.....
3. In the largest pot you have, place diced onions in a bit of  oil. Sautée and add curry paste. stir
4. Rip the leafy bottom bit off the cauliflower, and manually break it down to small bits, about the size of ping pong balls. Add cauliflowers to large pot and stir.
5. Peel carrots and cut into thin slices. Add to large pot and stir. 
6. Add 5 dl of water and cube of veggie stock. Try break the stock cube down a bit. with a spatula or something. Stir nicely
7. Put on maximum heat and stir occasionally
8. When a little over half of the water is evaporated, add diced pepper, frozen peas, and beans.
9. When theres only a tiny bit of water left at the bottom ( i.e. when you start hearing sizzling instead of boiling), add tomato sauce from small pot and drop to low heat
10. Add dash of cream.
11. Stir and let sit for a few minutes. taste. If it needs more flavor, add curry. If its too strong, add another dash of cream

You can serve this on its own, or with a bit of rice of wedge potatoes. If you're only making for yourself, you can always use less of some ingredients, or drop some of the heavier ones like beans altogether.