River Cottage

This vegetarian curry from Hugh is rich and packed with flavour. Make enough for two batches and freeze one.

Hugh: "This gorgeously rich curry uses my roasted tomato sauce as a base, though a good-quality passata would work well too. I’ve deliberately made twice as much curry paste as you need for the recipe – partly because it’s easier to blend that way, but also because it’s so useful to have a second batch either to make this again or for any other veg curry. Alternatively, use a well-sautéed blob of it as the base for a simple noodle soup or laksa. You can keep the paste, covered, in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze it."

Serves 6-8

• Sunflower oil, for frying
• 5 aubergines, sliced into long wedges
• 400ml coconut milk
• 300ml roast tomato passata
• 300g green beans

For the curry paste

• 6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 5-6 shallots, roughly chopped
• 2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, roughly chopped
• 4 hearts of lemongrass, chopped
• 5 green chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric

For the raita

• 3 tsp mango chutney
• 8 tbsp plain yogurt
• Fresh coriander, to garnish

1. Put all the paste mix ingredients into a blender along with a couple of tablespoons of water and blitz, pushing the paste down from the sides of the blender periodically, you want a smooth paste mix.

2. Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan and fry the aubergines in batches until lightly browned.

3. In a deep saucepan heat a little oil and add half the curry paste, fry the paste for a couple of minutes stirring all the time.

4. Add the aubergines, stir to coat in the paste. Add the coconut milk and roast tomato passata. Bring to a simmer and add green beans and cook for about 10 minutes or until the beans are tender but still have a bit of bite.

5. Make the raita by stirring the chutney into the yogurt, sprinkle over a little coriander and serve alongside the curry with some naan breads or rice.