Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

This flavourful, plant-based curry is made with high protein, beef-flavoured soya strips, vegetables and spinach. I bought soya strips online from Alternative Stores and from House of Natural Food, they’re also available from health food shops or other online retailers

Yield: Four servings Cook time: 50 minutes

You’ll need:

1. 75g soya strips
2. Two meat free beef-flavoured Oxo cubes
3. Two tablespoons of oil
4. One small carrot, diced
5. One stick of celery, diced
6. One small onion, diced
7. Two cloves of garlic, minced
8. Two chilli peppers, minced
9. One red pepper, chopped
10. One tablespoon of tomato puree
11. Spice mix: one and a half teaspoons of the following: ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric, garam masala. Half a teaspoon of the following: mustard seeds, ground ginger and cayenne pepper. One quarter of a teaspoon of both garlic granules and onion granules
12. One 400g tin of plum tomatoes, blended until smooth
13. 100g plain, unsweetened dairy-free yoghurt. I used Alpro plain, unsweetened yoghurt, it’s available from most supermarkets
14. Two handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped

Method;

• Start by soaking soya strips in the hot meat free beef stock. To make the stock, dissolve one meat free beef-flavoured Oxo cube in 175ml of boiled water. Place the soya strips into a shallow dish and pour the stock over them. Cover the dish and allow the strips to absorb the stock for at least 15 minutes
• Once the strips have absorbed the stock, remove them from the dish and gently squeeze out any excess stock
• Next, heat one tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the strips to the frying pan and fry for ten minutes, stirring fairly often. Once they’re browned, remove them from the frying pan and set them aside
• Next, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once it’s heated up, add in the carrot, celery and onion and fry for ten minutes
• Then add in the garlic, chilli pepper and red pepper, stir them through the vegetables and cook for another five minutes
• Use a mortar and pestle and grind the mustard seeds into a fine powder, add this to the rest of the spices. Add the tomato puree and spice mix, give them a good stir through the vegetables and cook for two or three minutes
• Next, add the plum tomatoes, and the remaining meat free beef Oxo cube dissolved in 200ml boiled water. Pop a lid on the frying pan and leave it to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every now and then
• Stir the fried soya strips and baby spinach through the curry, and give them 10 minutes to heat through
• Finally, stir the yoghurt through the curry, and give it five minutes to heat through

Serve with rice and your choice of accompaniments, such as naan, roti or poppadoms. Sometimes naan bread will contain non-vegan ingredients, so always check the ingredients to make sure that it’s plant-based