My favourite curry

Until I moved to Britain I had never eaten a curry. During my first year here I made one or two attempts at cooking one, but the result, made with curry sauce from a jar, never inspired me much. It wasn't until a year ago that I overcame my fear of what seemed like a difficult and time-consuming meal to cook, and now I love cooking curries. I learned that they don't take that much time to prepare, they can be made with whatever vegetables are left over in de fridge and they're also good for pleasing everyone; from vegans to meat-eaters.

This curry was first made for me by my boyfriend several months ago, and its still my favourite. Although the ultimate cooking-from-scratch thing to do would be using dry chickpeas and letting them soak overnight, but I often don't decide what I'm going to eat until dinner time comes around, so canned chickpeas are a quick and easy alternative

Preparation time: 10 minutes, cooking time: 30-40 minutes. 

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

- 1 onion

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1 medium-large sweet potato

- 1 can of chickpeas 

- fresh spinach (I used approximately 75 grams)

- 1 can of coconut milk

- approximately 3-4 tablespoons of curry powder

- 150ml hot water

- some oil for frying

Method:

Slice the onion, crush the garlic and dice the sweet potato. Heat a large pan on a medium-high setting and fry the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes, until starting to turn brown. 

At the same time mix the curry powder and hot water in a glass or cup. 

Add the diced sweet potato, curry powder mix and coconut milk to the pan and give it a good stir. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add them to the mixture. Lower the heat to a medium setting, and let everything cook until the sweet potatoes have softened (20-30 minutes), stirring every now and then. 

If the mixture is to watery then turn up the heat a bit in order for more water to evaporate or add some water if the mixture becomes too thick/dries out.

When the sweet potato has softened and the sauce has reached the right consistency, cut the spinach leaves and add them to the mixture. Stir for another one or two minutes and then you're curry should be ready to serve.

Serving suggestion: serve with rice, naan bread or both.

 This is the first time I've tried to take pictures when cooking, and I've realised I'm still a long way off from the glamorous photos you see in magazines. The fact that my kitchen is in a student house rather than in Jamie Oliver's doesn't help either. However, I hope the photos make the story a bit more colourful and give you some kind of idea of what the dish looks like :)