Farm Thai ‘Fruit and Veg’ Curry
I think what has subconsciously prompted my exploration into Thai cuisine whilst in Costa Rica, as well as the typically Thai green papayas, is the coconut milk I enjoy in my coffee at Anamaya after yoga in the mornings. It reminds me of travelling I have done in Thailand when I lived off of green, yellow and red thai curries with a base of coconut milk. On the farm, we grow all of the ingredients for an excellent Thai curry base. With the most fiercely good dark purple Thai basil I have ever come across, fresh lemon grass, ginger and hot peppers, we are most of the way there. Cutting a load of spinach and finding a gigantic sweet potato, unusually orange in colour, I took it as a Halloween blessing here in late October Costa Rica. Normally the sweet potatoes here lean more towards yellow than the orange I am used to in the West.
Serves 8
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Ingredients
5 medium sized Sweet potatoes (roughly, we used just 1 huge one!)
Spinach (measure to be around equal parts to the sweet potato)
Lentils 1 pack
1 can of coconut milk
1 large diced onion
3-4 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp tumeric
¼ grated ginger
½ cup diced fresh lemon grass
½ cup diced fresh thai basil
1 handful fresh basil leaves
1 squeezed lemon
1 diced and de-seeded jalapeno (optional, if you like spice like most of us do on the farm)
1 ½ Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 cup roughly chopped raisins
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Recipe
First soak the lentils for around 6 hours. Pre-dice everything; garlic and onions, the chilli after de-seeding, your herbs, the lemon grass and basil (leaving a handful of whole leaves on the side). Chop the sweet potato into bite size chunks, grate the ginger, and roughly chop raisins.
Cook lentils in a pot on the side on a medium heat and cover.
Pan fry onions until soft.
Add garlic and sweet potatoes and cook until soft, around 10 minutes on a high flame.
Add the coconut milk and all of the other ingredients, and mix and let cook for 20 minutes at the least.
Add lentils when soft enough, stir and let simmer for as long as you like.
I served this on its own with a salad on the side, and a bowl of plain yogurt on the table to cut spice for those who needed or wanted to. It would also be delicious with brown rice, though I found the lentils both served the same purpose and are higher in nutritional value.
