Great British Bake Off's Karen Wright shares one of her Veganuary recipes - tuck into chickpea and potato curry

Happy New Year everyone! It is Veganuary once again. Veganuary is a UK nonprofit making organisation that promotes veganism by encouraging people to follow a vegan lifestyle for the month of January.

It only started in 2014 which is quite recent but of course there have been vegans for centuries. I am neither a vegan nor a vegetarian, but I am interested in the ethics and the lifestyle and of course the recipes.

One of my favorite recipes if I am short on time or fresh ingredients is my chickpea and potato curry, it also just happens to be Vegan.

Using mostly store cupboard ingredients I can have this curry made by the time a pan of rice has cooked, so about fifteen minutes! The beauty of this is if you have fresh ingredients handy, you can pop those in too, spinach is a good one or fresh potato rather than tinned. 

I know some people think that tinned vegetables are a no go, but they can be a healthy and economical choice.

When we think more about it, we eat canned tomatoes, canned baked beans, canned mixed beans and so on all the time, so in this recipe I have used canned potatoes but please feel free to use regular or sweet potato, just ensure it is small dice so that it cooks quickly!

To make the curry I soften a large, diced onion in olive oil and then add a squeeze each of garlic, ginger and chili purees.

I mix a heaped tablespoon of curry powder with a little water and add that to the pan, quickly followed by two tins of chopped tomatoes. I bubble this mixture for a minute and then add a drained can of chickpeas and a large, drained can of potatoes.

I then add salt to taste and then add the contents of a can of coconut milk. This makes for a runny sauce at this point, but I bubble it on a strong simmer without a lid on the pan to reduce the volume and this will thicken it.

When the consistency has thickened up it is ready to serve. I like to top it with some lemon zest and a handful of coriander.

This quantity will serve four, however there are only two in our house so I use the leftovers to make some totally yummy samosa style sausage rolls, I will share that recipe with you next week, watch this space for that!

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