Fruit Korma - vegetarian

I've been making this recipe for many years and everyone seems to love it. And that includes people who aren't vegetarian and people who claim they they don't like curry!

Yes, I use a ready made sauce, although for many years I made this from scratch but I have to admit that the ready-prepared version is better than mine.

Korma is a lightly-spiced dish and the sauce is very light and creamy. If you prefer to eat dairy-free or if you are vegan, please see the note below - you can still enjoy a delicious korma.

I first started making this recipe when I lived in the UK. Curry and other Indian-inspired dishes are England's most popular food and a frequent takeout meal.

My favorite takeout curry house had an open kitchen and I'd often watch the chefs at work when I was waiting. I was originally surprised to see how much fruit was used in the dishes they produced. There was a shrimp korma on the menu and I asked one day if they could make this for me minus the seafood rather than my usual vegetable curry. It was completely delicious!

Thanks to the open-style kitchen, I was soon able to reproduce this at home.

This is a wonderfully adaptable recipe and you can use the fruit and vegetables you have on hand. Here's what I used to make this dish - to serve two people.

• One jar korma sauce. This contains cream so if you don't eat dairy, please see my notes below
• Potatoes. I used about half a dozen small ones.
• One tomato
• One small sweet red pepper
• One large stick celery
• Half an eggplant - or one small one
• One banana
• Two slices from a pineapple
• Two garlic cloves
• About an inch of fresh ginger
• About a tablespoon olive oil
• Lots and lots of fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a large pan. They are prepared and cooked in size order.

POTATOES

Clean the potatoes and half them or quarter them depending on their size. put these into the pan which is on a medium heat, Stir the occasionally so they don't stick and so they cook evenly.

EGGPLANT

Wash the eggplant, pat dry and cut into dice. Remove any sections that have lots of seeds. I don't salt them before cooking - just add the cubes of eggplant to the pan with the potatoes. Stir.

CELERY

Carefully wash the celery and slice. Add this to the other vegetables in the pan.

PEPPER

Remove the seeds from the pepper and cut into slices. put these in the pan too, remembering to stir the vegetables from time to time.

GINGER

Peel the ginger root and chop fairly finely. Add this to the other vegetables.

GARLIC

Peel and chop the garlic. I add the garlic at the last minute because it can easily burn.

SAUCE

Pour the sauce over the vegetables and heat gently, stirring so that all the flavors mingle. Once the sauce is warm, reduce the heat so that the sauce is simmering.

I used tomato, banana and pineapple but during the hundreds of times I've made this korma, I've used different ingredients. (Although I think the banana is necessary). Try chopped apple, fresh cherries or pear. We love to use mango too but mango season is a couple of months away. Nut make a great addition too, if you have them to hand. It's also lovely to add fresh chopped coconut.

TOMATO

I like to remove the seeds but it's not essential. Simply chop these and add to the pan.

PINEAPPLE

Peel the slices, cut into dice and add.

CILANTRO

Add a lot of chopped cilantro!I leave the banana to the last minute.

Simply slice the banana and add this to the pan. Serve as soon as the banana is warmed through. I like to add even more lovely chopped cilantro at this stage.

Serve with even more cilantro and Indian bread such as chapattis, roti or naan. If you can't get these (they can be ordered online) wheat tortillas heated in a hot skillet for just a few seconds on each side makes a good substitute.

Note to vegans and those who do not eat dairy products: The ready prepared sauce I use contains cream. If this is off limits for you, see if you can find Meridian brand korma sauce. This contains no dairy (no animal products at all) and is gluten- and casein- free.

You can still make korma however using the paste as opposed to the sauce. You'll need to add your own 'creamy' ingredient, such as a soy milk powder made with less water than usual. The paste contains lactic acid but as you know, this is not the same as lactose which is derived from dairy products.If you're new to the vegan lifestyle, be aware than many of the naan breads you can buy contain ghee (clarified butter). Roti bought from restaurants may too. I've never known chapattis to contain any animal ingredients however.

At last, important well know chefs and expert cooks have realized that curry can have enormous health benefits. How lovely it is to know that a food that it so tasty can also be good for us! When I was a child, it seemed that 'healthy food' meant 'boring food' but that's now far from the case. There's a lot of inspiration out there for cooking great food at home which saves a fortune on restaurant and takeout meals.

Patak's sauces have always been my favorite followed closely by Sharwoods and I've been buying both for many years. Sometimes it's just easier to give in an realize that there are some brands that are so good, you'll never be able to replicate them starting a recipe from scratch. That's what I found - eventually.

In fact, I can order everything I need, except for fresh fruit and vegetables, online. I know it's probably a bit lazy of me but I love having dinner delivered to my door rather than the hassle of the grocery store. Sometimes items such as naan can be hard to find locally and when I do, they are usually expensive - shopping online is much better value.

Photograph taken in my kitchen during the preparation of fruit korma.