Marrow Curry
Marrow Curry is a great way of using up marrow, an allotment favourite! It’s perfect for cold autumn nights. Get the recipe below.
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How to use a glut of marrow
If you’ve ever grown your own vegetables you’ve probably grown marrow. They do fantastically well in the UK and often those who grow them end up with a glut. In September you’ll also find them in supermarkets and at farmers markets. They’re incredibly cheap due to the fact that they are so abundant.
But what do you do with a glut of marrow? How do you cook it?
Stuffed marrow is one fantastic way of making the most of this large, sturdy vegetable. Marrow chutney also seems to be a popular marrow recipe when you search online.
But, one of my favourite ways to cook marrow is in a curry. It absorbs the flavour of the spices really well and it becomes quite tender when its cooked.
Adding spice
Unlike courgettes marrows are quite bland and mild. They soak up flavour really well which means they are the perfect vegetable to put in a strongly spiced dish like a curry.
There are a number of steps to this curry recipe to ensure you get the most out of each ingredient in the dish.
Adding spice to a curry is not as simple as throwing in the spices with the rest of the ingredients.
In this dish the marrow is peeled and then simmered in stock to make it soft and ready to absorb the spices. While this is happened the spices are tempered in oil then placed to one side.
Next the onions, garlic and pepper are all fried before the marrow is added back to the pan along with the tempered spices and green lentils to cook down until a sauce has formed.
By cooking the curry in this way the spices have the maximum impact and the marrow and green lentils really come to life.
The recipe
Marrow Curry
Ingredients
- 1 small marrow
- 500 ml vegetable stock
- 4 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp black mustard seeds
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 0.5 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 white onion finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 400 g green lentils tinned, drained
- 0.5 tsp cornflour
- 1 red chilli thinly sliced, to serve
- fresh coriander to serve
Instructions
- Heat a pan of vegetable stock to a boil and add the diced marrow.
- Simmer the marrow for 10 minutes until tender then drain reserving the liquid.
- Heat half of the oil in a large pan and fry the spices until their aromas have been released; place to one side.
- Heat the other half of the oil to the pan and add the diced onion with a large pinch of salt. Fry for 5-8 minutes or until softened.
- Add the sliced garlic and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the marrow, green lentils and spices back to the pan and add just enough of the remaining stock mixed with 0.5 tsp of cornflour to create a sauce.
- Serve with fresh red chilli and coriander leaves
Nutrition
More Indian inspired recipes
For more Indian inspired recipes, check out the Indian recipe collection.