©2002 Ashys vegetarian recipes
Steamed veg with yoghurt and coconut
You can use a variety of vegetables for this recipe. Pumpkin, turnip, parsnip and cauliflower, for example, would all be good. Here, I've just given a list of the vegetables I used the last time I made this dish.
To steam the vegetables, use a colander or sieve which will sit on top of a pot. Put 5 cm of water in the pot and put the vegetables in the colander. Put the lid from the pot over the vegetables. Don't worry about an exact fit. As long as some of the steam from the water gets driven through the colander and over the vegetables, everything will be fine.
How you cut up the vegetables and where you position them in the colander is more important to the success of this recipe, since different vegetables take longer to cook than others. Cutting them into different sized pieces will even out the cooking times. Carrots need the most cooking, so cut them into thin slices or long sticks and put them on the bottom, nearest the boiling water. Potatoes should also be cut into fairly small pieces (about 2cm cubes should be okay). Aubergines and courgettes or marrow, on the other hand, need less cooking so cut them into large pieces and put them on top. Green beans can go anywhere.
Ingredients
2 courgettes
1 aubergine
1 large potato
1 carrot
A few green beans
Half a teaspoon each of whole cumin and black mustard seeds
I cup of yoghurt
Half a cup of desiccated coconut
A little vegetable oil
Salt
Begin by mixing the coconut with the yoghurt and salt. Leave the mixture to one side while you get on with the rest of the recipe. Steam the vegetables for 8 to 10 minutes. Be careful not to let them get too soft. Heat the oil in a pan until it's really hot then add the cumin and mustard seeds. A few seconds later add the vegetables and stir them carefully to coat them with oil and seeds. Add the yoghurt and coconut mix, stir again, cover and cook gently for another 5 minutes.