Pumpkiny Vegetable and Chickpea Curry

The secret to making this taste pumpkin rich is to cut the pumpkin into little squares, and add it right at the very beginning. It breaks down and mixes with the coconut milk, creating a rich pumpkiny sauce for the other vegetables - delish!

Pumpkiny Vegetable and Chickpea Curry

1 onion, finely diced
2 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons red curry paste
1/4 small pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1 cm squares
400 gram tin coconut milk
1 1/2 cups water (375ml)
1 eggplant, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
400 gram tin chickpeas (garbanzos), rinsed and drained
Steamed brown rice, to serve

1 - Heat the oil over a medium high heat in a large pan. Add the onion, and cook until the onion is golden and tender.

2 - Add the curry paste, and cook for another minute more.

3 - Add the coconut milk, water, eggplant and pumpkin, and bring to the boil. Lower heat, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring regularly.

4 - Add the capsicum and simmer for 5 minutes more.

5 - Add the chickpeas and broccoli, and cook for another few minutes, or until the broccoli is tender. Serve over the brown rice.

Eggplant and green bean noodle soup

This soup is what I like to refer to as "The Clayton's Laksa", or the laksa you have when you're not really having a laksa. Anyhoo, it doesn't really matter what it's called - it's damn fine!

2 tablespoons red curry paste (or more if you want to blow funny steam clouds out of your ears)
1 1/4 cups of water
1 large eggplant, cubed
1 large sweet potato, cubed
410g tin coconut milk
200 grams green beans, trimmed
1 large head of broccoli, cut into florets
150 grams dried flat rice noodles
coriander, to serve

1 - Combine the curry paste, water, eggplant and sweet potato in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil, then simmer, covered for 5 minutes.

2 - Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to the boil, and cook the rice noodles according to the packet instructions. Drain.

3 - Add the beans and broccoli to the pan, plus the coconut milk. Rebring to the boil, then simmer for another 5 - 7 minutes, or until the veggies are tender. Add the noodles then serve, topping with the coriander.