I have a beautiful cauliflower ready to eat and it needs a special recipe to shine. Raising such a gorgeous thing takes so much love and care – all that foliar fertilising, liquid feeding, watering and and mulching over weeks and weeks, months even. I prefer not to relegate something so nurtured to being a boring side for something else. Sabzi is a fragrant, dry vegetable curry (as in, without coconut milk) from Northern India. It is often made with cauliflower and potatoes. This is out of my trusty Asian Cookery in Colour from 1979.

Chickpea pancakes are made all over India but in northern India are called chilla. They are usually made as a snack to dip into chutney, but they are great eaten like a roti, as part of a main, and are a good serving of protein and carbs to accompany this vegetable curry. Eaten like this they remind me of the delicious dhosa, which are fermented lentil pancakes, I have eaten at Rasa Malaysia in Cuba Street rolled and filled with curry. Incidentally, delicious versions of chickpea pancakes are made all over the landmass from India through to Spain rather like Gypsy dancing, but more on that another day.

Ingredients

For the Sabzi

250 gm cauliflower

3 medium potatoes

2 medium onions

125 gm green beans

2.5 cm piece fresh ginger

2 tbsp ghee

1.5 tsp salt

2 tomatoes

3/4 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

2 tsp garam masala

For the Chilla (chickpea pancakes)

For two servings;

1.5 cups chickpea flour, or besan

1.5 cups water

1 tomato, chopped finely

handful of mint and/or coriander , chopped finely

Spring onion or shallot, finely chopped

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp turmeric

For the raita

1 cup or more of thick yoghurt, seasoned with salt and cumin powder, mixed with 1/2 cup grated cucumber which has been salted and left to drain in a colander for 20 minutes, then rinsed and squeezed dry.

Method

To make the Sabzi: Break the cauliflower into florets . Peel and cube the potato (I used white and purple potatoes plus kumara). Slice onions thickly. Cut beans into 5 cm pieces. Shred the ginger on a coarse grater.

Het ghee and fry onions and ginger for two minutes. Add potato and cook until lightly coloured. Add cauliflower and beans with salt and cook briefly. Dice the tomato and add to the pan with the turmeric, chilli powder and mustard seeds. Cover and cook until the vegetables are tender but be careful not to over-cook or it becomes a monochromatic mush instead of a beautiful jewel-like mixture.

To make the pancakes: Whisk the water and chickpea flour together gradually with a fork to avoid lumps. It should be like thick cream. Its best if left for two hours or up to a day to hydrate the flour and dissolve any lumps. Just before you are ready to cook add the remaining ingredients. Cook in oil or ghee as you would a pancake.