Cauliflower and Chickpea Curry

I've realised recently that we're actually quite traditional when it comes to food here and most meals do contain a meat element. In fact, Mr C doesn't generally think that a main course is a main course unless there is meat in it. I have therefore watched with fascination the latest River Cottage series, Veg Everyday.

Hugh F-W is not a man that you usually think of as a vegetarian, but that's exactly what he challenged himself to do for a summer, to see what it would be like to eat veg everyday and cut meat out of his diet. The television programmes have been interesting, but not everything they featured was a practical dish that you could do at home – unless you have a monkey puzzle tree in your garden! One other bit I saw was one of his chef's smoking some cheese and then adding it to vegearian dishes – in other words just saying that cheese can add flavour to dishes that might be a bit bland without it – not exactly rocket science.

I really hadn't been bothered about the book to accompany the series until I started flicking through a copy at a friend's house. It's true that our diet could do with including some more vegetables and the fact that I happened across three recipes that instantly made my mouth water seemed a good thing to me.

Last night we tried our first all vegetarian main course from River Cottage Veg Every Day (and I realise now that was in fact a vegan meal – something pretty much unheard of in this house before!) and I have to say that it was delicious. We went for the cauliflower and chickpea curry and I just served it with a mix of Indian breads. The curry itself had a good depth of flavour to it and also managed to taste very fresh so not too heavy at all. I was also amazed to find that I didn't miss there not being any meat in it – the cauliflower and chickpeas stood on their own just fine and weren't relegated to being an accompanyment at all. I'll certainly be cooking the curry again – and it's worth remembering as a "tested dish" for if we do ever have any vegan friends round to dinner (not that I can think of any vegan friends at the moment – but still, "be prepared" as they taught me in the Girl Guides!)