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I spend a lot of my time and money pretending to be a young professional, when in fact, I’m actually a dumb, poor student. This includes behaviour such as spending outrageous sums of money at bars, buying clothes that do not suit any of the places I go, and practicing fancy recipes to cook for my non-existent significant other. Having a dinner party with your friends and/or housemates is the ultimate young professional move, but what can you make that is delicious, easily scalable for numbers attending, low on dishes and doesn’t trap you in the kitchen for the whole evening?

This one. It’s a very easy, one pot, kind of very white person, vegan korma. It’s like a BYO but you don’t have to pay corkage or follow the DCC bylaws of half bottle limits. Have your curry and eat it too.

Ingredients:

• 1 brown onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chile flakes
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 red capsicum
• ¼ head cauliflower
• ½ head broccoli
• 1 large carrot
• ¼ small pumpkin
• 1 can coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to a large, heavy pot on medium heat and sprinkle in the spices. Give them a stir and allow to bloom in the oil (this releases their aromas and flavours).

2. Slice up the onion, garlic and ginger and add to the pot. Add the tomato paste. Stir occasionally while they soften and the tomato paste turns a deep red.

3. Chop up the broccoli, capscicum, cauliflower and pumpkin into small chunks (don’t be wasteful, use the broccoli stalk). Slice the carrot into fine rounds.

4. Pour a tiny bit of water into the pot and scrape the bottom to release any stuck tomato paste, then add the coconut milk.

5. Add the chopped vegetables, lower the heat a little, lid the pot and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

6. While the curry is simmering, make some rice to go with it. If you still don’t know how to cook rice, here is a small recipe: rinse your rice thoroughly with cold water (use a sieve to make this easier if you have one). For every one cup of rice, you’ll need two cups of water (use ½ cup rice for each person). Bring the water to a boil, then add the rice. Give the rice a stir and wait until the water has reached boiling again before adding a lid. Lower the temp, DO NOT REMOVE THE LID, and leave to cook for 16-18 minutes, until the rice is tender. Fluff with a fork.

7. Bring the vegan korma to the table with the rice and allow your guests to serve themselves. Two pots on the table, delicious creamy korma and some lovely rice.

Crack open a bottle of wine and try to think of something interesting that happened in lockdown to talk about with your mates. Do not speak of Zoom or click and collect ever again. The breathers are returning to Castle Street. Online learning was the virus. Life is good.