Which herbs, spices etc do you use to make a basic chilli or curry?

I've never really cooked either as none of us usally like hot/spicy food, but I really fancy trying to make some!

So, I'd really appreciate herb/ spice ideas for a basic chilli and curry (we're vegan so would use tofu/beans as the base) Ideally a warm spcicy but not hot dish please lol!

Thanks Gina xxx

My best mates (of 13 years) mum is a great curry cooker. The family orgionally come from southern india - kerala - and she's taught me a few recipes over years.
Try this one to start with:
(might need trip to local specialist food shops but well worth it)
Parsnip And Chickpea Curry
This is a great way to use winter root vegetables. Cooked slowly, they can develop a lovely sweet flavour, which works well as a curry.

Give this dish a go if your family is fed up with roast parsnip and parsnip soup - again!

Ingredients
Serves 4

2 medium parsnips
1 medium onion, peeled, halved and sliced
200g chick peas, cooked
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
½ inch fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1 fresh chilli, deseeded & chopped (or equivalent dried chillies)
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 tin tomatoes, chopped
Handful fresh coriander leaves, chopped

Method
1. Heat a large pan with no oil. Add the cumin, coriander and fenugreek seeds and cook for about 2 minutes, until they start to "pop" and "jump". Remove from the heat and crush in a pestle & mortar or grinder.
2. Heat the oil in the pan and gently sauté the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli until soft (about 10 minutes).
3. Add the ground seeds and cook for a further 2 minutes.
4. Scrub or peel and chop the parsnip into ½ inch cubes. Add to the pan and stir well to coat. Cover and sauté for 5 minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes and chick peas, stir well. Cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes, until the parsnip is tender.
6. Remove from the heat and stir in the coriander leaves.

Hi Gina,I usually use some ground cumin and ground corriander in my chilli.  I use fresh chilies and add fresh corriander leaves about 20 before it finishes cooking.  If you don't like it too hot one chilly should be enough between 4 people.

For a quick curry paste you could mix ground tumeric, corriander & cumin and add garlic, tomato puree and olive oil. I'm sure this would make a nice marinade for your tofu.  Not tried it with tofu myself.. maybe I will now  :)

Slice sweet potato and par roast it.  When they have 10 minutes left till they are done, take them out and brush one side with mango chutney, then pop them back in to finish roasting, really nice as an accompaniment to any curry.  We love curry in this house and DH's collection of spices is huge and taking over the cupboard (actually I exaggerate my baking stuff is also taking over the cupboard, how many different kinds of sugar does a girl need!?)

Anyway we have a really smashing Curry book, every curry we have made out of it is really really delish.  Its called Curry and has a bright green and pink cover, although it doesn't have many vegan recipes I don't think.  Although DH did a smashing pilau rice out of it this weekend for a dinner party, we had it with mackerel but it would be lovely on its own.  It was lovely and then we ate it cold on Sunday.  I imagine the recipe is really long so can't type it out now as got to get the kids dressed an out, I'll see what I can do later.

I'd go with cumin, and coriander too but also garam masala.  With spices you are best off buying them whole then dry roasting them in a pan for a few seconds and and grinding them yourself fresh.  Your kitchen will smell lovely.

I have an amazingly easy chilli recipe, we eat it all the time (only downside can be the windy after-effects!).

For 4-6 people (depending on their size!), chop a large onion and soften in a little oil.  When it's slightly browned, add a can of kidney beans, a can of adzuki beans and a can of borlotti or haricot beans (all drained and rinsed well obviously).  Fry them off for a couple of minutes, then add a can of baked beans in tomato sauce, a large jar of passata (or you could seive your own tinned tomatoes) and a little squeeze of tomato puree.  I add a sprinkle of black pepper and paprika, and about 3 level teaspoons of hot chilli powder (but experiment -  you can always make it hotter, but not cooler!).

Let it simmer on the hob on very low, for about half an hour - 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The longer you leave it, the thicker, richer and spicier it gets (and the yummier!).

Serve it with lots of rice, or in wraps with cheese and salad.  Best thing is, it tends to make loads (you need to use a large pan or casserole), and it freezes well in little tubs.  We make a batch, then you just microwave, or defrost and hob-cook a little portion every time you fancy a jacket potato or something!

Really easy, really healthy, really yummy and really CHEAP!

xxx

Chilli is the only one I know how to cook.  But I tend to use an onion, pepper, 800g tin of tomatoes, some mince, and the red kidney beans.  Cook all that up with Cayenne pepper, 3 dried birds eye chillis (remove them before serving up), and some cumin. 

Thanks for the great ideas - will let you know how I get on!
Gina xx