Bombay Potato Curry Soup

This soup can be easily prepared as gluten-free by using a gluten-free vegetable stock and ensuring that your curry spices are free from gluten-ingredients as some may contain flour as a thickener.

Yes, this soup is perfect for meal prepping as the flavours will just get even more delicious as its stored and the soup copes well with freezing. Prepare a double batch, enjoy one batch for dinner, and then freeze the second in individual portions or the full pot full for easy, quick meals.

Yes, here are a few ideas that we like to do:

* Leftovers can be frozen in individual portions and enjoyed for a quick lunch or dinner.

* As leftovers become very thick enjoy as a curry for next days lunch or dinner along with rice, veggies and flatbreads or naans.

* Use thick leftover Bombay curry soup as a pie filling for homemade curry pot pies or pasties. The potatoes can be mashed up a little. Use vegan-friendly puff pastry and bake according to the puff pastry instructions until golden.

* Or use filo pastry and create little Bombay potato pies, perhaps using a muffin tray as mini pie dishes.

* Enjoy a Bombay grilled cheese toastie. Fill your favourite bread with thick Bombay potato leftovers along with a sprinkle of vegan shredded cheese and grill, toast, or dry-fry in a skillet or fry pan until golden, toasty and the filling is bubbling.

* Use the thick Bombay potato leftovers as a chilled tortilla wrap filling for a quick breakfast or lunch.

* Or prepare quesadilla's by spreading a tortilla with the filling and sprinkling shredded cheese over. Next place a second tortilla over the filling and place the quesadilla into a hot skillet or non-stick fry pan or on to a hotplate (such as an electric pancake/crepe maker) and cook each side until golden and the filling hot and bubbling. Slice into quarters. Spreading the tortillas with mango chutney or sweet chilli sauce is a nice idea before adding the cheese and filling.

* Pop a few of the Bombay potato chunks onto a pizza along with dollops of mango chutney for an Indian inspired pizza.

Any potatoes you have to hand are perfect for this soup. We tend to just use any potatoes we may have such as new or baby potatoes, russets, Maris piper, red potatoes, Albert Bartlett, Yukon Gold, or just ordinary supermarket potatoes with no special name or simply labelled - white potatoes.

Yes, there are a few substitutions that would be an especially delicious alternative for potatoes in a curry soup, such as - sweet potatoes, butternut squash, vegetable marrow, courgettes [zucchini], cauliflower, broccoli, parsnip, celeriac, or a mixture of veggies. Other ideas include chickpeas, butterbeans, or kidney beans.

Although do keep in mind that the finished soup won't be Bombay potato soup it will be Bombay... soup, fill in the black with whatever you choose to add!

Yes. If preferred or if you can't source a block of creamed coconut replace with homemade cashew cream or canned coconut milk. If replacing the creamed coconut with a liquid then do reduce the veggie stock by the same amount.

* To prepare homemade cashew cream simply soak one and a half cups of cashew nuts in water for a few hours or overnight and then strain the water away. Tip the cashew nuts into a blender along with an equal amount of fresh water. So if you soaked ½ a cup of cashews add ½ cup of water. If you don't have a measuring cup just use a teacup or mug. Blend until smooth or as smooth as you can achieve, add extra water if required. The cashew cream can be strained through a sieve to remove any gritty pieces if preferred, but if we are adding the cream to a curry or soup we tend to just add the gritty bits and we don't tend to notice them in the finished meal. If you don't have a high speed blender soak the cashew nuts with boiling water as this will help soften them up.

* Alternatively, replace the creamed coconut with one-two cups of canned coconut milk, just remember to reduce the vegetable stock required in the recipe by the same amount.

Nigella seeds, also known as kalonji or black cumin, [also sometimes known as onion seeds although they aren't actually onion seeds!] are small, black, triangular seeds that come from the Nigella sativa plant, which is native to southwestern Asia. They have a slightly bitter and peppery taste with hints of oregano and onion. Nigella seeds are commonly used in Middle Eastern and South Asian cooking and are often sprinkled on breads especially naan breads, added to pickles, or used as a seasoning in various dishes such as curries.

We like to use cumin seeds if we run out of nigella seeds, but other alternatives include - fennel seeds or black sesame seeds, and some people even like to use sesame seeds paired with some oregano as an alternative.

Although, do keep in mind that nigella seeds have a very distinctive flavour so there is not an exact alternative that can replicate the flavour but the alternatives are still tasty. If you have ever had naan breads that contained little black seeds, these are more than likely to be nigella seeds, so you may already be familiar with the flavour of nigella seeds even if you have never used them in cooking.