Rukmini Iyer’s recipe for cauliflower and butter bean malai curry

A filling vegetarian curry, with leftovers to stuff into a wrap or pie. The same sauce can also be used as the base for a matar paneer. Cook once, eat thrice!

You can’t beat a creamy, tomato-based curry when you’re in need of comfort food, although chilli aficionados might want to up the amount of crushed red chillies from one teaspoon to two – or more. This takes on even more flavour by roasting one of its star ingredients – cauliflower – in spices, before adding it to the sauce with some good jarred butter beans (you can use tinned, but you might want to simmer them for an extra 10 minutes, so they take on more flavour).

Adjusting the salt and lemon juice to taste at the end will bring out all the flavours and really make this dish sing.

Prep 10 min Cook 30 min Serves 2 today, 2 tomorrow

1 large cauliflower, trimmed and cut into small florets 3 tbsp neutral oil 2 tsp ground turmeric 2 tsp ground cumin 2 tsp flaky sea salt, plus extra as needed 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated 5cm fresh ginger, peeled and grated 1 tsp crushed dried red chillies 1 tsp black peppercorns, finely ground ½ tsp ground cinnamon 400g tin chopped tomatoes 700g jar butter beans, not drained 100ml single cream Juice of ½ lemon Rice, parathas or flatbreads, to serve

Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7. Tip the cauliflower into a roasting tin, add a tablespoon of the oil and a teaspoon each of turmeric, cumin and sea salt, and toss to coat. Roast for 20 minutes, until the cauliflower is golden brown and just cooked through. (Alternatively, cook it in batches in a single layer in an air fryer at 200C, where it will take about 12 minutes per batch.)

Meanwhile, put the remaining oil in a large frying pan on a medium heat, add the onion and fry, stirring occasionally, for seven minutes, until golden brown. Add the garlic and ginger, stir-fry for 30 seconds, then turn down the heat and add the remaining turmeric, cumin and salt, as well as the chilli, black pepper and cinnamon. Stir for a further minute on a very low heat, just to cook the spices, then add the tinned tomatoes and the butter beans and their jar liquid. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the cream and roast cauliflower to the sauce and cook for a further two minutes. Take off the heat, squeeze in the lemon juice, then taste and adjust for salt. Serve hot with rice, parathas or flatbreads.

The flavours intensify in the fridge overnight, so a next-day version could see the same curry stuffed inside a paratha, topped with lettuce and finely sliced red onions, and wrapped up, kati roll-style. (Even better, if you have time, would be to slice the red onions, blanch them in boiling water for two minutes, then drain and dress with lime juice and salt. After 30 minutes, they’ll be the most vivid pink, and taste lightly pickled, which works perfectly against the richness of the beans and cream.) Alternatively, turn the curry into a pie with (ideally all-butter) puff pastry. And if you’re thinking, “Sorry, what now?!”, consider that puff pastry isn’t a million miles away from a good, flaky paratha. Put the leftover curry in a small ovenproof dish the night before, then, when you’re ready to cook, simply top it with puff pastry, crimp the edges, make a small hole in the middle, brush with egg and bake at 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7 for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and the insides are piping hot.

The best thing about this dish, though (other than how good it tastes), is its versatility. I’m a firm believer in using up what you have at home before buying in new ingredients, so if there aren’t butter beans in the cupboard but you have good tinned chickpeas (or, even better, jarred), by all means use those. You could add just-defrosted peas for extra veg and, if that makes you think of matar paneer, why not make the same base sauce, leave out the cauliflower and beans, and replace them with roast or fried paneer cubes (I like All the Aunties)? Just season the paneer with the spices before cooking (as you would the roast cauliflower). Now that I think about it, this is five recipes all in one!