These were truly moreish on their own but the carrot ketchup elevated what is essentially vegetables formed into patties and baked into a truly stellar vegetarian main course. Well, sort of, because there is fish sauce and Worcestershire in the ketchup. If you are a vegetarian purist then I suggest serving these with plain yogurt into which you have chopped some mint. For all others, the veggie cakes and carrot ketchup are a match made in heaven.
AND this is the perfect recipe for using up all the bits and bobs of vegetables that you have malingering in your fridge. I used half a package of corn from the freezer, a can of chickpeas, some cauliflower left from a crudités platter, a carrot left from making the ketchup, two potatoes that were lurking in the larder and some arugula that was taking up fridge room. We all have our own variation of the bits and bobs scenario that I mention above so be creative though I do recommend potato, sweet potato and/or legumes of some kind as a key ingredient; they have the right texture to hold the rest of the vegetables together. I also think that proper curry powder makes a difference here, not the version one buys at the supermarket. No matter what your composition, this recipe will make you feel very virtuous - both to make and eat.
This recipe made 4 huge vegetable cakes; next time I will make them smaller and serve 2 per person for aesthetic reasons. You could stick them in a toasted burger bun and call them a veggie burger. They would also taste good as an appetizer, made even smaller and served on a salad of baby arugula sprinkled with lemon juice.
4 cups vegetables, whatever you have to hand, all chopped or grated to about the same dimension
2 tsps curry powder
Salt to taste
1/2 cup cornmeal
Preheat oven to 400. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Measure the cornmeal onto a plate.
Add your potatoes and beans to a large bowl and mash roughly. Add the rest of the vegetables, the curry powder and the salt to your bowl and mix well to incorporate the curry powder and salt evenly into the vegetables. You should end up with a moist final product that holds together when formed into cakes. If not, feel free to add a tablespoon or so of water or aquafaba from your chickpea tin.
Form the vegetable mixture into cakes and roll them in cornmeal on all sides. As you do that, place each finished vegetable cake on the parchment paper lined baking tray.
Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes, flipping the cakes over gingerly at the 15 minute mark.
Serve with LOTS of the carrot ketchup.