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From meat lover to vegetarian — a flavourful Thai vegetable potjie

Adding the stock. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)

14 Mar 2025

My month-long challenge to go vegetarian has turned into a lasting lifestyle change, bringing unexpected benefits such as improved digestion, clearer skin, and more energy.

My brush with vegetarianism has not ended despite achieving my goal of cutting out meat consumption for the entirety of February. Going vegetarian is now a choice I am sticking to.

There have been a few changes in my body after depriving it of meat for a month. Maybe I’m reaching here, as a month is not long to make an adequate judgment call.

Probably the following is an overshare. With a vegetarian diet, I am consuming a lot of fibre, which has led to improved digestion, gut health, and more regular bowel movements. TMI (too much information)!

I’m also feeling more energetic after switching to a vegetarian diet and my skin is clearer and looks healthier. The latter is a major confidence booster as I still suffer from acne breakouts like a pubescent teenager, although I am in my mid-30s.

Ray at the coalface. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)

While there are many benefits to going vegetarian, the overarching downside is running out of meal ideas. Granted, tweaking recipes by omitting meat might seem easy, but it isn’t. The challenge is replacing meat with an equally nutritious protein.

Thank goodness I have a community in vegetarianism to hold my hand and counsel me into my new eating habits. My friend, Sanet van Rensburg, is an expert vegetarian, and she recently invited me to her Pretoria home for a Sunday vegetarian braai.

For some odd reason, using the words braai and vegetarian in one sentence seems like a betrayal of the South African tradition of having meat over a roaring fire. But the beauty of South Africa is that its traditions are flexible, vast, and accommodating of tweaks. Sanet and her partner treated me to a vegetable potjie, also styled as a Thai curry.

The dish may be vegetarian, but it didn’t skimp on flavour. It was colourful and aromatic. Creamy coconut milk and Thai green curry paste created the perfect flavour base for eggplant and other crisp vegetables.

The beauty of this dish is its versatility. You can easily adjust the spice level by using less curry paste, and you could use the vegetables available in your fridge.

The cooking method is also flexible. You don’t need a cast-iron pot over an open flame, and the dish can easily be made on a stove. However, the first prize is using a cast-iron pot over a fire, allowing for slow cooking and the flavours to meld together.

Overall, this dish was so delicious that I even forgot about meat or my cravings for it.

Ray’s Thai vegetable potjie

Simmering away. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)

Ingredients

½ cup olive oil

1 can coconut milk

2 stalks celery

3 cups red cabbage, sliced

2 cups broccoli

2 cups patty pans

1 can chickpeas

2 cups mushrooms

1 eggplant (brinjal/aubergine), sliced into thick slices

4 Tbsp Thai green curry paste

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 slices ginger

1 small onion, cut into small wedges

1 cup vegetable stock

Black pepper and salt to taste

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried basil

Method

Vegetables, prepped. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)

Heat the potjie over coals until it is a little bit warm, then add oil. When the oil is hot, lightly cook onions, garlic and ginger.

Arrange vegetables in layers on top of the onion, ginger, and garlic mixture. The vegetables with the longest cooking times (broccoli, eggplant, and patty pans) go on the bottom of the pot. Then, layer the remaining vegetables (mushrooms, stalks of celery, and red cabbage) on top.

Adding the stock. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)

Sprinkle on the seasonings and herbs. Pour vegetable stock over the final layer. In a separate bowl, mix coconut milk and Thai green curry paste, then fold into the potjie. Add chickpeas.

Cover the pot with its lid and simmer over coals for 1.5 to 2 hours. Leave the lid on until the cooking time is finished. Serve with white rice. DM

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