Vegetarian/Vegan Bobotie

Serves 6

Preparation time: 20 minutes 
Cooking time:
2 hours, 90 minutes hands off

We made the vegan version using Vivara mince. The vegan variation is in bold below.

Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil 
2 onions peeled and finely chopped 
2 garlic cloves peeled and very finely chopped 
3 tbsp curry powder (I used 2 tbsp medium of Raja and 1 tbsp hot Raja) 
1 tsp ground cumin 
1 tsp ground coriander 
1 tsp turmeric 
1 kg meatless mince  
1 tsp salt 
½ tsp ground black pepper 
1½ tsp herbs, crushed between your fingers 
1½ tbsp sugar 
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 
3 tbsp brown vinegar 
1 tbsp smooth apricot jam 
4 tbsp Mrs Balls Chutney 
1 apple, peeled and grated 
350ml vegetable stock 
2 eggs, beaten or 60ml Crack'd 
250ml milk or oat milk 
125ml double cream or oat cream 
2 bay leaves 
1 cup of shaved coconut

Method
Heat the oil in a large casserole pan that can go on the hob and in the oven over a medium heat.  Add the onion and cook for 5-7 minutes until soft and translucent, you don't want to brown the onions at all.  

Once the onions are soft add the garlic and cook for 1 minute before adding the spices and cooking for a further min. Add the mince, stir through, season with salt and pepper and add the sugar, herbs, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, apricot jam, chutney and apple.  Stir, add the stock, stir and reduce the heat to low and leave to cook for an hour, stirring from time to time. You want this to cook out and want the flavours to fully develop, it should not dry out so if it looks as though the liquid is evaporating too fast, reduce the heat. 

Preheat the oven to 180c. If you are making the vegan version reduce the heat to 170c. 

After an hour, mix the eggs, milk and cream, season with a little salt and mix. Pour the mixture over the mince and put into the oven for 20-30 minutes until the top is golden.  If you are making the vegan version mix the no-egg, oat milk and oat cream and put over the top of the mince.  Cook for 35-45 minutes as it takes longer to achieve the same results. 

Toast the coconut shavings until golden and serve on the side with tomato sambal, banana yoghurt and yellow rice.