“Bend It Like Beckham” came out in my teenage years, and it’s one of those movies that I watched over and over again. There’s a memorable line in the movie: “Anyone can cook aloo gobi, but who can bend a ball like Beckham?”

So aloo gobi was a natural choice for this pairing, especially considering it’s my favorite Indian dish and they make it in the movie as well.

Many aloo gobi recipes favor an even mix of potatoes (aloo) and cauliflower (gobi). As I have sadly discovered that I am intolerant of large amounts of cauliflower, this recipe uses a larger amount of potatoes.

One of the perks of being a vegetarian or vegan is all the colorful dishes you make, so instead of white cauliflower and russet potatoes, I used purple cauliflower and red potatoes when testing this recipe. You can use whatever version of both veggies you prefer.

This vegan, gluten-free recipe makes 4 “servings.”

Ingredients
1 cup brown basmati rice
0.25 cups coconut milk or coconut cream
0.25 cups garlic-infused olive oil
1 tablespoon chives
1 tablespoon lemongrass paste
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon hing
1 teaspoon garam masala
4 medium potatoes, cubed
1 cup cauliflower

Instructions
Cook the rice per its packaging instructions.

While the rice is cooking, prepare the aloo gobi.

Start by heating the cream, olive oil, chives, lemongrass paste, turmeric, hing and garam masala in a wok or a large frying pan. Note that I prefer a drier aloo gobi, so I didn’t use much coconut milk in this recipe. If you like your aloo gobi to be more saucy or creamy, add more coconut milk or coconut cream.

Stir the ingredients together until they form a cohesive marinade for your veggies.

Add the cubed potatoes, thoroughly coating each piece in the sauce. In addition to cubing the potatoes, some folks might like to peel them. We like our potatoes with the peels intact, so that’s what this recipe calls for.

Cook the potatoes for about 15 minutes, or until they are just starting to get tender. Alternate between stirring for about 30 seconds and letting them cook with the lid on for 5 minutes.

Don’t forget to check on your rice as well.

As the potatoes start to get tender, stir in the cup of cauliflower, making sure each piece is coated in sauce and they’re evenly distributed amongst the potato cubes.

Let the aloo gobi cook for about 10 more minutes, or until the veggies are all tender. Continue the method of stirring and covering.

Serve over the basmati rice and enjoy with “Bend It Like Beckham!”

The Easy Route
Sometimes it’s just best to get aloo gobi delivered from your favorite Indian restaurant.

If you prefer to make it at home, you could purchase the potatoes and cauliflower pre-cut. You can also buy a pre-made turmeric-based sauce to use instead of making your own.

The Pairing
As I eluded to earlier, “Bend It Like Beckham” is one of my favorite comfort movies.

When getting ready to watch it again as research for this, I discovered my DVD of the movie was one I lost in the great shipping disaster of 2013. As I told my fiancé, it’s probably OK it was lost, as I’m sure it was nearing the end of its life from repeated viewings.

“Bend It Like Beckham” stars Parminder Nagra as Jesminder “Jess” Bhamra, a young woman who decides to take her love for football (a.k.a. soccer in the U.S. — the movie takes place in England) to the next level by joining a proper team.

The twist is that her traditional family does not approve of her doing this, so she does it in secret and has to come up with creative lies to tell her family about what she’s really doing. She gets some help from her best friend, Tony (Ameet Chana), to keep her mom (Shaheen Khan), dad (Anupam Kher) and sister, Pinky (Archie Panjabi), out of the loop.

When Jess joins the team, she pretty much instantly becomes close friends with Jules (Keira Knightley), one of the team’s star players, and she also becomes enamored with her coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).

The movie is directed and co-written by Gurinder Chadha, who excels at making films about exploring cultural differences and navigating the world as an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.

If you enjoy “Bend It Like Beckham” just half as much as I do, I highly recommend watching some of Chadha’s other work, including “Blinded by the Light” and “Bride & Prejudice.”

Let us know if you make this aloo gobi and/or watch “Bend It Like Beckham!” Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes