Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry

Ah, curry. Delicious, declicious curry. Britain has had a love affair with this versatile dish for over two hundred years and there doesn't seem to be an end date for this affection with the jalfrezi variety recently overtaking the classic chicken tikka masala as the national favorite. However, much to my chagrin, I think it's fair to say that curry house versions are hardly the world's healthiest dishes with the average calorie bomb reaching astronomical heights. For example, a takeaway (or delivery) version of chicken tikka masala with rice and naan comes in at an amazing 1,300 calories on average. On. Average. Yikes.

So, I thought for a homecooked option, I'd like to try and accomplish two goals. The first was to keep those calories more in check while the second goal was to find a recipe that delivered the same amount of flavor and enjoyment of a takeaway curry in a shorter amount of time. With this vegetarian version, which has only about 300 calories in each portion when divided into four, I think we've cracked it. I've listed the prep time as five minutes but honestly, it definitely took less than that since all you have to do is chop the onion and then peel and chop the sweet potato. The only fiddly part of this recipe is the fact that you need to find cumin seeds and mustard seeds in addition to your curry powder - which was a bit of a mission since neither of the small grocery stores near my house had them. However, wandering to a larger Tesco proved wise and I found them easily so this might be something to keep in mind. The rest of the ingredients were super easy to source and, aside from the sweet potatoes, are primarily found in canned form and therefore might already be in your cupboard.

We served this curry with a bit of wholegrain rice and shared a simple Tesco naan bread between us but I think this would be equally delicious with some paneer thrown in to bulk it up a bit. I think this dish is best thought of as a more robust option to compete with chana masala. I've kept the recipe pretty much the same although I added the frozen peas to give it that nice burst of freshness. I really hope you'll give this a try since it takes less time than a delivery would and you'll have plenty to go around for weekly lunches or dinner the next day. Finally, the original recipe is supposedly for two portions but I didn't change any of the measurements and ended up with definitely enough for four people. If you were serving this alongside another curry or additional dishes, you could easily stretch this to at least six portions.

Original recipe via www.bbcgoodfood.com

Prep Time:   5 min

Cook Time: 25 min

Serves:       4-6

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp medium curry powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

100g red lentils 

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size pieces

500 ml vegetable stock

1 can chopped tomatoes (400g)

1 can chickpeas (400g)

1 cup frozen peas

To Serve:

Yogurt

Mango chutney 

Fresh coriander

Rice/Naan bread 

Method:

In a large pot, heat the oil over a medium heat before adding the chopped onion. Leave to soften, stirring frequently. When the onion is translucent and soft, add the spices, lentils, sweet potato, chopped tomato and vegetable stock.

Bring to a boil then cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. 

When the sweet potato has softened, add the peas and chickpeas over a low heat. Cover again and leave for five minutes to allow to heat through.

Serve over rice or alongside naan bread with a yogurt, mango chutney and a sprinkle of fresh coriander. 

Cookbook Challenge: Mixed Bean and Aubergine Tagine

For the first recipe of my cookbook challenge, I started with one of my stranger books: The Detox Health-Plan Cookbook. This particular book has been with me almost as long as I've been in Britain and yet... I've only made a handful of the recipes contained therein. It's a shame because this book also contains a lot of information about healthy eating, nutrition and holistic healing through food. Really interesting and a successful bargain bin find! 

The Detox Health-Plan Cookbook

Edited by Maggie Pannell

Hermes House, Anness Publication Ltd. 2006

The very first cookbook challenge post seems like the ideal place to confess that I have a particular weakness for cookbooks with fabulous photos. I wish every recipe would come with a photo! My reasons for choosing this particular recipe to kick off the challenge were based on practicality: I was desperate to clear out some cupboard space! I try to keep the kitchen cabinets fairly well stocked with canned tomatoes, different types of beans and other staples so, as a result, I'm often in need of a recipe that will let me use up some of those acquired bits and bobs! Since I didn't have a tagine dish handy, I used a large oven safe pot. However, I think you could also sauté everything in a large frying pan and then transfer to a covered baking dish if needed. 

Although this recipe calls for dried beans, I swapped those out for canned versions and they were perfectly delicious. That's what I call cupboard success! I stuck with the recipe's suggestion of using fresh tomatoes but I think using a canned version in colder months would be perfectly acceptable as well. Finally, the original recipe uses the bay leaves and the celery as part of the soaking process for the dried beans. Since I was using canned versions, I decided to add everything into the main dish instead and I think they really added a nice depth of flavor. 

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 60 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 bay leaves
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 medium aubergines, chopped into bit size pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1-2 red chilies, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp paprika
2-3 large tomatoes, finely chopped
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock
1 tbsp fresh mint
1 tbsp fresh parsley
1 tbsp fresh coriander/cilantro
black pepper to taste

2/3 cup greek yogurt
2 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 160C / 325F.

Heat three tablespoons of olive oil in a large, oven safe casserole pot over medium heat. Add the chopped aubergine and sauté for five minutes or until evenly browned. Remove from the pot and set aside.

Next, add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and add the onion and celery. Stirring frequently, sauté until softened. Add the garlic and chopped chilies. After five minutes, add the tomato puree and paprika and cook for a minute or two. When the puree has been mixed through, add the chopped tomatoes, aubergine, chickpeas, red kidney beans and vegetable stock. At this point, add black pepper to taste.

Cover the pan and transfer to the oven. After an hour, give the tagine a stir and check that the aubergine is cooked through. If the tagine still has a lot of liquid, allow to continue cooking in twenty minute intervals until it has the consistency of a stew.

To serve, mix the yogurt, mint and spring onions and add to each dish alongside a sprig of cilantro/coriander. We enjoyed this recipe on its own but it could also be nice over couscous for a more substantial meal. Enjoy! 

Sausage, Spinach and Chickpea Stew

In news that will surprise no one, life is pretty hectic at the minute with school and work so blogging hasn't really been a priority. However, spring has finally sprung and I'm getting excited about cooking lots of tasty treats so hopefully I'll be able to share a few of those with you all along the way. I might have to cut down on the step by step photos for recipes but I'll try to include at least one picture of the finished product for each post.

Finished product!

While this recipe is not the most spring oriented, it does make for a quick and tasty weekday dinner. However, the herbs add a much needed dash of green and, let's be honest, spring in Britain requires holding on to a few comfort dishes to warm you up. I made this for my flatmate and her friend and it was a hit - easy to make while chatting, super fast and delicious. Plus, add it a slightly sad attempt to artfully place the toast and you have a dinner party dish. I love this recipe because it works for most of the year and is pretty cheap (so perfect for those midweek meals!). This time, I doubled the recipe so I'd have plenty leftover to take to work for my lunches. Of course, I did this before remembering that the current tube strike means I'll be working from home today and tomorrow! Oops. Oh well, still delicious! If you'd like to skip the bread, this could be good with couscous or rice as well. You just want something that will let you soak up all that saucy goodness. Finally, try and get sausages with a high percentage of meat. I went with the Waitrose pork and leek sausages because they were on sale and, at 75% meat, they were perfect. 

Delicious and Prosecco... can't complain! 

I stayed pretty true to the recipe on Real Simple but added parmesan cheese to the final product. This is optional but, if you're like me, you probably have some in the fridge already! Sprinkle a bit of the leftover herbs on top and you're good to go!

Recipe via www.realsimple.com

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 sausages, casings removed
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro/corriander, chopped
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
500g spinach
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese, grated
Crusty bread to serve

Method: 

In a large pan with high sides, heat a dash of olive oil over medium heat and add the chopped onion. Cook until softened and then add the sausages. Use a wooden spoon to break up the sausages as they brown so that they look more like mince than sausages. Once browned, add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or two, stirring continuously so the meat doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. If necessary, lower the heat to medium-low.

Next, stir in the herbs and continue to cook for another minute. When the herbs have been incorporated, add the stock and chickpeas. Increase the heat and bring to a boil.

Finally, add the spinach and simmer for ten minutes until wilted and well mixed. Serve with toasted crusty bread and enjoy! 

Spicy Chana Masala

This is one of my favorite dishes in Indian restaurants and something I've been wanting to try at home. After ordering some amchoor powder off Amazon, I thought this was the perfect time to give it a go. This recipe is based on one from Smitten Kitchen, but of course I couldn't resist messing with it.

Ingredients

So many spices!

Ready for the pan

I thought that the amchoor powder added enough of a sour note that I didn't need the lemon juice that she included. However, if you don't have any on hand, you can definitely substitute the juice of half a lemon. I also neglected to notice that she included cumin seeds after they had been toasted and ground. Instead I threw them in whole and it was actually very tasty so I've kept them that way in this recipe.

Nearly ready...

Ready to eat!

I like the fact that this recipe not only makes TONS of food but it also is pretty quick and actually fairly cheap since chickpeas and chopped tomatoes are hardly the world's most expensive ingredients. And when I say this makes tons, I mean it. I've estimated you could get 8 servings from this but I really think it could even be more, especially if you're having it as a side dish. I served this with some store bought paratha, yogurt, chutney, some lemon roasted new potatoes, quick sauteed mushrooms and a sprinkling of fresh coriander. Delicious!

Finished dish

I highly recommend this as a dish that you could make on a Sunday afternoon and enjoy all week!

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 45 min

Serves: 8

Ingredients: 

1 tbsp oil
2 medium red onions, chopped finely
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1 green chili, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp amchoor powder
2 tsp paprkida
1 tsp garam masala
1 can chopped tomatoes
2/3 cup water
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp salt

Method: 

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and add the onions and garlic. Allow to heat through and begin to become translucent before adding the chili. After a few minutes, add the spices and saute to allow the spices to heat through and become fragrant. Next, add the remaining ingredients and leave to simmer for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Chorizo and Chickpea Stew

So. This is awkward. It's been a shockingly long time since my last post! Apologies, apologies. However, I have a very good reason for this: I got a job! Well, sort of. It's a temporary position teaching a new summer school course at my university. Two weeks long, this course is designed to teach students who have just finished their first year a range of different skills that they might not have come across in their degree classes since they come from such a wide variety of subjects. For example, we have representatives from physics to english to history or art which makes for a really fantastic class mix. I'm really enjoying my time as a teaching assistant although it means that a lot of my other pursuits (like this blog!) have fallen a bit by the way side. The working world is tough! Although the class is short in duration, it is pretty full on in terms of contact hours with lectures and seminars from 10 am to 5 pm or even later some days. As TAs we need to be there for almost everything so it's been an exhausting week.

Chorizo and chickpea stew ready for the fridge

While I haven't been cooking too much this week, I have been focusing on my lunches since the short lunch breaks we have with the course mean that bringing my lunch with me in the morning makes a lot of sense (and saves money!). To this end, I made up a huge batch of this chorizo and chickpea stew at the weekend and basically have just been enjoying it with lots of extra veggies and tasty goodness piled on top every day for either lunch or dinner... and occasionally both! Inspired by an episode of Nigella Express, this recipe is perfect and super easy with only three main  ingredients. I added a dash of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of fresh coriander the first time and ever since I've been basically just adding other leftovers to my bowl... all successfully since this dish is happy to share the spotlight. I added a few bits and pieces to Nigella's original recipe so I'll include those to the list below. The following pictures are of my most recent masterpiece with some beetroot salad, yellow bell pepper, feta and green onions. Finally, this recipe makes a massive amount but can easily be halved...

Couscous with a ladle of stew

Adding in the beetroot salad 

Bell pepper, feta and green onion on top 

Finished product ready to eat! 

Recipe inspired by www.foodnetwork.co.uk 

Prep Time: 1 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Serves:  6-8 

Ingredients: 

Splash of olive oil

1 onion, chopped

320 g Chorizo, sliced into half circles 

2 cans of chickpeas, drained

2 cans of cherry tomatoes with their juice 

1/2 tsp mixed herbs

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes 

1/2 tsp paprika 

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 

30g Greek yogurt per bowl

30g couscous per bowl

Sprinkling of fresh coriander, chopped 

Method: 

In a large pot, heat the splash of oil over medium heat and add the onion. When it's beginning to become translucent, add the chorizo and allow to saute for a few minutes. Next, add the chickpeas and the tomatoes with half a can of water. Stir in the herbs and spices and leave to simmer for half an hour. While waiting, pour the couscous into a bowl and cover with boiling water (adding a half centimeter of water above the top of the couscous) and place a plate on top to keep in the steam. Set aside for fifteen minutes. When ready top the couscous with the stew and add a dollop of Greek yogurt and a tablespoon or so of fresh coriander. Enjoy!