Aaaaaah, it’s been bloody AGES since my last recipe. Apologies. First I was finishing a PhD, then I was doing a residency where I was travelling to Yorkshire most weeks and cooking on the go, then I was POOR, and I couldn’t afford to experiment with food. And now I live in London. And am even poorer really, except the difference is I have less time because 2 hours of my day is commuting. But determined to get back on the food blog wagon. (WAGON). So expect a series of CHEAP EATS, for making in bulk and reheating for lunch or dinner. This week I have lentil chilli and this fine recipe; butternut squash and chickpea curry based pretty faithfully on a Good Food recipe. Served with rice in the evenings, or with a pitta for lunch.

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 35 mins | Serves: 4

Nutritional Info: 393 kcalories, protein 14g, carbohydrate 71g, fat 8 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 9g, sugar 16g, salt 0.94 g

NB I got this info off the recipe and I’m too tired to work out if it includes the rice or not, so when I record it, I just add on 50g of basmati rice, which brings the meal to: 571g kcalories, 110g carbs, 9g fat, 18g protein, 376mg sodium, 16g sugar.

Chop up the butternut squash. This is the worst bit of the recipe. From here on in it’s plain sailing. I chop squash the lazy way: slice off sections horizontally, so you have a load of cross section disks, then chop the skin off the sides with it laying flat, you end up with octagon-ish bits of just flesh, which then I section into chunks. Top Squash Tip.

Add the oil to the pan, heat, then add the squash and sautee until browning, about 10 mins

Then add the onion and the garlic, stir, and soften for 5-10 mins more

Add the curry paste, pop it on a high heat, and get it all lovely and covered and fragrant

Then add the stock, stir well, and simmer until squash is almost perfectly soft. Pop your rice on just as it’s getting soft-ish. About 5 minutes for basmati, and 10-15 for brown, before you think the squash is at almost.

Add the chickpeas and tomatoes (I used tinned), stir well, and simmer for a last 5 mins.

Just before serving, stir through chopped coriander. Serve with rice and soya yoghurt. Or pitta. Or naan. Or chapati. You get it.

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 35 mins | Serves: 4
Nutritional Info: 350 kcals, protein 16.4g, carbohydrate 68.5g, fat 3.1 g, saturated fat 0.3g, fibre 8.3g, salt 2.66 g

Ingredients pic: missing garlic and lemon, 1 too many potatoes, 1 too few tomatoes, and 2 two few chillies, because I made those changes as I went along:

First off (I’ve spared you the picture) pop 1 tsp of sunflower oil in a pan over a med-low heat and soften the onion, garlic, and chillies together for 5 minutes or so. Then add the chopped tomatoes, garam masala and tumeric, and fry over a medium high heat for a couple of minutes, to get it fragrant and stuff.

Then add the stock and lentils, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Then add the sweet potato chunks, simmer for 15 minutes or until tender (but not completely mushy)

I decided to blend mine a bit, but only a bit, and I think this was a really good choice, leave some chunks, but just give it a whizz. A bit of mashing would work too, if you don’t have a hand blender.

Then add the spinach, stir through until wilted.

Season to fuck. Seriously. LOADS of salt. Taste it as you go, but that brings out the flavour. Then add the squeeze of half of or a whole lemon to taste.

And serve. Mmmm…

Here’s what you need:

Chop the onion and the chilli (I left most of the seeds in, if you want less heat, take the seeds out), finely chop the ginger (I used about a quarter of the piece in the photo), crush the garlic.

Chop the paneer into chunks, and then fry in the oil until golden. Be careful to separate the paneer chunks as it goes into the pan.

Once they’re done, scoop out and set aside on kitchen roll:

Turn heat right down under the oil. Add the onion and chilli to the pan, and soften for 5 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic and the spices (or curry paste if you’d prefer). Fry for a further minute.

Add the tomatoes and stock, bring to the boil, then turn down to simmer. Mash the tomatoes down a bit if they’re too chunky (I use a potato masher):

Simmer for at least ten minutes, until quite thick – but not quite as thick as it needs to end up:

Add the peas and the paneer, cover and simmer for at least 5 minutes. If you can turn the heat right down and simmer for longer, then that’s better:

Uncover, and simmer for another 5 minutes – if needed – to thicken it up a bit more. Roughly chop the coriander and sprinkle over.

Serve with yoghurt and naan bread, and a medium – full bodied Portuguese red wine (preferably an Alentejo).

Serves: 4 | Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook time: 15 mins
Nutritional Info: (I think this includes chapatis) 452kcal, 45g carbs, 4g fat, 8g protein

Ingredients:

First off, use the oil to soften the onion and garlic

Add 1/2 a tbsp of the curry powder to some salted boiling water, and then boil the diced potatoes until tender

meanwhile, add the remaining curry powder to the onion/garlic, stir for a minute or so, then add the tomato, season, and simmer.

meanwhile 2: add the tsp of mint sauce to the yoghurt and stir in, another cheaty thing, but tastes well nice, actually. You might want to grate in some cucumber too, that would be nice.

Once the potatoes are tender, add to the tomatoes with 2 tbsp of mango chutney, stir and heat through

heat the chapati as per instructions, then serve the potatoes (2 wraps per person, about 350g of potato mix for 2 wraps) on a bed of shredded lettuce, or maybe some spinach, or just on their own. Scatter with chopped coriander, drizzle with minty relish and a bit more chutney if you want, fold and eat!

Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 15 mins | Serves: 2 (1 pictured)
Nutritional Info: 271 kcals, protein 12g, carbs 18.1g, fat 17.2 g, sat fat 1.4g, fibre 7.5g, salt 0.85 g

Ingredients pic:

soften the onion and garlic for 3 minutes or so

Add the curry paste, stir for 2-3mins until fragrant

Add the cauliflower, stir to coat, then add the chopped tomatoes and water, stir to mix

Then cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Put the rice (50g per person, well rinsed, 120ml water per person, cover and DO NOT UNCOVER, heat until all the water has boiled away and then set aside, still covered, to steam until the rest is ready)

Then, when the cauliflower is cooked, or about 10 mins in, stir in the spinach, and just before serving, the chopped coriander:

Serve with rice, or a naan or pitta instead. Tasty, quick, cheap. Awesomeness.

Serves: 4-6 | Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 40-50 mins
Nutrition per portion (1/4): 151 cals, 8g fat, of which 1g saturated fat, 12g added sugar, 2g salt

Ingredients:

Pop the oil in a large pan, heat it then add the curry paste and fry until fragrant

Add all the veg. And the the cooking apple. Not the regular apples yet. Them’s garnish. Stir well to coat the veg, and cook until softened, about 15 mins

Then add the stock, wine, soya cream, and coriander. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20-30 mins or until the veg is very tender.

Blend. Season well.

Serve! Garnish with chopped eating apple (not pictured, I forgot to picture that bit, and then I ate it) and a bit of coriander. Also, check out the vintage soup bowl my mum let me have. From the Actual Seventies.

This is for two as a main, with naan bread and yoghurt (it’s vegan up to that point), but you could easily combine it with other curry dishes, like any of these.

HANNAH EDIT: Nutritional Info: (if you want it) 428 kcal 50g carbs 22g fat 9g protein, or 366kcal 50g carbs 16g fat 9g protein with 1 less tbsp of oil

Here’s what you’ll need:

Chop the potatoes into “cubes”, no bigger than 1 inch. Steam them for 12 – 15 minutes – until almost cooked. [Or, if you’re my mum, don’t].

Chop the onion, peel and crush the garlic. Chop the chilli. Put 3 tbsp of oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the turmeric and cumin seeds and stir. After a minute add the chilli, the onion and garlic. Be careful not let the ingredients stick or burn. After five minutes, add the potatoes. Stir ’round for a minute or two. Add a couple of tbsp of water and cover, turn the heat down.

[Variations: for a milder dish just add the chilli to the pan whole; sometimes I add mustard seeds, too; some versions add 1 tsp of garam masala here, too; my mum doesn’t steam the potatoes in advance, she adds the raw, and then adds a cup of water or stock and simmers rather than fries it all].

Keep your eye on it, and add a bit more water if you need to.

Wash the spinach and put in to a pan still wet. Put pan on a low heat to steam the spinach in its own water for 5 – 8 minutes. It will reduce quite quickly.

When the potatoes look like this…

…add the spinach. Stir in and cook together for a minute or two. Add a couple of twists of salt and pepper.

[I suspect my mum doesn’t bother with that washing and steaming nonsense and just whacks the spinach in with the potatoes, onions and stock after about 10 minutes; if you’re cooking with a whole chilli, take it out now.]

Put it on a plate.

Serve with indian breads, yoghurt, other curries, as you see fit.

As it is spicy, you need a medium-to-full bodied red wine to go with it, preferably a Portuguese Alentejo.

Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 40 mins | Servings: 4
Nutritional info: 216 kcal, 30g carbs, 8g fat, 11g protein

Ingredients:

What’s this? Softening onion! How many pictures of a similar activity have I taken, I wonder? Many. Soften the onion, for about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, ginger, bay leaf and tumeric, and fry gently for about 5 minutes more:

Add the lentils, and water, and simmer for about half an hour, until the lentils are very tender. About half way through I added a pinch of chilli, but I don’t think that’s particularly orthodox.

When cooked, blend well, season to taste (I added a lot of salt) and squeeze in lemon to bring out the taste (you’ll be surprised at how much this transforms the soup, well, I was anyway)

Serve!

Prep Time: 10 | Cook Time: 30 | Servings: 2
Nutritional Info: (changes were spices and curry paste so I think this will be the same)  169 kcal, 14g carbs, 11g fat, 5g protein. When served with 50g of rice (dry weight) and some mango chutney (20g) and soya yoghurt (75g), you’re looking at 431 kcal, 67g carbs, 14g fat and 12g protein.

Ingredients:

pop 1 tbsp of the oil in a pan and get it very hot, add the aubergine and fry until golden brown, about 5 mins

Remove the aubergine from the pan, and pop the rest of the oil in and soften the onion, garlic, and ginger (another 5 mins)

Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for 1-2 minutes, then remove those and put with the aubergine

Stir in the curry paste and tomato puree to the onion/garlic/ginger, and fry for 2 minutes until fragrant. FRAGRANT, I TELL THEE.

Add the water and lentils. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, adding more water if necessary, and stirring now and then to make sure the lentils aren’t sticking to the bottom. Start the rice after 10-12 minutes of simmering.

Another afterthought, after tasting the lentilly mix, not quite spicy enough, so added a pinch of chilli powder, so do this to taste

When the rice is off the heat and steaming through (directions for best rice over here, y’know), add the aubergine and tomatoes, stir until heated through, then add and stir in the coriander, and serve!

Totally vegan, reasonably seasonal (June-September, seasonal, really), very filling, quick, one-pot, and BLOODY TASTY. Everyone’s happy.

Prep Time: 5 | Cook Time: 20 | Servings: 2 | Nutritional Info: 212 Kcal, 26g carb, 8g fat, 12g protein

Ingredients picture:

Add the curry paste and stir-fry for 2 minutes, until ‘aromatic’, as they say.

Stir in the tomatoes, water, and chickpeas. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to a medium simmer and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Stir in the spinach and cook until just wilted.

Stir in the coriander, and serve with rice, chutney wot your mum made and soya yogurt. Mm.