I Love Curry

Butternut Squash, Red lentil & spinach Curry.

So the Euros are upon us! Finally we have football on the TV screen again, wahoooo! Obviously this calls for some food that go well with (ginger) beer, and festering in front of the TV for a while. And what’s better than curry?! In my personal opinion, vegetable curries are seriously underrated (along with vegetable pizzas, they are always better than pizzas with meat!), so with a big knife in one hand, and a butternut squash in the other, I set about to make my delicious curry!

Ingredients:

1x large onion

4 cloves of garlic

1x butter nut squash (diced into tiny little cubes)

A big, generous handful of red lentils

1x red chilli, chopped

1x tinned tomatoes

800ml chicken stock

Spinach

Cumin

Garam masala

Coriander

In a large cooking pan, heat oil.

Add in onions, keep the heat low, throw in a bit of salt.

After 5-10 minutes of cooking, add in garlic.

Allow flavours to come out, and add in red chilli.

Add in all of the herbs and spices.

By this point it should be smelling bloody lovely!

Add in your (what seems a huge amount) butternut squash.

Give this a good stir and then, throw in lentils.

Quickly after, put in all of the stock, and the tinned tomatoes. Give it another good stir and cover.

Allow the curry a good few hours to develop on the low heat.

Give it an occasional stir and don’t forget to put the rice on 15 mins before you dish up!

3-5 mins before dishing up add in a few decent handfuls of spinach and stir in.

What I think:

Overall a really nice meal. I’m always impressed when I make something with no meat (excuse the stock!) and my boyfriend appears to be a big fan. The colours were beautiful and the curry had a lovely texture throughout, and a tasty bearable heat. Had with rice (I made cute little rice towers), some kind of Bombay potatoes (need to develop that recipe) and some garlic nann bread the boyfriend picked up (I wouldn’t have a clue how to make that!). Easily made veggie by switching to vegetable stock! I enjoyed the meal even more when I realised how cheap it was! 

Red Lentil and Apricot Påté

Red Lentil and Apricot Påté

100% that it tastes so much better than it looks!

When I was vegetarian I always used to eat lentil påté, made by cauldron, but recently I’ve not seen it anywhere! So with the knowledge that lentil works will as a pate I have decided to try and make some for myself. I spent a while mumming and ahhhing into my cupboards deciding what ingredients to throw into the mix, and finally decided on a few spices and apricots.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 180 g dried red lentils
• 800ml vegetable stock
• 5 dried apricots
• 2 teaspoons of sunflower spread
• 2 teaspoons of ras-el-hanout
• 1 teaspoon of garma masala
• 1 teaspoon of cumin

Directions:

Brown onions and garlic in oil.

Add in spices.

Add the dried red lentils, along with 800ml of vegetable stock.

Leave to cook, stirring occasionally for 15-20 mins

When the lentils have absorbed the majority of the water, get a sift and squeeze away excess water

Add 2 teaspoon of sunflower spread/ marge

Using a hand processor, blend the mix until it forms a smooth paste

Put mix in greased tin

Cover, and cook for 30-40 mins at 180 degrees.

What I think:

It’s not the most attractive thing I’ve ever concocted in the kitchen, but it is high up there on my list of tasty things. Especially tasty things that I can eat at breakfast! I was hoping the lentils would hold their colour a wee bit more, but that is my only disappointment.  The texture is spot on and it’s easy to spread.