Hi healthy peeps,

Here are two recent curries made in the Cullen household. They are simple to prepare and don’t have too many scary ingredients and are jammers with vegetarian protein and nourishment.

To save on baby-sitting time I started them on the hob and then finished them off in the oven where no stirring was required and only the odd peak was required to check whether the beans / lentils were expanding at a greater rate than the amount of water added (yes) requiring some adjustments along the way. Beans and lentils can expand a lot when cooking, just so you know!

I don’t often have time to cook curry from scratch and most curry powders and pre-prepared mixes are of good quality (check the labels) so will suffice perfectly well for busy households.

I made a large volume sufficient for several meals, a large family, or freezing. I use a Le Creuset pot; I am sure that this will work equally well in a slow cooker. Avoid buying cheap oven pots as lead leaching from coatings or Teflon coated non-stick pots are also a potential health issue.

I have added my photos but curry is impossible to make look tasty!!

1. Red lentil slow cooker curry

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion – peeled and chopped
• 1 red chili – chopped
• 2 cloves garlic – minced / crushed
• 1-inch root ginger – chopped finely
• 1 green pepper – chopped
• Extra virgin olive or coconut oil
• 4 tbsp curry powder (HOT!)
• Red lentils – washed (I used at least half a packet)
• 8 preferably organic tomatoes
• Generous amount of tomato paste
• Water to curry consistency you may need to add more along the way
• 1 x can coconut milk
• Seasoning with sea salt and black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 160 C.

Saute the onion, chili, garlic, ginger and green pepper in some virgin olive or coconut oil until the onions are translucent. add the curry powder and toss for a few seconds before adding your red lentils, chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and pepper and then water to cover the lentils generously.

Bring to a simmer, stirring well and then cover and place in the oven. Cooking time will be approximately 1 to 1 ½ hours or until the lentils are cooked through and soft. You may need to add more water to prevent this drying out.

Remove from the oven and before serving stir your coconut milk through and rewarm.

Serving suggestions:

We served this topped with a poached duck egg and steamed vegetables. If you require additional carbos serve this curry on brown or basmati rice, quinoa or cooked buckwheat.

Herbs are very much out of season at the moment but if you have access to some coriander this will top your dish off nicely. Oddly a good quality pesto (e.g. Supervalu own brand) really tastes amazing on this even though it is not in any way an Indian condiment!!

2. Mung bean and Puy lentil Massamam curry

I had not cooked mung beans from scratch in a curry before so I was a little unsure how this would work. In the past I would cook the mung beans first and then add to the curry. Cooking them all together created a really delicious curry.

I cooked this at a higher temperature than the red lentil curry so as to be sure that the beans were sufficiently cooked through. Again the absorbent nature of the beans and lentils required that I kept an eye on the cooking adding more water and/ or coconut milk as needed.

To save this really rocked in flavour is an understatement. All curries look like shit when photos are taken of them so apologies for my lack of a decent photo; I can however vouch for the flavour.

Ingredients:

• 1 large red onion – peeled and chopped
• 1 chili – chopped
• 2 cloves garlic – minced / crushed
• 1-inch root ginger – chopped finely
• Extra virgin olive or coconut oil
• Mung beans that have been soaked for at least a few hours and preferably over-night and rinsed (approx. 250g from recollection)
• Puy/ green speckled lentils – rinsed (250g approx.)
• Massaman curry paste
• Water to curry consistency you may need to add more along the way
• 1-2 cans coconut milk (I used 1 ½)
• Seasoning with sea salt and black pepper

(I used a tad too many beans I later discovered as they expanded to a large volume, so I spiced this back up with additional Garam masala and hot chilli powder as I like a well-flavoured spicy curry. the end result was delicious)

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 200 C.

Place the mung beans in a saucepan with fresh water and bring to the boil for a few minutes while you prepare the rest of the curry.

Sauté the onion, chili, garlic, and ginger in some virgin olive or coconut oil until the onions are translucent. Add the curry paste and toss for a few seconds before adding your red lentils, drained mung beans, salt and pepper and then water to cover the lentils and beans generously.

Bring to a simmer, stirring well and then cover and place in the oven. Cooking time will be approximately 2 hours or until the lentils and beans are cooked through and soft. Half way through cooking add one can of coconut milk and stir through. You will more than likely need to add more water or coconut milk during the 2 hours cooking period to prevent the dish drying out.

Serving suggestions:

Dinner 1: we served this dish with cooked chicken breast for himself, steamed leafy cabbage and edamame spaghetti. This was a hearty meal for training recovery.

taste delicious

Dinner 2: We served this topped with a poached duck egg and steamed peas and broccoli for a lighter meal based on our needs on this day. If you require additional carbos serve this curry on brown or basmati rice, quinoa or cooked buckwheat.

Herbs are very much out of season at the moment but if you have access to some coriander this will top your dish off nicely. Oddly a good quality pesto (e.g. Supervalu own brand) really tastes amazing on this even though it is not in any way an Indian condiment!!

Enjoy,
Love

Andrea