The butternut squash in this curry gives it a lovely creamy texture whilst the addition of spinach and potatoes adds a lot of bulk meaning that you can cut back a little on the meat.
Ingredients and approximate cost
- 350g diced boneless and skinless chicken or turkey (can be breast or thighs) £3.00
- 1 medium butternut squash (80p)
- 1 red pepper (40p)
- 2 red onions (50p)
- 300g potatoes peeled and cubed (50P)
- 2-4 tsp Garam Masla (or your spice mix of choice)
- 1/2 tsp dried chilis
- Splash of white wine vinegar
- 300g baby spinach leaves (£1)
- Water
- 100g Total 0% Greek Style Yoghurt (or similar) (50P)
Serves 4 large portions – total cost £6.70
Calories per portion 242
The Spice Mix
I use chili, ginger, cardamon, ground coriander, cumin, garam masala, garlic and cinnamon in this recipe. If you don’t have all these available then use Garam Masala (or just a generic curry powder)and add garlic, ginger and cinnamon. I use.
- 2 tsp Garam Masala
- 2 tsp garlic granules
- 1/2 tsp dried chilli
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger (or l a good squirt of lazy ginger or 1/2 inch grated ginger root)
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamon (if I remember, it’s in the garam masala any way)
Mix it all together and put into a dish for use later. If using wet ingredients such as the lazy ginger, mix to form a paste.
Cut the squash in half and deseed – there is no need to peel which is a bonus as they are hell on earth to peel. Spritz with frylight and place on a baking tray, place in a hot (200 degree) oven and roast. After 15 minutes the pepper and onion, these should have been quartered and spray the whole lot again with frylight. Leave for 15 minutes and then turn the oven off but do not remove them.
In the meantime, add your spice mix to a large frying pan or wok and toast slightly to release the flavours, once you start to smell them add the cubed chicken and seal, making sure the meat is well coated in the spices. Add the chicken to a slow cooker and deglaze the pan with a little water to ensure all the flavour of the spices is kept.
Remove the roasted vegetables from the oven and place in a bowl or jug, blitz until smooth with a hand blender adding water as required until it has the consistency of Heinz Tomato soup. In other words it should thickly coat a spoon
Pour over the chicken in the slow cooker, and then add vinegar and the cubed potato. It should be fairly liquid as the potatoes will absorb some of the water and thicken the sauce.
Leave for 2-3 hours checking occasionally to ensure that there is enough liquid.
Just before you are ready to eat stir in the baby leaf spinach as the heat of the curry will cook it, remove from the heat, add the yoghurt and serve.
Slimming World this is free on EE – (serve with rice or wedges/jacket potato) or wholemeal chapatti as an HE
Variations
- this is lovely with fish substituted in place of the chicken but add only for the last hour of cooking
- sweet potato can be used in place of normal potato
- if using normal spinach instead of baby leaf steam it and chop a little before adding
- Green beans make a lovely addition to this as do mushrooms and baby corn if you wanted a totally vegetarian version
Middle Class Value 