Spicy Sweet Potato & Coconut Chickpea curry

Yes, before you say anything - the wooden table background is back. Natural light inside the house is tough in dark December, so I took the pan outside on a snowy Sunday morning and stood in the freezing cold to try and get a shot that made this curry look a little bit appealing.

Anyway, enough about the behind the scenes exclusives... this curry is delicious; spicy and warming and full of flavour.

The recipe below will make between 4 - 6 portions depending on if you're adding rice or sides...

You'll need:

• 1 red onion
• Around 6cm of ginger, grated
• 4 large sweet potatoes
• 1 tin chickpeas
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin coconut milk
• A generous dollop of tomato puree
• Half a bag of spinach (around 100/150g)
• 2 tablespoons turmeric
• 3 tablespoons hot curry powder (usually a blend of coriander, turmeric, fenugreek, cumin, garlic powder, fennel etc) (or mild, if spice isn't your thing)

Wash your sweet potato and chop into small chunks (I leave the skin on but it's up to you). Steam or boil for 15-20 minutes until they're soft and pretty much cooked through. 

Dice your onion and heat up in a large frying pan. I just added a bit of water to stop it sticking, but use oil if you wish. Add the grated ginger and turmeric, and add some more water, until a paste like consistency has formed with the turmeric and onions. 

Then, add your sweet potato. Don't worry if the potato starts to crumble a little bit. Add the chopped tomato and coconut milk, and keep stirring. After around five minutes add the rinsed chickpeas and tomato puree (I find it helps thicken sauce up). Keep it cooking for around ten minutes and then add the spinach, folding it in to the curry as you go. 

Finally, add a sprinkle of salt and leave to stand for about ten minutes.

Serve, and add sides as you see fit... 

Lentil & Blackbean curry with a nutty butternut squash mash

This weird and wonderful concoction occurred earlier this week when James and I had come home from a long weekend away and there was "nothing in the cupboards" (apart from 9782 tins of beans and tomatoes). I couldn't be bothered to go out so decided to get frugal and creative and voila, this little beauty was born!

It's definitely comfort food at its finest. And 100% not traditional, as I wouldn't usually put the two together, so you could just make the curry on its own...

It's a good job it tastes so nice because it's really hard to make what's essentially a plate of brown vegetables look nice, even with a filter (I took these pics at about 9.30 when this was ready and wasn't expecting to do a blog post from it, so excuse the shoddy photos).

It really is delicious though, so give it a go.

Serves 4:

For the curry you'll need:

• 1 tin green lentils
• 1 tin black beans 
• 100g chesnut mushrooms (any mushrooms will do)
• 1 tin chopped tinned tomatoes 
• 1 good squeeze of tomato puree (I love it so always use about half a tube)
• 1 red onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons garam masala 
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Salt to season

Chop your onion and fry in a pan with the garlic. Add the garam masala and stir, coating the onion. After a few minutes, add your mushrooms and do the same. Then, add your lentils and black beans and stir again. Add the paprika and chilli powder and mix. If things are looking a bit dry, add some water (I think I added about a cup of water). Then add your chopped toms and puree, and let things simmer for about 20 mins. Add a sprinkle of salt and you're done!

For the butternut squash mash you'll need:

• Around 300g butternut squash (I used pre-diced frozen stuff)
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 tablespoon paprika (or a teaspoon if you don't like spice)
• Pinch of salt

Boil or steam the butternut squash until it's soft and mashable. Drain and give it a mash in the pan, adding in the tahini and paprika and salt. Mix it up well (tahini has a tendency to stick together). 

Serve :)

So there you go. A really quick and easy recipe to make when you've got next to nothing in the cupboards.