Three posts in three days! You lot really are lucky!

So Sunday was my “get stuff done” day and this was the last thing that I made. I made a HUGE pot because at 35 weeks pregnant I want to have a stack of frozen meals ready to go after the baby arrives. I wouldn’t say we’re really arsey about what the kids eat, but in general every night time meal is prepared from scratch because I want to make sure that at least once a day they are getting a meal that I’m happy with. This meal makes me really happy because there’s loads of veg in it and the kids absolutely love it. The addition of root veg means that this curry casserole is nice and sweet and your choice of curry paste will determine how spicy it is. We used a balti curry paste which gave it nice flavour without blowing our heads off!

This recipe fed the five of us plus I froze easily enough for us to have another two meals. I used the biggest soup pan that I own and it was practically full so you might want to adjust your quantities if you’re only making one meal, but this is fab if like me you like having a freezer full of healthy meals that are prepared in a few minutes.

You will need:
4tbsp olive oil
2 onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1.5kg potatoes, cubed
8 good-sized carrots, cut into chunks
4 parsnips, cut into chunks
Half a swede, cut into chunks
One butternut squash, cut into chunks
4tbsp curry paste
250g red split lentils
3 litres stock (chicken or vegetable)

Put the oil in your pan, tip in the onion and garlic and cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes until softened. Tip in all your chopped veg, turn up the heat and cook for another few minutes until the vegetables are golden. Add in your curry paste, make sure your vegetables are well coated and keep stirring over the next few minutes while you make up your stock. Add in your stock, bring to the boil then reduce the heat. Add the lentils, cover your pan and simmer for 15-20 minutes until all the veg has softened and your sauce is nice and thick. Keep an eye on things because there’s so much veg in this that it could absorb all the stock and leave you sauceless! If it’s drying up, add more stock half a pint at a time with a tsp curry powder.

We served it up with wholegrain rice, naan bread and a dollop of natural yoghurt on the top. Absolutely gorgeous!

Posted under cooking