Indian Butternut Squash Curry

Hello!

Today I am going to share my first recipe.

This is a slow cooker meal from the BBC Good Food ‘Slow Cooker Favourites’ book. This is pretty much all prep, and no cooking.

7-9 hours (roughly 45mins at beginning, 30mins at end, plus cooking time) • Serves 4 (although I think this really serves 6) • Easily doubled

Preparation

Keep it in layers!

Ready to eat

Served!

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion, diced
• 2 tbsp mild curry paste (I used Patak’s)
• 1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
• 4 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 150ml vegetable stock
• 3 tbsp fat-free Greek yogurt
• small handful coriander, chopped
• brown basmati rice and chapattis, to serve

1. Heat the slow cooker if necessary – this can be done on the hob if your slow cooker allows it.
2. Prepare your vegetables. Definitely advise using a sharp peeler for the squash – makes life a lot easier!
3. Mix the oil, onion and curry paste in the slow cooker pot. Put in the squash, and then stir everything around.
4. Next add the tomatoes and chickpeas, and then pour over the stock, being careful to keep everything in layers. Each ingredient will good in a different time and will need a different amount of water to cook in (i.e. the squash will need to take in more of the moisture to tenderise than the tomatoes, which are already moist – therefore it isn’t necessary to keep them in the stock).
5. Cover the slow cooker, and cook on Low for 6-8hrs.
6. At the end of the cooking time, the mixture may look a little runny, and not quite like the curry you envision. If there is a lot of liquid, perhaps it is a good idea to simmer it off for a short while, or add around ½ tbsp of thickening granules to reduce the liquid. This can be done for around 10mins whilst cooking the rice.
7. Turn off the heat, and then stir through the yogurt – this seems strange but the liquid and yogurt do combine without separating, creating a creamy sauce. Also, stir in the coriander.
8. Serve in bowls, with rice – although this also tastes good on toast, with poppadoms, mango chutney, and with fresh salad.

To buy all the ingredients from scratch costs £13.64 in Tesco, including poppadoms and mango chutney – definitely much cheaper in Aldi! To make the actual dish costs approximately £6.68, or £1.11 per portion (if making 6 portions).

I have made this recipe twice now, once at home and once in Birmingham – both times it worked out really well! It freezes well, and tastes good cold for lunch too.

The recipe could probably be made vegan by using vegan yogurt instead of Greek yogurt.

Hope you all enjoy this recipe, there will be more to follow!

Harriet