Was your New Year’s resolution to stop wasting over a tenner a day on buying croissants, lattes and sad sandwiches from Pret/EAT/Boots/delete as appropriate? Us too. So put some time aside Sunday or Monday night and make a big batch of something healthy, tasty and far more satisfying that will last you through the week.
This butternut squash and cashew curry is high in vitamin A, vitamin C and good fats, and Indian spices are anti-inflammatory and good for everything from digestion to boosting your body’s antioxidant capacity. There’s nothing hard about this recipe: do some chopping, then stir it all up and leave it for a while and you’re good to go.
Butternut Curry Lunch
You will need:
Handful raw cashews
1 onion
½ butternut squash
1 heaped tbsp garam masala (or make your own from mustard seeds, cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and chilli powder if you’re really fancy)
1 heaped tbsp tomato puree
Can of coconut milk
Chapatis, coriander and lime to serve. If you want.
What to do:
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Finely chop the onion and fry off in a large saucepan. We like using coconut oil as it’s a great fat to use for health reasons, plus it tastes amazing in this. A tablespoon should do it.
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Meanwhile, roughly chop the butternut squash into large chunks, discarding the skin. Not going to lie, this is hard and requires brute force and a large knife. If you’ve had the foresight to buy ready-prepared squash, well done you.
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After a few minutes of cooking the onions, add the curry spices and stir. Add the butternut squash fruits of your labour and the tomato paste and stir it all together.
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After a few more minutes, pour in the coconut milk. Bring it to the boil, then cover and turn down the heat. Leave to cook for 30-40 minutes until the squash has a lovely texture to it.
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Finish it off by toasting the cashew nuts in a dry pan – this will take about 30 seconds and just helps to release all the lovely oils and boost the flavour.
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Sprinkle the nuts over the curry. If you have some lime and coriander then that would be nice but no biggie if not. We like ours with some nice chapatis.
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PS. If you’re making this for consumption outside the office, then some garlic and loads of fresh green chilli is pretty nice in it too. Add this along with the onion.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.