Easy Store Cupboard Curry

Having a couple of store cupboard recipes up your sleeve is always handy, never more so than when you are stuck at home and not wanting to visit the shops too often, a situation a lot us find ourselves in at the moment!

A store cupboard recipe is one that can be made entirely out of longer shelf-life goods, such as cans, dried foods like pasta, rice, spices, longer-life vegetables such as onion and garlic which can be stored for months, and frozen ingredients. You can supplement with any fresh ingredients you have to hand, but fresh ingredients are not essential to the recipe.

Using store cupboard ingredients does not mean you are sacrificing health. This recipe has vegetables (frozen and longer-life), protein (chickpeas) and plenty of other healthy ingredients (I'm not one of harp on with nutri-babble, but you can look up the health benefits of garlic, turmeric - from curry powder in your own time!)

And so on to this recipe. This curry is a family favourite, very quick and easy to cook, and I have witnessed up to 10 children enthusiastically digging in to a plate of it when we cook a variation of it at our Parent & Child Cookery Classes

Enough chat, let's get cooking!

Ingredients (serves 2 adult & 2 child portions)

1 400g can Chickpeas, drained

1 400ml can Coconut milk

1 tablespoon oil (e.g. olive oil, rapeseed or sunflower)

1 brown onion, peeled & diced

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely diced

1 inch ginger, peeled and crushed (optional)

1/2 vegetable stock cube

1 heaped tablespoon mild curry powder

70g Tomato puree

10 nuggets of frozen spinach

Frozen or fresh coriander (optional)

To Serve:

Boiled basmati rice. Fresh coriander and a squeeze of lime juice are a lovely finishing touch if you have them to hand. Kids also love this served with a dollop of greek yogurt on the side for extra creaminess.

 

Method

Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan or saucepan over a medium heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic and ginger (if using). Sauteé for about 5 mins until softened. Add the curry powder and cook for a further 2 mins. Add the chickpeas, coconut milk, stock cube (crumbled), spinach, and tomato puree. Mix very well. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 10mins. If using, stir in a handful of fresh or frozen chopped coriander leaves.

That's it! So easy! Serve as stated above with rice and any finishing touches you like (a squeeze of lime, more coriander, some poppadums or naan bread).

My children loved this served with a dollop of greek yogurt.

Enjoy!

 

Tasks for Children:

- Picking out ingredients

- Peeling Ginger with flat side of a Kiddikutter Children's Safety Knife

- Measuring Ingredients

- Counting nuggets of Spinach

- Mixing

- Tearing Coriander leaves

 Ps - we love cauliflower in this recipe too! Add a half head of cauliflower cut in to florets in place of the frozen spinach