I love cooking from scratch whenever possible, but sometimes a ready made paste helps to speed everything up; perfect for those days when you want something tasty and nutritious to eat, but haven't got the time to spend ages chopping and prepping. This thai vegetable curry is a regular in our house, I've used butternut squash, baby sweetcorn and sugar snap peas in this one, but you can literally pop in whatever you want - swap the butternut squash for some sweet potatoes, and replace the sweetcorn and sugarsnaps for some chickpeas and frozen peas, whatever floats your boat. This freezes well, and like most curries, tastes even better the next day if you have any leftovers.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed (or 1 tbsp garlic paste)
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 tbsp red curry paste
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp palm sugar (or light brown sugar if you don't have it)
( + 1tsp fish sauce if you aren't vegan)
400g buttersquash, diced into 2cm cubes
300g new potatoes, cut into bitesize chunks
140g carrots, sliced into bitesize chunks
150g baby sweetcorn
100g sugar snap peas
50g baby spinach
Large handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
2 cans coconut milk
500ml vegetable stock
Sea salt and black pepper
Small handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Handful of cashews or peanuts
Lime, cut into quarters
Directions
Heat the oil in a large pan.
Fry the chopped onion for 5 minutes.
Add the ginger and garlic and fry over a low heat for 2-3 minutes more, until fragrant.
Add the red thai curry paste, turmeric, salt and palm sugar and cook for 2 minutes more.
Add the potato, carrots, butternut squash, coconut milk and stock (+ fish sauce, if using) .
Bring to the boil and then lower to a simmer for 25 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked.
Add the baby sweetcorn and sugar snap peas and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Finally add the spinach and fresh coriander and stir to mix.
Season well with salt and pepper.
Allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Serve over thai jasmine rice and then sprinkle with fresh coriander and a few peanuts (or cashews).
Squeeze over a wedge of lime before diving in.
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