If you’re looking for a healthy but really super delicious curry recipe, then look no further! This curry is amazingly good and is taken from The Medicinal Chef: Healthy Every Day by Dale Pinnock. It has become one of our go-to recipes because it’s also pretty quick to make, so we often make it during the week. It serves 4 so we eat a bit on the day we make it and then freeze the rest. [Edit: we’ve found this to be a great meal for Baby Led Weaning and Little One loves it! See more on this below].

 

Ingredients

 

Olive oil, for cooking

2 large red onions, finely chopped

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

400g red lentils

800ml vegetable stock – plus extra boiling water to avoid sticking

6 skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

2-3 tablespoons madras curry paste (or use a milder one if you prefer)

300g baby spinach leaves

Sea salt and black pepper to taste (we don’t usually add additional salt)

Thick live probiotic yoghurt, to serve (optional)

 

 

Method

 

1. Heat a little olive oil in a pan, add the onions and garlic and cook for 4-5 minutes until softened.

 

2. Add the lentils and a little of the stock and simmer. Keep adding small amounts of stock bit by bit as the lentils cook and soften, as if you were cooking a risotto.

 

3. Once the lentils are starting to soften and break down, add the chicken and curry paste and stir well. Continue simmering and adding the stock until the chicken has cooked through. If the lentils start to stick to the pan at this point, just add a little extra boiling water to loosen it. We have found that we usually add at least 300ml extra boiling water as they do tend to stick quite a bit.

 

4. Add the baby spinach at the last minute, season with salt and pepper and stir until the spinach has wilted.

 

5. Serve immediately, with a dollop of yoghurt on top, if you like. Enjoy!

 

 

Edit: Want to make your own curry paste?

 

Little One absolutely loves this curry! We’ve been doing Baby Led Weaning with her since she was almost 6 months, and we must have tried this with her a couple of months in. We didn’t want to use a jar of curry paste with her because of the salt levels, so we made our own curry paste using a recipe from The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook. It’s so delicious! She loves naan bread too so we always serve this with naan and a little bit of rice, which helps to make this go further too.

 

This curry paste will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. You can either use ready ground spices or grind your own in a grinder (or use a pestle and mortar). We usually leave out the chilli at the moment, but you can make this as hot as you like!

 

1 fresh mild/medium chilli pepper, deseeded (optional)

5-6 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated

2cm (3/4″) piece of fresh ginger, grated

4 tbsp ground coriander seeds

4 tbsp ground cumin seeds

2 tbsp mustard seeds, crushed

1 tbsp chilli powder (optional)

1 tbsp turmeric

1 tbsp paprika (we use sweet smoked paprika)

Olive oil

 

Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add as much oil as you need to get the desired consistency.

 

Post updated 6th May 2017.