Check out this fab curry recipe with super-healthy beetroot and spinach from Local Mum Natasha Beatty
Serves 2, prep & cook 45 mins
Hopefully you’ll take two great ideas from this recipe to use again. The first is a Balinese curry paste. It starts with the usual suspects, but is enriched with cashews, sesame and coconut. Its flavours would work well with many different veg.
The second is a foolproof flatbread recipe. They’ll puff up and blister in about 30 secs. If you have gas at home, then try running them across the open flame a few times after you’ve cooked them in the pan. It creates some nice charred edges that add to the flavour.
Ingredients:
500g beetroot
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
salt & pepper
oil for roasting & frying, e.g. sunflower
200g baby spinach
1 small red onion
2 garlic cloves
50g fresh ginger
2 lemongrass stalks
1 red chilli
½ tablespoon turmeric
25g cashew nut pieces
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Handful of fresh coriander
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 400ml tin coconut milk
1 lime
200g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
100g wholemeal bread flour
olive oil
1 tin chickpeas
Method:
Preheat your oven to 180˚C/Gas 4. Wash, peel, halve and cut the beetroot into thick slices, approx. 1-2cm. In a baking dish or roasting tin, toss the beetroot with the cumin and caraway seeds and 2 tbsp oil. Season with salt & pepper. Roast for 20 mins, stirring after 10 mins.
Meanwhile, wash the spinach well to remove any grit. Drain and strip the leaves off any tough stalks. Discard the stalks and roughly chop the leaves.
Peel and roughly chop the onion, 2 garlic cloves and ginger. Strip the outer, tougher leaves off the lemongrass stalks, then roughly chop them. Slice the chilli (remove the seeds for a milder heat if you prefer).
Add all the ingredients in step 3 to a food processor with the turmeric, cashew nut pieces, sesame seeds, dried coriander leaf, sugar and a good pinch of salt.
Tip the coconut milk into the processor. Squeeze in the juice from the lime. Blend until smooth. Tip the contents into a saucepan. Heat until simmering, then cook for 10 mins.
While the curry simmers, make the chapatti dough. In a large bowl, combine both flours and ½ tsp salt. Add 175ml of warm water from the tap and 1 tbsp of olive oil. Knead for a couple of mins to bring it all together into a ball of dough, then allow it to rest for 5 mins.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Add the beetroot and chickpeas to the curry sauce and simmer whilst you make the chapatti.
Divide the chapatti dough in to 6 roughly equal balls. Dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour. Squash the balls into discs in your palm, then use a rolling pin to roll them into thin rounds.
Put a frying pan on the hob on a full heat. Cooking in batches, place the chapattis into the heated (dry) frying pan for a few mins each side. You want them to puff up and brown slightly on each side (see cook’s notes).
When all the chapattis are cooked, stir the spinach into the curry and cook until wilted. Check the seasoning and serve the curry with the chapatti.
All ingredients available locally from Riverfood
