Low Calorie Vegetable Curry

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backto2009
backto2009 Posts: 5
in Recipes
Ingredients:
1 aubergine (eggplant)
3 courgettes (zucchini)
1 cauliflower head
Punnet of mushrooms, any type
500g new potatoes, peeled
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 large bag fresh spinach leaves
2 medium onions
1 clove garlic
1 stock cube (veg or chicken)
Half tablespoon of sunflower or groundnut oil
1 heaped tablespoon salt (for removing bitterness from aubergine and courgettes)
Half a jar of Patak's or Sharwood's madras curry paste
1 teaspoon dried ginger
2 teaspoons crushed curry leaves
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
Half to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or hot chilli powder (adjust depending on heat sought)

Method:
Chop the courgettes and aubergine into 2cm pieces, put in a bowl and sprinkle liberally with the salt, tossing the pieces until evenly coated. Cover loosely and put to one side.
In one very large pan, fry the finely diced onion and garlic in the oil until soft and translucent. Add all the dry spices and cook through for a couple of minutes, then add the curry paste and stir it all together. Cook for another minute or so.
Cut the potatoes and the cauliflower head into 2 cm pieces and add to the mix, stirring thoroughly to coat. Cook for ten minutes, adding a little water as necessary to prevent sticking. Add the tinned tomatoes.
Wash all the salt off the courgette and aubergine pieces and add to the pan.
Tip both tins of tomatoes into the mix and stir.
Add a crushed stock cube and just enough water to cover all the veg.
Cook until all the veg are soft - could take a while.
Chop the mushrooms and add to the pan along with the spinach leaves.
Cook some more until spinach well wilted and mushrooms tender.
Season to taste.

Should make 8 portions at approx 150 calories per portion.

Additions/variants:
If desperate to cut calories, omitting the potatoes will lower the calorie count to approx 110 per portion.
If not, add a naan bread (+300 cals depending on brand).
Add a blob of low or zero fat natural yoghurt (+15 cals approx per tablespoon)
Add an egg, boiled just off hard (+75 to 80 cals each).
Add a spoonful of mango chutney (+17 cals for half tablespoon)

Replies

  • chroniclesofthinoholic
    chroniclesofthinoholic Posts: 143 Member
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    This is a yummy dish!...have tried something similar to this...and it was yummm!
  • muzmacol
    muzmacol Posts: 358 Member
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    yep its well nice!
  • sherisse69
    sherisse69 Posts: 795 Member
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    this is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing! (and for translating some of the food items ;) )
  • BalmyD
    BalmyD Posts: 237 Member
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    That sounds amazing! I'm going to try it... though I may not be able to find Sharwood's or Patak's around here...
  • backto2009
    backto2009 Posts: 5
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    Okay, just done a quick search online and I can see that good curry paste is pretty expensive in the US - Amazon offers it imported at $10 upwards including shipping, it's about £2 in the UK ($3.25). The curry leaves may be hard to come by as well but they're really not essential.
    There is a company called Sadaf based in LA (www.sadaf.com), they do a hot curry paste which would do the trick.
    Really you could use any spice mix or paste available, what you want to avoid is the pre-made jars of cook-in curry sauce as these tend to be loaded with either ghee (butter), creamed coconut, sugar, or all three!
    So, looking for some madras curry powder would be a good start but you need to add it with all the other dry spices and a bit more oil, cook it into the onions, garlic and oil for a few minutes, make sure it doesn't catch or it'll taste bad. This recipe is pretty free-form, you can spice it however you want. I'm making it again this week and it'll probably taste different.

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