Butternut Squash Curry with Cauliflower Rice

  • Ali

This is my go to recipe when I have a Vegan friend coming for ‘kitchen table’ supper.

That makes me sound really posh, as if we had supper at a different table to the kitchen table quite often. We don’t. We used to have a separate dining room but, to be honest, it rarely got used to dining and when it did I felt the pressure to put on a four course spread with fancy napkins and all the trimmings. Don’t get me wrong I love a linen napkin (I have a collection of vintage napkins that I’m supposed to be reducing as we down size!) but sometime less is more, and a meal around the kitchen table with friends is really all you need.

Ingredients

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 butternut squash, peeled and diced

1 red onion, diced

2 tbsp Thai green curry paste (more if you like it hot)

400ml can of coconut milk

4 large tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and roughly chopped. (To skin tomatoes, add them to a bowl of boiling water and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted soon – be careful they will be super hot – and puncture with a sharp knife. If they are ready the skins will slit easily and peel straight off, simple.

400g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Small handful coriander, chopped

Small cauliflower (spilt into florets and grated). To speed things up I add mine to the nutri bullet and blitz it in small batches. I even add the stalk as this adds a bit of colour to the cauliflower.

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the butternut squash for 2-3 mins until lightly browned. Then add the onion and the curry paste and fry for 3-4 mins.

  2. Pour over the coconut milk, then cover and simmer for about 15-20 mins, or until the squash is tender.

  3. Meanwhile, grate the cauliflower (or blitz as above) and set aside.

  4. Add the tomatoes and chickpeas to the butternut squash, and then gently cook for 3-4 mins, until the tomatoes slightly soften.

  5. Simultaneously, heat the coconut oil in a small pan over medium heat and add the grated cauliflower, stirring occasionally to stop it catching and so it’s thoroughly warmed through (add a teaspoon of water to aid this process if needed).

  6. Finally, take off the heat and stir the coriander into the butternut curry and serve with the cauliflower rice.

If you want to mix things up a little bit, substitute the squash for sweet potatoes. You’ll just need to amend the simmer time to 10–15 mins but it’s equally delicious!