Curries, stews, casseroles – Such beautiful things to meal prep as you can batch cook and store for the week or freeze for a busy day. And they generally get better every day as the flavours develop as well!

A colleague of mine (or several) often turn up with a salad for lunch and then, looking at my curry with envy comment something like “Oh I wish I had that!”. And when I ask “Why don’t you?” they generally respond with “Well, I am trying to lose a bit of weight and eat healthier.”

You know what? Chances are there are less calories and more beneficial nutrients in my curry than there are in your salad. Some foods have a bad reputation when it comes to health but it doesn’t have to be this way. Can you have pizza, burgers, curry or cake on a diet? ABSOLUTELY! You just need to do it right.

Here’s my take on a dopiaza – a tomato & onion based curry with a sweet&sour note to it.

Ingredients (Makes 2-3 dinner portions or 5 lunch portions, served with rice):

• Spray oil or .5 tbsp oil of choice
• 500g onions – sliced
• 500g peppers – green, yellow, red, pointed, whichever you like…
• Spices*: 1 TBSP salt (or to taste), 2 tsp coriander, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tbsp curry powder, 1 tsp ginger, 1tbsp honey (can sub for sugar)
• 500g chicken breast – chopped into bite sized chunks
• 1 tin of chopped or plum tomatoes (400g)
• 500ml water
• 150g plain greek or soya yogurt (If you like your curries coconuty then coconut yogurt works well)
• To serve: 125g rice (uncooked) – I do like to add in some carrots, coconut, onions or garlic.
• Optional: To get a bit more sour to the sweet, squeeze a lime in. Garnish with fresh coriander.
• *These spices are really good to have in the cupboard as they are used for most indian recipes however you could probably go for a curry spice mix instead and get reasonable results.

Method:

• Heat up the oil and fry onions on medium heat until browned – keep stirring every few minutes. As you are using very little oil, they will start to stick – whenever they do, splash a bit of water into the pan and stir.
• Add all the spices, stir, add in the tinned tomatoes.
• Simmer for 5 minutes then blend the mixture – This is not a mandatory step however it will deliver a smoother curry and more intense in flavour.
• Chop and stir fry the peppers then add back the curry – if you are not blending your curry you can add the peppers at step 2 with the spices and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
• Add the water and chicken and let it simmer for 15- 20 minutes or until some of the water has been cooked out. Stir in the yogurt just before you turn off the heat.
• Add lime and salt to taste and garnish with coriander.

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Breakdown:

Calories (Without rice): 232 kcal / serving (5 servings) 21C / 28P / 4F
Calories (With rice): 369 kcal / 32C 31P 12F*
Time: 5-10min hands-on / 30min total cooking time
Cost (excluding spices): £1.2 / serving

*Based on carrot coconut rice I made with it – I will be adding a recipe for this shortly.

As always, any questions, comments or variation requests, give me a shout!
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