This week I have had such fun in my kitchen trying this amazing dish. Inspired by recently celebrating National Nutrition Week which focused on “Love your beans”, I have continued to try new methods of adding legumes (chickpeans, lentils, beans, split peas) to our diet and am really enjoying the texture and taste of these new dishes. You will see this recipe makes 10 servings but only uses 600g of chicken so you can see how legumes really do extend a meal – making it cost effective, heart healthy with the added fibre and great for your waist line ALL while being just DELICIOUS!
And while the recipe looks like like it is a mission to prepare it is actually pretty easy and uncomplicated. There are just a few spices which make it look like a long list. The only things you might need that aren’t always in our pantry is tamarind paste and curry leaves (well, for me at least they aren’t) so I did give you alternatives in the recipe as to what you can use.
This is a gorgeous light curry and so tasty with the hint of coconut. It also gave me an excuse to use my new kitchen toy – my spiraliser from my sweet husband! I am having such fun making zoodles, sweet potato chips (baked not fried – of course!) and now these carrot noodles. Such an awesome gadget for summery meals. That being said, you can also grated yours OR preferably using your peeler, make carrot “linguine” by peeling long strips off your carrot and having that instead. I am a huge fan of using this technique in salad so you avoid that super hard and crunchy carrot piece and everything looks like and fluffy (if you would like me to show you how – let me know in the comment section below and I might try my hand at making a video :)). This curry is SO delicious with these wonderful Zucchini Patties as well -seen in the picture.
If you do make this meal, please tag me on instagram @Julie_the_Dietitian – I would love to see your creation.
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) coconut oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 10 curry leaves (or 4 bay leaves and some lime juice)
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3cm knob of ginger, grated
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon (3ml)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric (3ml)
- ½ teaspoon coriander (3ml)
- 1 Tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed
- 1 dried red chilli, finely chopped (or ½-1 teaspoon chilli flakes)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar (or sweetener)
- 600g chicken breasts, cut into pieces
- 1 teaspoon tamarind paste (5ml)
- 1 tin (400ml) lite coconut milk
- 3 cups cooked chickpeas
- 2 cups cooked lentils
- 5 large carrots, spiralised
- Heat oil in a large pot and add the onion, cinnamon stick and curry leaves and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the ginger and garlic and then stir for a few more minutes and then add the spices and the salt and sugar, stirring well.
- Add the chicken pieces and cook for 8 minutes to seal the chicken (putting on the lid does help to speed up the process).
- Add your tamarind paste (I didn’t have tamarind the first time I made this so used a mixture of lime juice and brown sugar – about ½ a tsp of each), stir well then add the coconut milk.
- Put the lid back on and simmer for 30 minutes – check on it occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick.
- Add the chickpeas and lentils and remove the cinnamon stick (I had used cinnamon shards to they stayed in and we picked them out in our food – no stress).
- Serve this either hot or cold (so great for leftovers or a cold lunch on a hot summery day) with a zucchini patty (see recipe) (or 2 for men) and the spiralised carrot (about ½ cup each).
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