Butternut and Coconut Curry
This is the best curry I’ve made to date.
My aim was to really simplify a curry. Quite often you see curry recipes with a whole stack of different spices in them, and I can sometimes find it a wee bit intimidating, plus also a bit of a faff. And also, if I don’t have one particular spice then it puts me off making the whole thing, which is really ridiculous, as a curry is going to taste pretty good anyway, whether it’s got 7 spices or 8. The curry purists out there may disagree, but I’d say this curry is testament that you can keep it simple and it still tastes amazing.
This curry has a wee bit of a kick to it, nicely tempered by the richness of the coconut cream.
Ingredients
- 2 onions, very finely sliced
- 1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into bite sized chunks
- 1 carton or tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 tin of coconut milk (about 200 mls approx – you can vary if you want it more or less coconutty)
- coconut oil for frying (you could use any oil though)
- 5 garlic cloves
- 5 cm of ginger, peeled and chopped
- 1 tablespoon of curry powder
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric
- 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon of ground salt (I always use a mix of Himalayan pink salt and some sort of organic sea salt. Don’t use a teaspoon of table salt!)
- 1/2 teaspoon of mild chilli powder
- couple of pinches of ground clove (if you don’t have this, put some whole cloves in instead.)
- Chopped coriander for serving.
Method
- Heat the coconut oil and gently caramelise the sliced onions – this will take about 15 minutes. Once they’re done, scoop them out the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- While the onions are cooking, put the garlic cloves and chopped ginger in a blender with a bit of water (about 4 tablespoons) and blitz until it’s fairly smooth.
- Once you’ve removed the onions, you can add more oil to the pan if you need to, but there should be a sufficient amount left in it.
- Add all the spices and gently cook until fragrant (about 2 – 3 minutes)
- Add the garlic and ginger mixture and heat for a few minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated, stirring to blend with the warm spices.
- Add the butternut squash chunks and stir well to coat with the spices. Cook gently for about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and salt, and the caramelised onions, and bring to simmering point. Cook for approx 20 minutes, until the squash is starting to soften.
- Add the coconut cream and cook for another 5 – 10 minutes, to let all the flavours infuse together.
- Serve and garnish with freshly torn coriander.
As with most of my curries, I just had this by itself, but it would be lovely with rice or naan bread.
