Sweet Almond and Lime Curry

Once again, The Happy Pear have provided a recipe that is perfect for family meals! It’s a new one that we love to make if we’ve family or friends coming over because we can double (or treble!) the recipe and have it made in advance. We sometimes use rice instead of noodles or couscous and also, we leave out the chilli because our eldest daughter doesn’t like too much spice! Other than that, we make it exactly as the expert pair say!

Recipe: Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 thumb-size piece of ginger

3 cloves garlic

4 scallions

1 red chilli pepper/1 teaspoon chilli flakes

200g mushrooms (chestnut mushrooms are suggested – we get whichever we can find!)

1 courgette

1 red pepper

200g wholemeal couscous/200g noodles (4 nests) or rice for the required number of people

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons oil

1 x 400g tin of coconut milk

2 tablespoons tamari / soy sauce

Juice of 1 lime

3 tablespoons almond butter

150ml boiling water (to mix with almond butter)

2 tablespoons curry powder

1 tablespoon maple syrup (we use agave syrup)

a handful of sugar snap peas/handful of baby spinach

Ideas to garnish:

Fresh coriander

Chilli flakes

Method:

Peel and finely chop the ginger and garlic. Finely chop the scallions and chilli (removing the seeds if you don’t like it spicy). Chop the mushrooms into bite-size pieces, along with the courgette and red pepper.

Boil the kettle for the couscous / noodles. If using couscous, pour it into a large bowl, add a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of oil, and mix through. Pour boiling water in until the water level goes just above the top of the couscous and leave to sit for 5 minutes with a plate on top. If using noodles instead, cook as per instruction on the back of the packet, then drain and rinse.

Pour 2 tablespoons oil into a large frying pan or wok over a high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the ginger, garlic, scallions and chilli and cook for 2 minutes, stirring regularly.

Now add the mushrooms, courgette and red pepper along with the salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Pour in the coconut milk, tamari and lime juice, and continue to stir regularly.

In a bowl mix the almond butter and 150ml boiling water, using a fork, and add to the pan along with the curry powder and the maple syrup (the syrup will balance the heat of the chilli and curry powder). Bring to the boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer for 3-5 minutes.

Roughly chop your sugar snap peas/ spinach and mix through the curry a minute before turning off the heat.

If using couscous, fluff it up. Roughly chop the coriander. Serve each portion with some couscous/noodles (or rice), with the curry on top, and garnish with coriander and almonds if you like.

Top Tip:

The key to this recipe for us is to have everything prepped and ready to go – that’s the busy part! We have everything done in advance – water added to almond butter, curry powder in with the maple syrup (or agave) .. so that when it comes to cooking, everything is ready to be put in straight away when needed.  The kids love to help with the prep, especially our eldest, so we get settled at the kitchen table and make it fun .. for everyone! Once you have everything ready … the recipe itself is easy to follow.

** Recipe from The Happy Pear Recipes for Happiness by David and Stephen Flynn

** Photo taken ourselves!