food to glow

If you are toiling for a tasty midweek dinner idea, this gently spiced tomato and coconut prawn (shrimp) curry can be on your table in 15 minutes. Serve with pre-cooked rice or chapatis to keep it quick and easy.

I’m not known for my quick meals. In fact, looking through my recipes over the six and a half years of blogging, I spot just a few “meal-meals” that I reckon are under 30 minutes, let alone 15.

Partly this is because I cook from scratch, and encourage others to do likewise: nutritionally and tastewise, homemade food is almost always superior – unless you are a terrible cook. 

Diligent home cooking can involve washing, soaking, measuring, chopping, peeling, marinating, reducing, stirring, grating, whisking, sauteing, roasting, baking. That’s a lot of steps!

My other excuse is that I like to make things that are more involved, with layers of flavour for maximum impact. However, nothing I make and share with you is difficult (I’m a home cook, not a chef), and most recipes are accessible to anyone of age and common sense to wield a sharp knife.

But good homemade meals don’t always have to involve such palaver. Indeed on a frantic Wednesday going palaver-free in the kitchen is a gift. And it is a gift you can give yourself and your family without sacrificing flavour or nutrition.

Sure it’s easy and perfectly acceptable to rustle up some of my easy chipotle refried bean quesadillas (10 minutes), this 15-minute kimchi fried rice, my one-pot Creole salmon and dirty rice (45 mins), or even this easy vegetarian pho with 30-minute broth (sort the add-ins while the broth is cooking). But today’s recipe makes the most of inexpensive store cupboard and frozen food for a meal that tastes like it took hours. But it only takes fifteen minutes.

I developed this quick and easy curry recipe for an Instagram post, commissioned by Waitrose using their “essential Waitrose” range. But any supermarket’s basics range will give similar results, I’m sure (although I honestly think Waitrose has the best quality). And of course, eschew my shortcuts if, like me, you are more of a from scratch kind of cook. But even scratch cooks need a break.

I’ll let you in on something. Before I developed this recipe I had never tasted potatoes from a can, and tbh I really liked them. Is that something for which I should be ashamed? I hope not because I think they would be super useful in a spur of the moment frittata, or even to slice onto pizza (my favourite pizza in the 1990s had cooked potato slices, tomato sauce, and fresh tomatoes and herbs – no cheese).

Anyway, make it in 15 minutes, or make it in 30. Regardless of effort or not, it will taste fantastic. Serve with chapati or rice to soak up every last drop. Yep, it’s a double carb kind of night. 🙂

**Food To Glow Elsewhere: keep up with topical nutrition topics on my Metro.co.uk blog (the UK’s most-read newspaper). If you have any ideas for future topics, just let me know in the comments below, or on my Metro blog (Facebook-enabled commenting). Cheers!**

What’s your favourite 15-minute meal? Have you ever had canned potatoes? What about potatoes on pizza?? 

RIPE FOR PINNING!

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