This flavourful chickpea and spinach Thai green curry, inspired by the UK’s love of curries, is quick, nutritious and easy to make thanks to the addition of frozen Birds Eye Chickpea and Spinach Mix with lentils and cauliflower. This is a sponsored post.
Like many of you, I love a curry. The weekend is not complete without either going to our favourite curry house or having my resident curry king get all fancy in the kitchen.
Malaysian and Thai curries are our current crushes. A rich bowl of saucy, spicy vegetables soaked up by a flaky roti or fluffy rice is my idea of bliss. Utterly irresistible. Perfect autumn comfort food, too.
However, now that it is full-on dark by 5 pm, I am increasingly reluctant to leave the house for dinner. As a certified morning person, once darkness falls so does any ambition to leave my candle-lit cave. So, homemade curry it is.
At the weekend, Andrew needs little convincing to haul out the blender, gather a counter’s worth of vegetables, and simmer some pulses to make a restaurant-worthy feast. It can take him all day, and all the pans, knives and cutting boards. But it is worth it. Not only for using just what we want, but to enjoy the result in our pyjamas.
There are a number of things I always have in the kitchen. Top of the list: coconut milk (tinned and dried), limes, various spice pastes and mixes, and a stockpile of frozen vegetables. This puts me just 15 minutes or so away from sitting down to a deeply flavourful and healthy curry.
As a cancer health educator I am all about teaching others how to eat more nutritiously and colourfully. Being a vegetable “cheerleader” is a big part of my job. I unreservedly include quality frozen vegetables on my team. This is why:
1) Frozen vegetables often contain as many nutrients as, if not more than, fresh. Fresh can often be flown around the globe before they get to us, or sat around either until they come to the shop, or once they reach your home. Fresh of course is fabulous, but sometimes it is hard for it to stay fresh and therefore as good for us.
2) Bags of frozen vegetables make eating healthy incredibly convenient and achievable, even when time is against you. When creativity or hunger strikes, you can just reach into the freezer rather than grab your car keys – or the takeaway menus.
3) Frozen is often much less wasteful than fresh. You use just what you need and store the rest for later.
4) You can enjoy non-seasonal frozen vegetables at any time of the year. Asparagus in December? Definitely frozen over fresh.
5) Frozen pulses are hugely convenient too, especially when mixed with just the right vegetables
As the leading UK frozen food brand, Birds Eye has made our weekday – and weekend – cooking that much easier and more nutritious. With their pre-mixed bags of pulses and vegetables you get top quality Birds Eye goodness to use in creating quick, delicious and – important to all of us – healthy meals. Inspired by not only the Food To Glow household’s love for a Thai green curry, but the UK’s apparent overwhelming love for it, I’ve created this easy, vegan curry using the convenient Birds Eye Pulses Chickpea and Spinach Mix. And it couldn’t be easier.
My recipe is for four servings, but you can halve the recipe or take the rest for an enviable office lunch.
All you do is:
Use one whole 450 gram pack as the base – it contains not only chickpeas and spinach, but also lentils and cauliflower.
Add the pack’s contents to quickly sauteed spring onions (they cook quicker than regular onions), carrots, turmeric, black pepper and some best quality Thai green curry paste. Pour in a can of full-fat coconut milk and some vegetable stock and let it all simmer for 15 minutes. No need to worry about what protein to add as it is all in the Birds Eye Pulse Mix.
If you fancy you can also add the following towards the end of cooking time – mangetout/snow peas, baby sweetcorn, baby button mushrooms, sliced red pepper. But honestly, you really don’t need to.
Serve with a spritz of lime juice and some fluffy rice. That’s it!
In addition to the Chickpea and Spinach Pulse Mix, the Birds Eye Pulses range also includes Italian 3 Bean and Mexican Bean. All packs are priced at RRP £2 and available at larger Tesco and Asda stores, and Ocado.
Each bag is 4 portions. This recipe uses a whole bag and serves 4-6.
**Remember to follow me on Pinterest and, if you make my Chickpea and Spinach Thai Green Curry, click on the pin below and leave a photo of your make with a comment telling me what you think, or any awesome changes that you made. Similarly, any Instagram posts tagged @food_to_glow using my recipes will go on my Story if I see them. I’m always so proud when you share my recipes with the world. Yay!!!
Whether on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or of course here on the blog, I love to see what you do with my recipes, and I welcome your comments, star ratings, tweaks and suggestions.**
Chickpea and Spinach Thai Green Curry
This weekday vegan Thai green curry takes advantage of the goodness and convenience of Birds Eye Pulses. Fibre-rich, nutritious and utterly delicious.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp coconut oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 3 spring onions/scallions chopped
- 2-3 tbsp Thai green curry paste
- 2 medium carrots, sliced
- 450 g package Birds Eye Chickpea & Spinach Mix
- 2 lime leaves fresh or frozen; optional
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 200 ml vegetable stock
- 90 g baby sweetcorn halved lengthways or sliced
- 90 g mangetout/snowpeas
- 90 g baby button mushrooms halved or quartered
- 1/2 lime, juiced to serve
- leaf coriander/cilantro leaf coriander/cilantro to serve
- boiled or steamed rice to serve
Instructions
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Heat the oil in a wide pan and add the garlic, turmeric, black pepper, spring onions and curry paste. Cook for two minutes before adding the carrots, Birds Eye Chickpea & Spinach Mix, lime leaves, coconut milk and stock. Bring to the boil then turn down, cover with a lid, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked through.
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Add in the sweetcorn, mangetout and baby button mushrooms and simmer for three minutes. Add the lime juice. Taste and adjust if liked - perhaps a little brown sugar or soy/fish sauce to balance the flavours. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve immediately with hot steamed or boiled rice.
Recipe Notes
Make this even easier by using frozen garlic and carrots.
RIPE FOR PINNING!
