Chicken and Spinach Tikka Masala with Buttered Lemon Cauliflower 'Rice'

I am really stoked with this recipe - I'm just gonna say that right from the get-go. We eat chicken at least once a week at our house and it's hard to keep coming up with new and interesting things. I was looking for something a little bit different to the usual and came across this recipe by Nadia Lim, of MasterChef and My Food Bag fame, which I found on The Food Show website, somewhat randomly.
I was surprised to find that I had almost all the staple ingredients in my pantry already and I liked the idea of making a curry totally from scratch - I usually use a store bought paste. I'd also never had a go at the latest trend of using cauliflower for everything from pizza bases to mash to rice, so I was keen to give it a whirl. And it looked pretty healthy and quick - very important for a Sunday night dinner, after spending the better part of the day driving back from Hawke's Bay.

1 tablespoon of oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced or chopped
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground tumeric
1 teaspoon of ground chilli
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons of chopped, grated or minced ginger
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 teaspoon of salt
600g boneless, skinless chicken things, cut into 2-3cm pieces
400g can chopped/crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 cup sour cream or cream - I used lite sour cream
3 large handfuls of baby spinach, chopped
2-3 tablespoons of plain yoghurt (to serve)
1/4-1/2 cup chopped coriander (to serve)

For the buttered cauliflower rice:
1/2 head of cauliflower (including the stem), cut into florets - the recipe said a whole head but 1/2 head was just right for 4 servings.
1 tablespoon of butter
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4-1/2 cup chopped coriander or flat-leaf parsley


Heat the oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Cook the onion for 4–5 minutes until it's just starting to turn brown. Add the spices, garlic, ginger, lemon zest and salt and cook for a further minute or two. If the onion or spices catch or stick to the bottom of the pan, just add a little bit of water to the pan and stir. Add the chicken, tomatoes, sweet chilli sauce, lemon juice and cream/sour cream, cover and simmer for 5–10 minutes until chicken is cooked through and sauce has thickened slightly. While the chicken is cooking, make the cauliflower ‘rice’. Put the cauliflower florets into a food processor and pulse until it's the texture of rice or couscous. Put into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes to steam the cauliflower slightly and evaporate extra moisture to make it fluffy. Add the butter and coriander/parsley to the hot cauliflower and fluff, using a fork, then season to taste with salt and pepper. The chicken should be cooked by now, so just stir through the spinach until wilted and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon some cauliflower rice and chicken tikka masala onto each plate and garnish with a little yoghurt and coriander.

This recipe was easy and quick, I already had most of the ingredients and, most importantly, it was delicious! I really liked the cauliflower rice - a simple and healthy alternative to rice - and even my partner who doesn't like cauliflower, thought it was pretty good. I can see this becoming a regular!

Veggie Curry with Chickpeas

I have recently rediscovered the library and I had a brainwave when I was there recently - I can get cook books out from the library! My first selection was Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals. I've made a few recipes from here before - some of them are conveniently found on the internet - and this one is probably my favourite. I've made it heaps of times over the last few years - it's easy, has loads of veggies and you can actually make it in 30 minutes...without all the other accompaniments that go with this recipe in the book, that is. It's actually called Curry Rogan Josh in the book, but you can make it any kind of curry, just choose whichever kind of paste you like.

I also made the Piri Piri Chicken and the Kind Of Sausage Cassoulet while I had this book out from the library. I didn't rate the sausage cassoulet - it was too oniony for my taste - but the piri piri chicken was really delicious, as were the lemony potatoes with feta, chilli and coriander that went with it. I forgot to take any photos when I made it however, so no blog about it....this time. Anyway, back to the curry. I usually make some adjustments to the amounts of some things in the recipe, so this is my slightly altered version, which should do two meals and two lunches the next day.

1 onion
1/2 medium butternut squash
1/2 small cauliflower
1 fresh red chilli (optional)
2 cloves of garlic (3 if they're small)
a bunch of coriander
1/4 of a 283g jar of Patak's curry paste. I usually go for korma, but this time they only had 'mild curry paste' at the supermarket
1 x 400g can of chickpeas
100g prewashed baby spinach
1 cup (ish) natural yoghurt
oil for cooking

Peel and slice the onion and put into a large pan or pot with some oil and a splash of water, on a medium heat. Use the neck half of the butternut squash, so you don't have to de-seed it. Chop it up into 1cm pieces, skin and all, and add it to the pan. The skin becomes really tender so you won't even notice it, and it saves having to chop the skin off which is really fiddly. Chop up the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces and add to the pan, along with the sliced fresh chilli. I really like cauliflower in curries as it's such a great texture with excellent absorption qualities - so add a bit more if you fancy it. Crush in the garlic and chop up about half the bunch of coriander, including the stalks, and add to the pan. Add in a couple of splashes of water, the curry paste and the can of chickpeas, including the juices. Season, stir well, put the lid on and turn the heat up to medium-high. Basically, just cook this (hard and fast, as Jamie says) for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, and adding more water if it starts to look a bit dry. Add the spinach about 5 minutes before the end and stir through. Cook the rice while the curry is cooking (see below). When it's all done, divide the rice and curry between plates and add about 1/4 cup of yoghurt onto the top of each, with some chopped coriander leaves.

As as little aside, I am rubbish at cooking rice, however I learnt the best and most simple way from this recipe. Fill a mug with rice, put it into a pot and then add two mugs of boiling water with a little olive oil, a pinch of salt and a few cloves if you have them. Put the lid on and cook on a medium heat for 7 minutes. Then take the pot off the heat and leave it, with the lid on, for another 7 minutes - this gets you nice and fluffy rice and (almost) never fails!

Indian Potato and Chickpea Wraps

I'm always on the look out for quick, healthy and tasty recipe ideas. I must admit that I don't often have the patience for food that takes a long time to prepare, especially during the week - by the time I get home from work, I am ready to eat, so anything that can go from fridge to plate in under an hour is my go-to.

I've had a subscription to Healthy Food Guide for the last couple of years, so not surprisingly, a lot of my inspiration comes from these monthly magazines. There are also heaps of recipes on their website, so if I'm looking for seasonal recipes or a healthy variation on something, that's often where I look first.

I also like to try and eat a fair bit of vegetarian food. Not only because it's tasty, I enjoy it and it's cheaper, but it's a good way to get a veggie boost and it's more environmentally friendly - we don't necessarily do Meat Free Monday, but we do try to have at least one or two dinners a week with no meat.

This is one of the latest I've made - it's really filling and super tasty.

Indian potato and chickpea wraps (from the April 2015 issue of Healthy Food Guide)

3 large potatoes
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala (I used some daal masala my sister sent me when she travelled to India)
400g can chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoons of liquid honey
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds (I used regular sesame seeds)
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped
6-8 tortillas

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Cook the potato in boiling water until soft (about 10-15 minutes). When the potatoes are almost cooked, fry the onion in the oil until clear. Add the spices and cook for about a minute, stirring regularly. Remove from the heat. Drain and roughly mash the potatoes and add them to the onions and spices, along with the chickpeas, honey, salt, peas, cumin seeds, sesame seeds and coriander (but leave some of the last three to use as a garnish at the end) and stir to combine. I placed about a 1/2 cup of mixture into the middle of the tortilla and bring the sides in to wrap it - you can use more filling if you're making less, or you have large tortillas - I made 8 medium size ones, so we could take leftovers for lunch. Secure the wrap with a toothpick if you need to. Put them into an oven proof dish, spray or brush with a little oil, sprinkle over the leftover cumin and sesame seeds and bake for 10 minutes until wraps are crispy. Top with the remainder of the fresh coriander and serve.

The only addition I made to this recipe was a yoghurt dipping sauce I made up to go with it:

1 cup plain, natural yoghurt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of honey
Splash of lemon juice
Fresh chopped coriander
Freshly ground pepper

I found these really filling and the spices just make it so delicious. The dipping sauce added a little spicy sweetness to it too. Next time I'd probably add some additional veggies, like spinach or even substituting some of the potato for cauliflower would work a treat too.