My mum has made this delicious vegetable curry for as long as I can remember, so I had to share it with you. It’s hot, spicy and packed full of flavour and the best thing about it is it’s of a healthier, low calorie nature as the sauce is tomato based.

What one person determines as spicy another might disagree but I’m going with the majority here and the smaller kids who have been brought up eating curry all their lives couldn’t eat it! I’d say this is equivalent to a madras spice if you use a hot curry powder. A great, cost effective recipe with not too many spices to buy that also freezes well.

Serve it with a pint of iced water.

Ingredients

Serves 4

x2 500ml cartons / jars of passata

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

150g of red split lentils

thumb sized piece of ginger – grated

2 sweet potatoes – chopped

1 large onion – diced

Florets of 1/2 a cauliflower

Handful of green beans

Cup of mini sweetcorn

2 teaspoons of chilli flakes

30g curry powder

1 tablespoon light soft brown sugar

Mango chutney – optional

Method

Dice and pan fry your onion in a little olive oil until softened along with your curry powder, ginger, and chilli flakes.

Bring a separate large pan of water to the boil and add your chopped sweet potatoes, sweetcorn, cauliflower, lentils and green beans. You want just enough water to cover these. Let boil for about 20 minutes and then add your onions.

Now add your passata, tinned tomatoes and light soft brown sugar.

I taste and add as I go along so depending on how you like your curry you may want to add a little more curry powder etc. I like to add a dessert spoonful of mango chutney to mine.

Simmer until the veg is fully cooked but still has a nice crisp bite to it. Nothing worse than it being too mushy. Once you’re happy your veg is cooked through you can eat right away or it will taste even better if you allow to cool and place in the fridge over night as all the lovely spices marinate the veg more and the sauce thickens too.

Just add fluffy rice and some soft naan breads or flat breads.

Tip: Serve with mango chutney as the sweetness of the mango against the heat of the curry works perfectly. I always go out in the garden and snatch up loads of fresh coriander to add to mine when I serve but check if everyone likes it as people are either in or out with this. I’d add it to cornflakes if I could.