Thai Prawn Fried Rice

Recipes

This is such a simple Thai curry recipe that you can cook at home, you can adapt it to use up whatever you have left over. And it tastes as good as a Thai takeaway but half the price!

Serves 4. 450 calories per portion.

This is the original recipe, I made a few adjustments as I had some coconut cream leftover and no frozen green beans.

I used:
Vegetable oil
Two eggs, beaten
275g uncooked Basmati rice (any kind of rice will work)
200g frozen prawns, defrosted in water
2 tbsp coconut cream
175g tinned French cut green beans
1 lime
1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
Cost: £5 – the fish sauce makes it more expensive but once you have it there are plenty of other recipes to use it.

Method
Cook the rice as normal (boil for 10 minutes)
Meanwhile beat the two eggs, then heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and add the eggs. Move them around so they form a thin omelette and cook for a minute or two until it’s set.

Tip the omelette out on to a chopping board, roll it up and slice it to make thin strips.

Once the rice is cooked, rinse, drain and set aside.
Now heat up the Red Thai curry paste with a little water in a big pan. Add the cooked rice and stir it round so it’s coated in the curry paste.
Next add the prawns, the beans and the coconut cream. Stir for 3-4 minutes to heat them through – add a drop of water if it’s sticking to the pan.

Squeeze in half of the lime, and add the fish sauce – keep stirring. Add in the strips of egg and you’re ready to serve!

Verdict:
This is so simple it’s barely even cooking. The portions are large and it’s really filling. You could add different vegetables depending on what you’ve got and it would also work well with meat. This is a great last minute recipe if you’re in a hurry.

Barcelona

Travel food

Not wanting to waste any precious eating opportunity on poor food, I did a little research before we arrived in Barcelona. The first place we eat was one of the places recommended in a Telegraph article

Lúzia
A modern but cosy little restaurant just a couple metres down a side street off the bustling La Rambla. There wasn’t a large amount of authentic Spanish food on the menu, in fact there wasn’t a whole lot on it at all, but we decided to both order the beef sandwich – as recommended.
It wasn’t the biggest sandwich I’ve ever had, but I have to admit it was probably the best. There was a pretty generous filling of roast beef, gherkins, mortadella and mustard in slices of lightly toasted brown bread.
If you’re after a hearty meal then this isn’t it, but it does suit for a light lunchtime snack, even if it is a little pricey at €11. It was a tasty sandwich, but I’m not sure I would recommend going out of your way to try out Lúzia.

Rita Blue
Having wandered all the way to the beach and then back up La Rambla, we were getting to be ravenous again. We were nearly tempted into one of the many street seating, picture-filled menu, restaurants on La Rambla.
We resisted and took a turn up a side street leading us to Placa Sant Agusti. There were stumbled upon Rita Blue.
Seated outside in the shadow of the church building it was a perfect, quiet corner of the city. We didn’t look at the menu and just ordered the Paella advertised on the board.
There was quite a bit of a wait for be food, but a delicious looking paella for two eventually arrived.
Overall it was a tasty meal, though it was very, very salty. A slightly odd little place, but worth a go. And the cocktails looked brilliant, though sadly we didn’t try one.

Butternut Squash Curry

Recipes

I picked this recipe so I could use the rest of the Tikka Masala paste I had opened last week. Other than that the most expensive ingredient was the Greek yogurt which was cheapest in a giant pot, but I’ve been eating it with blueberries and/or cereal as a snack so it’s not going to waste!

This recipe was a BBC Good Food recipe and very easy to follow, though I did adjust it a little.

Serves 4. 393 calories per portion.

I used:
Olive oil
1 butternut squash – diced
1 red onion – diced
3 tbsp Tikka Masala curry paste (I added two in when the recipes suggest and another later on as I wanted a slightly stronger taste)
300ml vegetable stock
400g Tin of plum tomatoes (the recipe says 4 large tomatoes chopped, but I’m not a fan of tomato skin in food, and a tin of Sainsbury’s basics tomatoes was 35p!)
400g can of chickpeas – rinsed and drained
3tbsp Greek Yogurt (original recipe suggests fat free but it was more expensive)
Cost: Under £3

Method:

Heat the oil in a large sauce pan (with a lid for later) and add the butternut squash, cook for about 3 minutes until the squash browns a little bit.
Add in the red onion and 2 tbsp curry paste and continue frying for about 3-4 minutes.
Pour over the stock, put the lid on the pan and leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes until the squash is tender.
This is also when I added the extra tbsp of curry paste.

Add the chickpeas and canned tomatoes (cut them up with scissors if they’re whole ones) and cook for about another 3 minutes or so.

Take off the heat and then stir through the 3tbsp of yogurt.
I severed with basmati rice (cooked with a tsp of Turmeric to make it yellow) and kale on the side.

Verdict:
Another very easy recipe, and very tasty. If I make it again I might add some different vegetable for a bit more texture, and potentially try a spicier curry paste. But it was very cheap, and made enough for 3 possibly 4 lunches.

Cauliflower and Chickpea Curry

Recipes

I’ve been trying to take healthy lunches to work, but when it’s absolutely freezing all I want is a hot meal at lunchtime.

So to try and avoid the last minute stop at Tesco Express on my way in, I tried out this curry dish from my new vegetarian recipe book.

However, I ended up with a few ingredients missing so I improvised, and I removed the red pepper as one pepper was enough for me.

I used:

300g cauliflower florets
1 yellow pepper – diced
1tbsp groundnut oil
3tbsp Tikka masala curry paste ( the original recipe used a mild curry powder and ground ginger neither of which we had!)
1 garlic clove – grated
400g tin of chickpeas
400g tin of chipped tomatoes.
A sprinkling of mild chilli powder and paprika.

Method:

Heat the oil in a large sauce pan, then add the garlic, cauliflower and pepper – stir fry for about 5 minutes.
Add the curry paste and cook for another 5 min. Add seasoning such as chilli powder and paprika as you like it.
Then add in the tomatoes and leave it to simmer for 15-20 min.
When the cauliflower is cooked (it’s no longer solid), add the chickpeas and bring to the boil again, cook for 2-3 minutes.
Then you’re done! I cooked up some basmati rice to take to work with it (obviously keep it refrigerated and thoroughly reheat).

Verdict:
A lot of this recipe / method was improvised but it still tasted pretty good. It’s pretty filling so ideal for a healthy and warm lunch and very simple and quick to make!

Verity May eats

Always hungry, always eating.

Author: veritymaywrites

Thai Prawn Fried Rice

Barcelona

Butternut Squash Curry

Cauliflower and Chickpea Curry