Everyday Curry
Curry is our favourite takeaway, but is remarkably easy and affordable to make at home! The strong, sweet flavours of curry are very forgiving, allowing you to add more veg and less meat easily with less chance of people noticing since it changes the taste very little. Follow our simple tweaks and tips to make your curry even better!
Curry is our favourite takeaway, but is remarkably easy and affordable to make at home! The strong, sweet flavours of curry are very forgiving, allowing you to add more veg and less meat easily with less chance of people noticing since it changes the taste very little. Follow our simple tweaks and tips to make your curry even better!
Why is Curry so great?
Replacing a takeaway curry with a homemade one (even if it’s just a protein and a jar of curry sauce) is healthier, far cheaper and quicker!
The strong flavours of curry means you can add more veg and less meat over time without impacting on the taste. Making it more likely to be accepted by veg sceptics. Lots of veg work in a curry. You can adapt your recipe around your family’s favourite veggies, or ones you want to try and introduce or eat more of without changing the flavour and without more effort.
And of course, curry is very affordable! To keep costs to a minimum (and make the recipe healthier at the same time), try curry powder with coconut milk or chopped tomatoes or yogurt rather than a jarred sauce, add some frozen veg, and swap your meat or processed veggie alternative for a tin of chickpeas or lentils.
Our Simple Curry recipe below is just that – a basic mix of curry sauce + meat or veggie alternative + maybe some veg and rice. If you are just starting out, this is the place to start! If you already have the basics and want to work on slowly improving your recipe using our Step by Step method, try our Next Steps Curry.
Kids who engage with healthy foods are more likely to eat them, so to set yourself up for success, we’ve included tips to get kids involved in the second recipe to keep things simple.
Simple Curry
Ingredients:
Jar of curry sauce
Cubed/sliced meat or fish or veggie alternative (about 100g per person)
Frozen peas or tin of chickpeas (optional)
Cooked rice/noodles or naan bread, to serve
Not made a curry before, or not ready to try the next steps? Start here!
Method:
- Cook the meat/fish/veggie alternative according to packet instructions (for most meats/fish and veggie proteins, this will just be a case of cook in a little oil in a frying pan until browned and cooked through).
- Stir in the curry sauce (and frozen peas or chickpeas, if using) and heat through for a few mins.
- Serve with naan, cooked rice or noodles.
There is no need to go any further with this recipe until you are confident with it and feel up for the next step.
Once you have the basics it’s time to slowly improve your recipe using our Step by Step method to a bit better.
There are three ways to step-by-step your way to better curry – start where you feel most comfortable and if in doubt, start with a few veg.
Remember, the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! These changes and swaps can take as long as is needed. Small simple improvements over time may not even be noticed!
add veg
Aim for 2 handfuls of veg per person in the long-run, but it’s better to go slow and get there than to rush to the finish line and find no one is there with you. For the best chance of success, start with a veg you know the family likes, don’t try to hide it, and build up over time. Starting with frozen veg can also mean less waste, keeping costs down, and being able to add a small amount simply.
We’ve added our top suggestions and how and when to add them to the recipe below.
better sauce
Swapping a ready-made sauce for a homemade sauce can often help the budget as well as the salt and sugar content. If making your own sauce is 20 mins you can’t spare, adding a tin of chopped tomatoes or coconut milk plus a couple of tablespoons of curry powder is an easy, cheaper, instant way to a healthier sauce.
reduce meat
Try a tin of cooked chickpeas (or lentils or beans), drained and rinsed, to replace half (or all of) the meat, added for the last couple of mins of cooking. If you think it will be turned down, try starting with just half a tin and perhaps even blending it into the sauce and just reduce the meat while adding more chickpeas, lentils or beans slowly each time you make the meal.
Next Steps Curry
Ingredients:
Cubed/sliced meat or fish or veggie alternative (about 50-80g per person – optional)
1-2 tbsp curry powder
1 tin coconut milk (or 1 tin chopped tomatoes)
1 tin of chickpeas (or beans/lentils if you prefer)
Added veggies – aim for 1-2 handfuls per person, suggestions below
Cooked rice/noodles or naan bread, to serve
We suggest you do this in stages, slowly, and go as far as works for your family, here’s how your final recipe might come together…
Method:
- Cook the meat/fish/veggie alternative, if using, according to packet instructions (for most meats/fish and veggie proteins, this will just be a case of cook in a little oil in a frying pan until browned and cooked through). Add any fresh veg that needs a bit of time to soften and cook at this stage and give it an extra 5-10 mins to soften, too. Try fresh veg like: sliced carrots, chopped cauliflower florets, diced butternut squash or sweet potato, diced courgette or aubergine, diced onion… Alternatively, stir through some fresh leafy greens at the end of cooking to wilt them before serving.
- Stir in the curry powder, allow to cook for a minute, then pour in the coconut milk or chopped tomatoes and any frozen veg and tinned chickpeas. Check package instructions for length of time to simmer the frozen veg. Great options include: peas, sweetcorn, mixed veg, stir fry veg mix, cubed sweet potato or butternut squash, chopped or whole leaf spinach, sliced peppers or mushrooms, green beans, edamame or broad beans, cauliflower florets…
- Serve with naan, cooked rice or noodles.
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating. Find out more here.
Kids in the kitchen
Get younger kids stirring in veg and sauce, helping to serve it into bowl, filling a mug with rice and then twice with water to serve, and helping pick out which veg to add.
Older kids might be ready to learn how to chop some fresh veg to add at the start of the meal, stir everything together in the pan, and taking a bit more charge of preparing and cooking the rice!
Master these skills:
Washing hands, Cleaning vegetables, Tasting, Mixing
Activities
Use arts & crafts as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. While you let your tagine simmer, why not set a child up with:
Find more arts & crafts and puzzles & games on our website.
Sensory
Why not start with a whole butternut squash and explore the shape, colour and texture through sight and feel. Get your child to describe what they feel and see – maybe it’s hard or smooth, cold or bumpy, and maybe it looks like a big orange pear or a giant’s earring! Cut the squash in half lengthways and see what they think of the look and feel of the inside, too. See if they want to add some chopped squash into the tagine after having engaged with it.
Watch Ruth Platt’s video on sensory activities with butternut squash for more inspiration, or get more tips, games and videos over on our Sensory page.
Serving
Why not ask a child with a big imagination to come up with a silly story behind the curry? Perhaps the squash and chickpeas you chose to put in are in the midst of a centuries-long battle and they both need the family’s help to eat the other! Let them play with the veg as they create the story, perhaps adding it into the meal themselves. Make sure to praise them for any involvement, it may encourage them to eat more of the meal if they feel it is at least in part, theirs!
Get more ideas over on our Roles for Kids page.
Family Favourite Recipes
Use our step-by-step methods to slowly improve these favourites, too…
DO you have a question you’d like one of our experts to help you with?
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