Recipe: Thai Veggie Curry

As a breastfeeding mama I firmly expected to lose all my ‘baby weight’ aka cake baby in the first few weeks after giving birth.  In my head (it’s a marvellous place people, honestly), I would give birth, have a couple weeks of a small belly and then magically it would all disappear, because we all know that that three stone weight gain was all baby and cake, biscuits, bread, water weight.  Are you surprised to learn it wasn’t?!  Three months postpartum and this mama is still a good two stone up.

Our diets post-baby have been more about convenience and speed than health and nutritional value.  It’s HARD when you’ve only had three hours sleep to reach past the chocolate for the grapes.  It’s even harder to not want to whoop and holler when someone offers takeaway – a meal without cooking?!  Bliss.  We want a fast meal that’s healthy and filling, and more importantly is something that we can both enjoy (Mr DM, whilst patient, gets quite frustrated at my attempts at rabbit food.  He’s 6 foot tall and what I would call a lanky streak of piss.  He only has to look at a treadmill to lose weight.  Life is SO unfair).  Finally I want something that can continue to support me in breastfeeding and maintaining nutritional value for that.  Not much to ask, right?  That is where this Hairy Dieters curry comes in…

I’m a huge fan of Hairy Dieters meals.  They don’t FEEL like their low calorie and they certainly don’t taste like it.  This curry is purely veg so it’s great for Meat Free Mondays, it’s pretty tasty and very filling.  I under seasoned ours and it could certainly take more chilli but it was still ranked a huge success by the man of the house, even if he was quick to respond that ‘it could use a bit of chicken’!  This one is taken from their fourth book ‘Hairy Dieters: Fast Food’; designed for those who want good food, fast and you can substitute in any veggies that you like – just adjust the cooking time accordingly.

Best yet, it’s only 170 calories a serving!

Hairy Bikers Vegetable Thai Curry (Serves 4)

You will need:

• 1tsp coconut or vegetable oil
• 2 shallots
• 400ml reduced-fat coconut milk
• 200ml hot vegetable stock
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 medium aubergine
• 200g butternut squash – I used frozen butternut squash for ease (It’s life changing)
• 200g green beans
• 1 large courgette
• ½ a small cauliflower
• Juice of 1 lime
• Coriander leaves
• A small bunch of Thai basil (optional) – Regular basil works just as well

For the curry paste – If you’re in a hurry, you can pre-buy thai green curry paste.  This takes minutes to make but those minutes sometimes count for A LOT.  Especially if you haven’t got them!

• 1 red chilli
• 1tbsp coriander stems
• 2 shallots
• 4 garlic cloves
• 10g fresh root ginger
• 2 lemongrass stalks or 1tbsp lemongrass paste
• 1tbsp galangal paste (optional) – I left this out as I couldn’t source it!
• 1tbsp soy sauce or tamari
• ½tsp turmeric
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

Recipe:

1. Start with your curry paste.  De-seed the chilli if you want to keep the heat down, remove the outside of the lemongrass stalks if using them and then roughly crop all ingredients.  Pop them in a blender together with a splash of water and blend to a smooth paste.
2. Heat the vegetable or coconut oil in a large pan.  Finely chop the shallots and add to the pan.
3. Once the shallots have softened, add the curry paste.  Cook for a couple of minutes until the paste is heated through and smells divine!
4. Add the coconut milk and vegetable stock, shred in the kaffir lime leaves, season to taste and bring up to a simmer.
5. Prepare your vegetables; chop aubergine, courgette and butternut squash into 3cm chunks, break the cauliflower into small florets and chop the green beans in half.
6. Add the aubergine and butternut squash to the pan, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. If using frozen butternut squash, add this a few minutes before the end!
7. Add the courgette, cauliflower and green beans, cover and simmer until all veg is tender.
8. Squeeze in the lime juice, season and add additional soy sauce/tamari if required.
9. Serve with basil leaves and chopped fresh coriander.