The Food Nanny's Guide to Curry in a Hurry

Anna Burns is the food nanny, and in her new book The Food Nanny she offers lots of useful advice on how to establish healthy eating in kids. Here’s her recipe for curry in a hurry...

There are plenty of days when I need to follow my ten-minute rule: I need to have dinner on the table within ten minutes of walking through the front door, to avoid the kids snacking and complaining of hunger (more on this later).

This curry works only for those kids who already like their vegetables and their curry, so it might be something to work towards over the coming weeks. It serves about four hungry or six small kids, or, of course, two hungry parents and two small kids!

Ingredients

- 1 large onion, peeled and chopped

- ½ red pepper, chopped

- 4 chicken breasts or 6 chicken thighs, chopped
- 2 teaspoons medium curry powder
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 400g tin chopped tomatoes or a 500ml carton passata
- frozen cauliflower
- frozen peas
- fresh coriander
- a pinch of salt

Method

Place the onion, pepper, chicken, curry powder and oil in a large frying pan and cook, with the lid off, for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Next add the tomatoes and as much cauliflower as desired. Cook for a further five minutes and then add some frozen peas and a pinch of salt.

Allow this to cook for five more minutes, then serve with fresh coriander, accompanied by rice and some toasted (perhaps from frozen) naan bread, if desired.

In both curries in this chapter, the chicken can be replaced by chickpeas (one large can replaces two to three chicken breasts) as a vegetarian alternative. I often add some chickpeas to the mixture, along with the chicken, to vary taste and texture and also to introduce the notion of vegetarian alternatives to meat. Instead of using four chicken breasts, for instance, I might use two chicken fillets and one tin of chickpeas (drained and rinsed). Most kids love baked beans, so they will probably enjoy other cooked beans (legumes) in a tasty dish such as this.