Vegetable curry and naan for £1.81

 

I made a completely from scratch vegetable curry with spinach, potato and chickpeas for my Foodie Friday vlog to show how I use my curry paste.  I also made some naan/flatbreads from THIS RECIPE and took some of my home made mango chutney from the freezer.  Recipe HERE.

I worked out that if I got a similar takeaway from my favourite local Indian restaurant it would cost me £12.49 for a vegetable curry (£8.99) plain naan (£2.50) and a portion of mango chutney (£1) and that excludes delivery or fuel costs to collect it!

Everything I used was a freezer or storecupboard staple.

My version:

• Curry paste  28p
• Onion (1/3)  10p
• Frozen spinach (180g)  21p
• Chickpeas (1/3 of a can)  18p
• Potatoes (1/2 of a can)  40p
• Coconut cream (1/3 carton)  20p

Vegetable curry: £1.37

(3 naan breads: SR flour  40p + Yoghurt  17p = 57p)

1 naan bread: 19p

Mango chutney:  25p

Total cost:  £1.37 + 19p + 25p = £1.81

You could make it for even less than that depending on prices where you live.  Plus I used organic flour for the naans.

The above portion of curry could easily stretch to 2 people served with rice as well.  And it was just as good as my local takeaway version! 😋

Curry paste recipe - 28p per portion

 

This is a recipe I found on a blog years ago.  The blog no longer exists but the recipe came from a lady called Geetha in London who gave it to her friend Elaine.

Curry paste:

• 1kg onions, sliced
• 25ml oil
• 6 cloves of garlic, crushed/grated
• 4cm piece of ginger, chopped/grated
• 3-4 fresh chillies chopped or 2 tsp dried
• 4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1 can water
• 50g fresh coriander, chopped

Fry onions in the oil for about 20 mins until really brown

Add the garlic. ginger and fresh chillies and fry gently for 2 mins.

Add the dry spices and salt and fry gently for 2 mins taking great care not to burn them

Add the tomatoes and water and simmer for about 10 to 15 mins until thick and pulpy

Add the chopped coriander and stir for 1 min.  Switch off the heat.

When cooled either blitz until smooth or leave chunky.  Divide into 12 equal portions and freeze.

Use 1 portion per person straight from the freezer when making a curry!

As I explain in the vlog total cost of ingredients was £3.35 making it 28p per portion.