I made this vegetable curry as part of this week’s easy meal plan. It involves little more than chopping up some vegetables! My sort of cooking when I am feeling tired but in need of something healthy and delicious.

I actually kept the carnivores happy by cooking up some frozen chicken strips separately and adding them to half of the vegetable curry. You could easily vary the vegetables, depending on what you happen to have lying around.

Cheap and easy vegetable curry

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 onion, diced

2 crushed cloves of garlic

3 sticks of celery, sliced thinly

3 carrots, sliced thinly

1 sweet potato, halved and sliced thinly

1 large-ish courgette, sliced

1 red pepper, chopped

2 oz frozen peas

1 400g can of chopped tomatoes

1 165g jar of curry paste (I used Patak’s tikka masala)

200ml cold water

Oil

Method

In a large pan (a wok is ideal), fry the onion and garlic in some oil for a few minutes, then add the celery, carrots and sweet potato and fry for five minutes more. Stir in the curry paste, along with 50 ml water. Cook  until the water has more or less evaporated. Add the courgette, red pepper and peas along with the tomatoes and remaining water. Bring to the boil, then simmer. Add some salt to taste, place a lid over your pan and cook gently for at least half an hour, stirring occasionally. (I like to cook it on a low heat for a little longer – about an hour.)

You can eat it as it is with rice if you want a vegan dinner, or add 150ml of cream or yogurt and heat through before serving. We like it with some crunchy poppadums and a bit of mango chutney too.

For more of my frugal recipes, see here.