Squash, Kale & Chickpea Green Thai Curry
Recipe
This is such an easy and quick recipe (just make sure you have your squash ready roasted beforehand*), it doesn’t take longer than 25 minutes to prepare this dish. Cook some rice to go with it and voilà! And with the humongous amount of kale I add to it, I doubt it needs any more greens 😉
Talking about kale, for a long time I wasn’t that keen on this super-green. Unless you buy baby kale, the leaves can be quite tough to chew so, I have to admit, I was a bit put off by it at first. I found out that really the easiest way to integrate it into your cuisine is adding it to stews. I prefer to buy the whole kale leaves so that I can remove the thick stem, but if you chop it quite finely, it will be nice and soft as well.
For this recipe I also used cavolo nero and spinach but I think kale is the winner.
If it comes to squashes, my absolute favourite is Blue Hubbard squash as its taste & texture lies between yellow and sweet potato. They are not always that easy to find in supermarkets so you can always go for Butternut Squash that is available all year round.
*When you buy a squash it is very unlikely that you’re going to eat the whole of it in one go. My tip is to peel it, de-seed it, chop into 2cm cubes and then roast it. You can then divide it into 2-3 portions and cook with some and freeze the rest for later. I love adding squash to salads, risottos, soups and bakes, and thus in my kitchen the whole head of squash is usually gone within a week.
Cooking time: 25 min
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients
- 2-3 medium size red onions
- 1-2 tbsp. green curry paste (make sure it has no fish in it)
- 5 cardamom pods
- 1 tsp. turmeric
- 1 tsp. vegetable bouillon
- ½ tsp. chilli flakes (add depending on how spicy your green curry paste is)
- 200g kale, chopped or shredded
- 400ml coconut milk
- 300g roasted squash
- 400g can chickpeas, drained
- Freshly ground black pepper & salt to taste.
Method
1. Peel and loosely chop the onions, place in the frying pan, add coconut oil and fry on high heat constantly stirring for about 5 minutes, or until the onions caramelise.
2. Turn down the heat; add the green curry paste, cardamom pods, turmeric, chilli flakes and fry for another 3 minutes.
3. Add the vegetable bouillon, coconut milk, kale and enough water to cover it all. Stir all in and then place a lid over the frying pan and cook for another 10 minutes.
4. Add chickpeas and the squash, stir in gently and simmer for another 10 minutes.
5. Add freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste and simmer for another 5 minutes.
6. Serve warm with rice and enjoy!