No I didn’t stutter, that is what we nicknamed this delicious curry that even my most avid of carnivores thoroughly enjoyed. Because it had no meat it was a very frugal recipe, which always makes a meal taste much better to me! I usually make chicken curry. More often than not a korma. I refuse to make more than one meal so our children have grown up eating exactly what we eat, obviously that may mean making spicy foods slightly tamer but neither of us are that into overly hot foods anyway.  The day I made this I would have had to go to the local shop for chicken making the price per pound astronomical. I refused to pay their prices and decided to throw something together that was much more reasonably priced. I kept my fingers crossed that it would taste good too.

Now I failed to get a picture so here is a representation of what it looked like, as drawn by LM:

  Our curry was a cccc curry as it contained:

Cauliflower

Chickpeas (tinned)

Courgette

Carrot

I used jars of curry sauce this time as they were on offer, but I often find the pastes are cheaper. I prefer basmati rice although long grain rice can be much cheaper.

You could add any veg that takes your fancy, you could even use left overs from a cooked dinner. I found it best to boil the veg first to make sure it was cooked. I then placed all the ingredients into my large casserole dish, stirred in the sauce, covered it and popped it in the oven until it was piping hot all the way through – about 30 mins.

While I was waiting for the curry to heat through I cooked the rice using the directions on the box. This differs depending on the type you use. They are usually either, use double the amount of water to rice and cook until the water has been absorbed (example: 1cup rice + 2cups water) or add rice to a large pan of boiling water. I used the latter.

A break down of the total cost of this meal are:

1 tin of Chick peas        39p

1 head of cauli               85p

1 courgette                     40p

carrots                            33p (half of 75p bag)

Sauce x3                   £2.00 (B2GOF)

500g basmati Rice       70p

Total:                      £4.67

This made 2 adult, 2 teen, 2 child and 1 baby portions PLUS I also had enough left for 2 smaller lunch size meals and 1 more baby portion.

That’s 10 meals for less than a fiver! Think of the extra savings if you were to make this using left overs! I will definitely be making a variation of this again.

What do you think? Would you be willing to lose the meat for one meal? Or are you a pro at cooking veggie meals? What veg do you find goes well with a curry sauce? I’d also love to know if you have any other frugal meal ideas.

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