Curry on a budget

I have a pretty well stocked spice rack (it's a spice drawer actually) – owing massively to several trips to a local asian supermarket.  If you are at all interested in saving money i’d recommend this, as decent sized bags of spices of every description can be bought at a much lower cost that a tiny glass jar or refill pack from a supermarket.  I borrowed a curry cookbook – The Curry Bible from Marks and Spencer in fact – and was a bit concerned at the long lists of ingredients needed for recipes.  I’ve found though that once that initial layout has been paid then i have the ingredients to make pretty much any curry i want from the book.  So now curry for us is a budget meal, and can be made using anything that’s around the kitchen, chicken, lamb, mince, veg (frozen and fresh), canned tomatoes and chickpeas, coconut milk etc etc.  Friday night saw me making a quick an inexpensive chickpea curry a la ready steady cook, using up storecupboard and freezer ingredients. It was delicious and cheap – what else would you want!

Easy Chickpea Curry (Serves 2)

Can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

Can chopped tomatoes

Tsp turmeric

Tsp Chilli Powder

2 small onions (2 diced 1 sliced)

Tsp frozen diced garlic

Frozen peppers

Frozen green beans

Tsp Garam Masala

Stock cube (veg or chicken)

Tbsp Vegetable oil (for frying)
salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

Method

Fry diced onion for a few minutes until browning, add garlic and fry for another minute, add turmeric and chilli powder and stir.  Add tomatoes, sliced onions, peppers , green beans, chickpeas, stock cube and water to desired consistency  and bring to a simmer for 10 – 15 minutes.  Add garam masala, leave for couple of minutes, season, then serve.