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How to Cook Healthy

How To Cook Healthy For Beginners: The easiest chicken curry recipe EVER

how to cook healthy for beginners Everyday chicken curry with cauliflower rice paleo primer fitter food, by healthista (3)

Want to learn how to cook healthy? Healthista’s Vanessa Chalmers does. In her column this week, Vanessa shows us one of her favourite easy recipes, Everyday Chicken Curry with cauliflower rice from The Paleo Primer

A healthy lifestyle is achievable for anyone. But there are tons of recipes out there that seem to require a blowfish, truffle oil and Japanese Densuke watermelon.

In my mind at least, as long as I am cooking from scratch with a variety of beneficial foods from the local supermarket I am one step further to healthy living. That’s why, every Friday I will be bringing you an easy, affordable and simple recipe – for the busy everyday woman who is nothing more than an amateur chef, but loves food and to cook. Last week I gave Louise Parker’s cauliflower and paneer bowl a go, which is a wholesome chickpea based dish.

If a recipe isn’t easy and quick, I am unlikely to repeat it in the future

This week I’m taking it back to a meal I discovered a couple of years ago, and still make regularly. If a recipe isn’t easy and quick, I have noticed I am unlikely to repeat it in the future. This Everyday Chicken Curry from cookbook The Paleo Primer by Fitter Food is so simple to make I go back to it often for a mid-week dinner, so I had to share it with beginner cooks.

How To Cook Healthy For Beginners Everyday Chicken Curry Paleo primer, by healthista.jpg2
Everyday Chicken Curry

Curry sauces in a jar are one of those things you can sweep off the shelf during a supermarket shop knowing they will come in handy to throw over pasta o rice when there is nothing else in the house. But I hate to break it to you, knowing the pasta and curry sauce jars can be delicious, but they aren’t particularly great nutritionally as a staple items. A pasta sauce, such as a 500g jar of Dolmio bolognaise, contains more than six cubes of sugar. Loyd Grossman’s korma sauce contains over 2g of salt per serving, which is nearly 40 per cent of your daily recommended maximum.

MORE: How To Cook Healthy For Beginners: Herbed turkey meatballs with courgetti pomodoro

In April last year, the company behind Dolmio and Uncle Ben’s, Mars food, said some of their food products are high in salt and added sugar for an authentic recipe, and a new label was introduced to tell consumers they should only be eaten once a week.

Those ‘authentic recipes’ from star chef’s are always spot on in terms of great taste, but honestly, getting a flavour similar which is far healthier isn’t too hard. Here is the recipe for Everyday Chicken Curry, a red spicy chicken curry that takes no more than 40 minutes.

Everyday Chicken Curry

Serves 2

Ingredients

Ghee, butter, or coconut oil for the pan

2 chicken breasts or 4 thighs/legs chopped

2 teaspoons medium curry powder

2 teaspoons ground coriander

½ teaspoon turermic

½ teaspoon black pepper (optional)

1 tablespoon peeled and grated ginger

2 garlic cloves

1 large onion, chopped

1 can of diced tomatoes

(I also added 2 large fresh tomatoes chopped and a tablespoon of tomatoe puree)

Method

Add the oil to a saucepan and sauté the chicken for 5 minutes

Add all the spices, ginger, garlic, onion and tomatoes until the chicken is covered

How To Cook Healthy For Beginners Everyday Chicken Curry Paleo primer, by healthista 6

Bring to a boil and simmer for around 20-30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and tender

While this is simmering, I cooked cauliflower rice. It’s another one of those things, like courgetti, which seems harder to make than it is. My family are always concerned it won’t be as filling as rice either, but then realise the only difference is a bit more of a crunch, and a strong vegetable taste.

For two people, I grated three quarters of a cauliflower using a normal cheese grater. Make sure to use large chunks of cauliflower, as small florets are too hard to grate. It turns into a fine substance that looks almost identical to rice.

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Put the cauli-rice in a microwaveable bowl, cover with clingfilm, prick with a knife a few times, and heat in the microwave for just five minutes, stirring half way. Alternatively you can cook on the stove in a skillet with a little oil, stirring as it cooks for around five-eight minutes.

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Served up with cauliflower rice

I like to make my curry quite hot and then serve with a tablespoon of either coconut yoghurt, sour cream, or natural yoghurt. Have an experiment with spices but stick to the recipe if you are not sure – their balance is mild. If there is some left over, it’s fine to store in the fridge or freezer, too.

How to cook healthy for beginners, everyday curry, Paleo Primer Book

Buy The Paleo Primer: A Jump-Start Guide to Losing Body Fat and Living Primally for £10.49

 

MORE: Meat free Monday recipe: Tofu Pad Prik Curry from nutritionist Alli Godbold
MORE: 10 breakfast bowl recipes to fill you up fast

 

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