Squash and chickpea curry

Spicy and satisfying. You can tweak the chilli content to taste and add some greens such as spinach or kale to wilt down at the end of cooking.

 This recipe from Riverford calls for ½ butternut squash but we use any squash that keeps its texture on cooking and bump it up to a whole squash to stretch the curry further.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• Oil for frying
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 25g fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 red chilli
• ½ squash, peeled and chopped in 2cm dice
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 1 tsp coriander
• 400ml coconut milk
• 1 tin chickpeas, drained
• 3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2 lemongrass stalks, bruised
• 250ml hot veg bouillon stock
• 150g basmati rice
• Fresh coriander, chopped
• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Fry the onions for 10 minutes to soften. Give the plump ends of the lemongrass a few firm smacks. Roughly chop the tomatoes.
2. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli and squash to the onions, fry gently for 2 minutes.
3. Tip in the cumin, turmeric and coriander and fry for 1 minute, stirring continuously to avoid sticking. Add the coconut milk, stock, chickpeas and tomatoes.
4. Place the lemongrass sticks in the pan, leave the thin end poking out to make them easy to extract.
5. Simmer for about 30 minutes until tender. While the curry cooks add the rice to 350ml boiling water, stir once and drop to a simmer, cook for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat, fluff it up with a fork and leave it to sit with a lid on for 10 minutes.

When the curry is ready, remove the lemongrass, check the seasoning and finish with coriander.