One of the best ways to maintain a healthy diet is to ensure you eat a diverse range of natural, minimally processed whole foods every day. There are so many nutrients in whole food that you just can't take in supplement form, and I've found some of the best advice health advocates give is to encourage you to consume as many good, colourful, real ingredients as you can in order to get the benefits from a wide range of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients (found in spices).
My lamb curry is one big hit of whole ingredients, put together into a flavour packed combination that even my usually fussy children can't resist. Including my bottle masala, which adds 20 freshly roasted whole spices to the mix, there are 40 real ingredients in this delicious meal. Over 10 different vegetables, plus high quality meat and dairy in the form of ghee and full fat greek yoghurt. I can guarantee you'll enjoy this curry as much if not more than any Indian take-away meal... because this curry contains the kind of long ingredient list you are actually looking for in your food.
To feed your family fully of goodness, you'll need:
1 kilo of good quality lamb, as free range as you can get, with bones (forequarter chops are great)
half a cup of full fat greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 heaped tablespoon of Spice Mama's bottle masala (or very good quality curry powder)
1 teaspoon of salt
half a teaspoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of ghee
1 stalk of curry leaves
6-8 spring onions, finely chopped
1-2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 heaped tablespoon of grated ginger
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon of grated fresh turmeric
1 chopped tomato
half a zucchini, grated
half a small eggplant, grated
half a cup of pumpkin, grated
2 large potatoes, cubed
half a cup of frozen peas
a large handful of baby spinach leaves
a large handful of chopped coriander leaves
With a list of ingredients a mile long, this recipe sounds much more complicated than it is. To begin, clean and dice the lamb, then marinate in a mix of the yoghurt, tomato paste, bottle masala, salt and sugar. Leave overnight or even half an hour helps if you're time poor.
Grate all the veggies: zucchini, eggplant and pumpkin, and set aside.
Heat ghee in a large, heavy based pot, then fry off the curry leaves, spring onions, chilli, ginger, garlic and turmeric until lightly brown, then add the tomato and keep frying until lightly mushy. Add the grated vegetables and keep frying for another minute or two. Then pour in the lamb and marinade, and fry for a few more minutes until the oil starts to separate from the mixture.
Turn the heat to low, add half a cup of water and cover, cook slowly, stirring occasionally, for an hour and a half. After this time, add the potatoes, cook for another 15 minutes, then add the peas and cook for another few minutes. At the end, taste for seasoning, adding more salt if you need to. Stir through the fresh spinach leaves and chopped coriander just before serving.