indian – Scran Plan

Yellow split pea dahl with mini naan and glass of wine

Slow Cooker Yellow Split Pea Dahl (Yellow Roald Dahl)

ScranMa

This is a really easy, cheap and tasty dish, and can be made from store cupboard and freezer ingredients. If you're using the spices for the first time you can use a mild curry powder instead of the individual spices listed here to cut costs. It can be a main dish, or served as a side dish.

My kids eat this because they like the Roald Dahl stories (hence the name Yellow Roald Dahl) and because it's not very spicy. Add 1tsp hot chilli powder to the slow cooker mix for some extra zing!

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 6

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Equipment

Slow cooker (crockpot)

Ingredients

8 spray Spray oil
260 g Yellow split peas Rinsed (or not if you're feeling lazy)
3 cloves Garlic Chopped (or straight from freezer)
1 whole Onion Chopped (or straight from freezer)
2 tsp Turmeric
3 tsp Cumin Seeds
2 tsp Root Ginger Chopped (or straight from freezer)
2 whole Stock Cubes Best with 1 Kallo Vegetable and 1 Kallo Garlic & Herb
750 ml Water
1 stick Lovage Optional! Included once as a friend gave us one stick and it was great, you could use 2-3 sticks of celery chopped instead, it's an entirely optional extra .
400 g Carrots Diced

Instructions

Put the slow cooker on a medium heat.
Mist the slow cooker ceramic bowl with cooking spray. Put the split peas, onion, turmeric, ground cumin, crushed garlic, ginger and stock in slow cooker and stir. Optionally add 400g of carrots (or cauliflower florets are also a good tweak), submerging in the liquid. Cover and leave on medium for 6h (or low for 11h).
For an optional side, which tastes so good the kids were fighting over the last sprout (I still can't quite believe it): just before end of slow cooking time, heat 1/2 tbsp sesame oil in a frying pan and gently fry 1 clove of sliced garlic and the other 1 teaspoon cumin seeds for 1 minute, stirring until fragrant. Add 350g of shredded brussels sprouts and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until bright green (don't leave them on while you try to persuade a child to wash hands before food or they burn…see photo…oops!).
Serve with optional naan or rice – the photo has this dahl on a bed of steamed savoy cabbage to increase veg intake and a garlic and coriander mini naan.

Notes

I first tried this for 6h on low following a different guide, but the split peas were still a bit hard, so it worked after putting on high for another 1.5 hours, by which time everyone was too hungry.

Keyword cheap, easy, indian, kids, scranitfortheplanet, slow cooker, student friendly, vegan, vegetarian

Spicy as you like it Chicken Jalfrezi

ScranMa

This is a great curry, packed with vegetables, and this is a healthy version that can be ready as fast as a take-away would typically arrive. It can be as hot or mild as you like dependent on the chilli level you prefer. It's easy to make double the sauce quantities and freeze it, so it can be put together in 15 minutes on a week night.

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Onion Base Mix time 17

Total Time 37

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Equipment

Hand blender

Ingredients

Onion Base Mix (This can be made ahead of time and extra portions frozen)

2 medium Onion Chopped
1 medium Red Pepper Chopped – or ripped up into bite-size chunks by kids eager to help
2 cloves Garlic Crushed (or 10g straight from the freezer)
5 cm Root Ginger Grated (or 10g chopped straight from the freezer)
6 spray Spray oil
4 tbsp Water

Chicken Jalfrezi Ingredients

1 medium Green pepper Chopped – or ripped up into bite-size chunks by kids eager to help
1 medium Orange pepper Chopped – or ripped up into bite-size chunks by kids eager to help
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Garam masala
400 g Passata Use the best quality you can so it's thick
600 g Chicken breast Diced into bite-sized pieces
6 spray Spray oil

Optional

1 whole Chilli Sliced thinly (Optional)

Instructions

Onion Base Mix

Heat a medium sized lidded saucepan over a medium heat. Spray with the cooking spray and stir-fry the onions for 5 minutes. Add the red pepper, garlic and ginger, spray again with the cooking spray, and stir-fry for another 3 minutes until the vegetables have softened.
Take the pan off the heat, add 4 tablespoons of water, and use a hand blender to puree the onion mixture until it's smooth. It's easiest to do this in a measuring beaker or jug, to avoid splattering any of the hot mixture. If you don't have a hand blender you can mash it or try and push it through a sieve.
If you're making multiple quantities and have multiplied up the Onion Base Mix ingredients, this is the point to pour the extra portions thick sauce into a portion and let it cool for the freezer (remember to label with date and contents as it looks quite like carrot soup). I normally do triple quantities, eat one and freeze two so that it's easy to take out the night before and defrost in the fridge ready for another week.

Chicken Jalfrezi

Spray a large pan with spray oil, and put on a medium-high heat. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 5 minutes until browned in places. Add the green and orange peppers and optional chilli, then stir-fry for another 2 minutes.
If you're doing rice on the hob, following the easiest-rice-ever-method then measure it out and put it on now so it's ready at the same time as the jalfrezi.
Next add the onion base mix to the chicken pan along with the garam masala, cumin seeds and passata. Add the optional chilli at this point, or more if you like it really spicy. Stir, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, part-covered, for 10 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and thickened and the chicken has cooked through.
Season and serve with rice, poppadums or mini naans (I take mini naans straight from the freezer, sprinkle with water and put into the toaster a minute before serving, or they can also be grilled to warm through quickly.) On weeknights we love this with mini naans microwave rice for speed.

Notes

I usually swap the pepper colours over, one child loves red pepper and hates green, and the other vice versa (of course, but at least they’ll eat one). I tend to put the green into the onion base mix as it’s then blended up and so hidden, and do more of the other colours that are visible in the final step as more gets eaten overall. Since I normally do triple quantities of the onion base mix then freeze two, it’s easy to use a cheap, bulk pack of peppers and decide what to put in the onion base mix depending on the varieties in the pack.

I usually rope in one of the kids to help rip up the peppers for the chicken step: I pop the top with my thumbs and pull out the whites and seeds then they do the rest, as they eat more that way and I’m happy for them to eat the odd bit while we’re cooking if they want to.

Keyword easy, fake-away, indian, kids