I love a good curry at the weekend. I’ll often reach for the ready-made curry paste out of convenience, but in fact it only takes 5 minutes more to make your own paste from scratch.

The result is a fresher, more vibrant taste, with the added bonus that you can adjust the heat to whatever level you fancy.

The homemade curry paste for this Spicy Healthier Red Thai Chicken Curry is easy and packed with flavour!

Prep Time

    •    Prep time: 20 minutes
    •    Cook time: 20 minutes
    •    Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients

    •   1 tbsp olive oil
    •   3 chicken breasts about 200g (7oz) each, chopped into bite-size chunks
    •   2 red bird’s eye chillies roughly chopped
    •   1 thumb-sized piece of ginger peeled and finely chopped
    •   5 kaffir lime leaves dried or fresh
    •   1 lemongrass stalk finely chopped (or 1 tsp lemongrass paste)
    •   4 shallots peeled and chopped
    •   2 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped
    •   1 tsp cumin
    •   1 tsp ground coriander
    •   ½ tbsp paprika
    •   1 yellow bell pepper deseeded and sliced
    •   80 g mangetout (snow peas), sliced in half
    •   1 tbsp fish sauce
    •   Juice of 1 lime
    •   ½ tsp honey
    •   400 ml tin reduced fat coconut milk

To Serve:

    •   1 small bunch Coriander leaves
    •   1 red chilli finely sliced

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan on a medium-to-high heat. Add the chicken, and cook for 5 minutes until sealed.
2. Whilst the chicken is cooking, place the red chillies, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, cumin, ground coriander and paprika into a food processor. Blend until the mixture forms into a paste.
3. Add the paste to the chicken in the pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring to coat the chicken.
4. Add the yellow pepper, mangetout, fish sauce, lime and honey. Cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring often. By this time the chicken should be cooked through (you can check this by cutting the largest piece of chicken you can find in half and ensuring it’s no longer pink in the middle).
5. Add the coconut milk and heat through until almost boiling. Don’t let it boil, or it may curdle. *Optional – if you would like the sauce to be a little thicker, mix 1 tbsp of cornflour with 2 tbsp cold water and stir into the sauce.
6. Serve the Thai curry with brown rice. Top with fresh coriander leaves and slices of red chilli.

This great family recipe is thanks to Yummly Recipes at https://www.yummly.com/recipe/Healthier-Red-Thai-Chicken-Curry---without-the-shop-bought-sauce_-2035928#directions