This frugal, family-friendly egg curry is big on nutrients.
The curry sauce is a blend of vegetables that work together to create a thick, creamy and sweet sauce.
Blending vegetables doesn’t just thicken the sauce, it also adds heaps of nutrients and fibre, making the sauce ‘nutrient-dense’.
Nutrient-dense = contains a high percentage of nutrients in relation to its caloric value
Nutrients aside, I really enjoy making curries (any curry) by blending veggies into the sauce. Items like carrots and peppers add natural sweetness and thicken the sauce at the same time.
Ordinarily, the sweetness and thickness is achieved by hours of cooking, or by making shortcuts (sugar and starches commonly), but here, the pureed vegetables step in.
It becomes a quicker and smarter way to make a nourishing curry sauce.
The protein component, and any extra ingredients, for that matter, are up to you.
Here, I added eggs and potatoes to keep the dish frugal, family-friendly and delicious.
Chicken, tofu or paneer would all be great additions.
A note on the obvious: this recipe is not as gas-inducing as you may think, with a few caveats.
Contrary to popular belief, eggs don’t cause wind. They are rich in methionine, which naturally contains and can cause sulphur to be released, but only in “specific conditions”.
Sulphur is the smelly wind culprit.
The specific conditions for its release include:
- A fatty or very high fibre meal (think beans/ pulses) - these slow how eggs are digested, meaning more of that sulphur may be released, which in turn may cause smelly wind.
- Under-cook rather than over-cook eggs. Here, the eggs are cooked for 6 and a half minutes, creating a “jammy” centre and leaving the eggs free of the sulphur-like smell that overcooked eggs are often associated with.
- Cook the eggs fresh for leftovers. The sauce makes great leftovers, but the longer eggs are left in the fridge, the more likely they are to release sulphur, potentially leading to smelly gas. Spending the extra 6.5 minutes to cook the eggs from fresh may be a smart move.
Serves 4
Takes approximately 30-40 minutes to make.
Ingredients
1 onion
1 large or two medium carrots
1/2 a pepper (any colour)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
A thumb-sized piece of ginger
A handful of coriander, separated into leaves and stalks (optional)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
A fat of your choice for cooking, I used a tablespoon of butter.
3 large potatoes
1 tin of good-quality coconut milk
6-8 eggs, aiming for 2 eggs per adult and 1 per child
Rice and/or flatbreads to serve.
Spices
1 tablespoon of medium curry powder - don’t worry, it won’t be spicy with the volume of sauce
1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
Method:
1. Peel and roughly chop the onion, carrot, garlic and ginger.
2. Roughly chop the pepper.
3. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, pepper, coriander stalks (if using) and chopped tomato to a blender. Blend until completely smooth.
4. Peel and cube 3 potatoes. The smaller the cubes, the quicker it will cook. The larger, the more tasty chunky pieces you’ll have.
4. Grab a medium or large saucepan. Put it on a medium heat. Add the butter/ oil and spices and allow this to mingle for 30 seconds.
5. Throw in the cubed potatoes and stir for a minute so the spices coat the potatoes.
6. Pour in the sauce from your blender. Let it cook for 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened up.
Stir it every now and then to make sure nothing sticks.
7. Pour in the coconut milk and allow it to simmer for 10 more minutes to thicken up.
Season well with salt and pepper.
8. Check to make sure your potatoes are cooked through. They may need longer depending on the size of the cubes. This is absolutely fine. If your sauce starts to look a bit too thick while the potatoes cook, just add a splash of water.
9. Set aside until you cook the eggs and sides (rice/ flatbreads).
10. Boil the eggs for 6 and a half minutes.
Peel and then add to the curry sauce.
11. Ladle the curry into bowls. Serve with rice or flatbreads and a sprinkle of coriander leaves.