Vegetable Balti

Vegetable Balti

Serves 4

A tasty, low fat curry.  Honest, it does exist!

2 leeks, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 large red peppers, deseeded and diced
1 aubergine, diced
1 tbsp balti curry powder
2-3 curry leaves
1 green chilli, finely chopped
100g dry weight red lentils
300ml vegetable stock
3 tbsp tomato puree
100g frozen peas


Preheat a large non-stick pan.  Add the leeks and garlic and dry fry for 1-2 minutes until softened.  Add the red pepper, aubergine and curry powder and cook for a further 5 minutes to soften the aubergine.

Add the remaining ingredients, except the peas and simmer gently for 20 minutes until the lentils are fully cooked, topping up with extra stock if neccessary.  

Just before serving, add the peas and heat through.

Serve with rice.


As an aside, for weight watchers (uk), this is 12 propoints for the whole recipe , or 3 propoints per serving. NOT including the rice.

On it's own, this is a tasty dish, but I used it in another dish, inspired by one of Marks and Spencers new meals "Onion Bhaji topped fish " or something like that.

I used the veg balti as a base, topped it with white fish fillet and made a topping for the fish with a mixture of onion, sliced into half moons, gently fried with spices: ground coriander, cumin seeds and garam masala, then mixed with breadcrumbs.

I baked the whole thing in the oven for about 20 minutes at Gas 4/180'C until the topping was slightly crisp and the fish cooked.

Another dish that went down well at home.