If you’ve overdosed on all things meat based these past couple of weeks, introducing a couple of veggie based dished to your diet can be a great way to give your tummy a bit of a break and a chance to recalibrate itself.
When trying to lose weight and eat healthily, vegetables can be your best friend. Fresh or lightly cooked veggies are packed full of essential vitamins, antioxidants and other beneficial trace minerals for a healthy bod. The majority are also super low in things like sugar and salt and generally contain very few calories.
Including veggie filled main meals in your diet is also a great way to make sure that you’re getting your recommended daily intake of the green (and red, orange, purple) stuff. Current guidelines suggest that we enjoy five separate servings of vegetables and two of fruit everyday. We often have no trouble with the fruit side of things but when it comes to veggies, we sometimes struggle to get past two or three individual servings.
Foods like curry make it easy to pack in the veggies as they often use a couple of different varieties, all blended in with yummy spices and other tasty additions. This curry features pumpkin, peas, onion and tomato, meaning that in one meal, you’re getting four of your five a day, without even trying! This curry also uses green lentils instead of meat which lowers to calories while upping the fibre content.
While the recipe doesn’t contain chilli, you can add fresh or dried to add heat, depending on your individual tastes. The mild flavour makes this a great, family friendly dish and can also be frozen for a quick and nutritious weeknight meal.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red onion, diced
- 600g butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 3cm cubes
- 3 tbsp curry paste
- 1 x 420g can of brown lentils, drained and rinsed
- 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
- 200g frozen peas
- 1 1/2 cups water or salt reduced vegetable stock
- Basmati rice to serve
Directions
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add onion and cook for 3-4 minutes until soft.
- Add the curry paste and continue to cook until aromatic
- Add tomatoes and water or stock and bring to a simmer
- Add the pumpkin and cook, covered, for 5-10 minutes or until softened
- Add the lentils, cover again, and simmer very gently for 15 minutes or until tender
- Add the peas, bring to the boil and simmer for a final 2 minutes
- Serve with basmati rice
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Makes 4 servings – Cal per serve 550
