Beef Keema (serves 4-6)

Beef Keema by The Fat Foodie

Beef keema is an Indian curry which is based on slow cooked beef mince and peas in a rich tomato sauce. Although I make mine with beef mince you can also make it with lamb mince if you prefer. As with many curries, such as my Lamb Dansac, this beef keema is absolutely fantastic when cooked throughout the day in the slow cooker, particularly when the weather’s definitely on the turn towards winter and you look forward to coming home to a warming meal after work. Continue reading

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Lamb Rendang (serves 6)

Lamb Rendang by The Fat Foodie

I developed this Lamb Rendang recipe because, in the spirit of spring, I treated the family to a Sunday dinner which consisted of a leg of lamb with the usual roasted vegetables etc, but I didn’t realise just how much meat was actually on it! There was loads of tender meat left over so I thought it’d be nice to use it in a slow cooked curry. One of my favourite ways to cook lamb is in a Lamb Dansac, but I wanted to make something new for a change so I went for a lamb rendang instead.

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Chicken Satay (serves 4)

Chicken Satay by The Fat Foodie

I had a bowl of chicken satay a long time ago in a restaurant and it was really delicious, but when I looked into making it myself I saw that the ingredient list was as long as my arm and was heavily based on fried onion and garlic. Not FODMAP friendly ingredients! However, I was sure that similar results could be attained by using fewer ingredients and after some tweaking I decided I was happy to write this version up for the website. I make this chicken satay all the time because it’s a great standby meal to have on-hand and requires so few ingredients. It also helps that most of the ingredients are long-lasting, so I always have them in my kitchen cupboards and fridge.

Traditionally, chicken satay is made with sweet chilli sauce, but every single one I’ve checked has contained garlic in one form or another, so that’s not going to work on a low FODMAP diet. However, a fellow fodmapper recommended Lingham’s Sweet Chilli Sauce to me because it doesn’t contain garlic and it works wonderfully. (It can be found in Tesco. Thanks, Jane!)

Chicken satay tends to be quite a sweet dish because the sauce is made with peanut butter, but the lime juice helps cut through the sweetness and adds a fresh dimension to the meal. It’s also nice to serve the chicken satay with a green vegetable on the side because it makes the sweetness less overpowering and adds variety and texture to the dish. I sometimes serve this chicken satay with either green beans or sesame broccoli (made by sauteing small florets of broccoli in 1 tbsp of hot sesame oil and adding 2 tbsps of sesame seeds before serving), but it’s delicious just as a substantial bowlful of chunky pieces of tender chicken that are encased in a rich, thick peanut satay sauce and served resting on a bed of fluffy white rice. Delicious!

Ingredients:

600g of skinless & boneless chicken thighs (cut into small pieces)

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsps sesame seeds

300g long grain rice

 

For the satay sauce:

170g crunchy peanut butter

100ml Lingham’s Sweet Chilli Sauce

4 tbsps lime juice (add more to taste)

Method:

Place a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the sesame oil, chicken pieces and sesame seeds. Cook until the chicken is done.

At the same time, cook your rice in salted water.

Add the sauce ingredients to the pan and stir until hot.

Drain your rice, portion into bowls, top with the chicken satay and serve.

Chicken Satay by The Fat Foodie

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Coconut Chana Masala (serves 6)

Coconut Chana Masala by The Fat Foodie

Coconut Chana Masala by The Fat Foodie

Chana masala is traditionally a chickpea curry that is normally quite dry, spicy and flavoured with citrus. This variant of a Happy Pear recipe however, uses coconut milk as its base which creates a saucier curry, but with no loss of flavour. Although I made mine without meat, on reflection, the addition of beef to the mix and then cooking the dish in a slow cooker throughout the day would make for a really tasty carnivorous meal at dinnertime.

This isn’t a particularly hot curry, but that’s entirely in your hands and depends on the amount of chilli you choose to add. A pot of natural yoghurt or crème fraîche on the dining table to help cool the palate is always welcomed by my partner when we eat curry. I tend to use brown chickpeas  (also known as Desi or Kala Chana) in my cooking for two reasons. 1.) I can get four tins of them in the Indian section of my local supermarket for £1. And 2.) Although they have a brown coloured skin, they are still yellow inside and have a much deeper, nuttier flavour than their popular yellow brother.

Chickpeas are a high FODMAP food in large quantities, particularly if you use dried ones, but if you buy the tinned variety and drain and rinse them well before using them in your recipe their FODMAP content is considerably lowered. As always though, use your own judgement as to what your own body and digestive system can tolerate.

I served the curry with poppadums because I felt that with the amount of vegetables in the dish it was unnecessary to include bulky rice, but you could accompany the curry with pilau rice, naan breads, or chapatis. I know the ingredients list is long, but it’s worth it. And if you have leftovers they’re fantastic the next day because all of the flavours have been marinating together overnight making for a richer, more complex, curry.

Ingredients:

1 large common tomato (diced)

1 tsp of asafoetida powder

2 carrots (cut lengthways then into 1/2 cm thick half moons)

100g green bell pepper (chopped into bite-sized pieces)

1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger (finely chopped or grated)

1 red chilli (finely chopped)

1 tbsp of vegetable oil

1 tbsp of cumin seeds

1 & 1/2 tsps of ground turmeric

2 tsps of curry powder or garam masala

1 tsp of ground coriander

1 tsp of ground cumin

2 tsps of paprika

1/4 tsp of ground pepper

3 cardamom pods (crushed under a knife so the casing splits)

1 cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

A 400ml tin of coconut milk

A pint of vegetable stock

200g of tinned chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

Salt (to taste)

The juice of 1/2 a lime

To serve (optional):

Fresh coriander (chopped)

Natural lactose-free yoghurt (or non-dairy version)

Rice

Method:

Prepare your ingredients as per the directions.

Place all of your spices together in a small bowl.

Pour the oil into a large pot and then fry the chilli and ginger for 5 mins on a medium heat, stirring regularly.

Add the spice mix and some salt and cook for a couple of mins.

Add in the tomatoes, carrots, green pepper, coconut milk and chickpeas and simmer for 15 mins (or longer on a low heat, if preferred, to encourage the flavours to marry).

If you feel the curry is too thick add in some vegetable stock. Taste to see if it requires more salt (mine needed quite a bit).

When you’re ready to serve the curry place it in bowls, scatter with fresh coriander and sprinkle with the lime juice.


Coconut Chana Masala by The Fat Foodie

Coconut Chana Masala by The Fat Foodie

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