Lamb and Chickpea Balti

This is one that I have made a few times and even my ‘korma only’ son enjoys it. If you like it a bit hotter then you can add some chillis or hotter curry powder.

This picture shows it on the pan prior to serving for family dinner. The yoghurt mix could be drizzled onto the plate after serving for a more elegant look.

Check the slices carefully to see you have these in your kitchen. They are all good stock ingredients for cooking curries.

You can also replace the lamb with beef or chicken and it still works very well. Obviously meat alternatives can also be used.

In Slimming World parlance this counts as a ‘Free’ dish which means eat as much as you want with no need to worry about the consequences on your waistline.

It looks complex from the ingredient list but this is deceptively easy to make. Getting the fat of the lamb is the only slightly onerous task.

Ingredients:

• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 chopped onion (no need to chop finely)
• 2cm grated fresh ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp of curry powder (mild, medium or hot for your taste)
• 4 tbsp tomato purée
• 200g Passata
• Low calorie spray oil
• 700g lean lamb steaks with all visible fat removed and cut into bite size pieces
• 8 crushes cardamom pods
• 500ml chicken stock
• 3 red peppers deseeded and cut into large chucks
• 3 yellow peppers deseeded and cut into large chucks
• 400g can of chickpeas, drained
• 4 tbsp natural yoghurt

Method:

1. Blend the garlic, onion, ginger, ground spices, tomato purée and Passata in a food processor.
2. Spray a large lidded pan with oil and place over a medium heat.
3. Add the lamb and cardamom to the pan and brown the meat. The recipe said do this in batches but I did it in one go, stirring gently.
4. Add the spicy Passata mix and cook for five minutes, stirring gently.
5. Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours, checking occasionally to ensure it is not sticking to the pan bottom. (I have stopped at this step and then left to complete later. This means you could prepare to this point of an evening and finish the following day. It should enhance the flavour)
6. Add the peppers and chickpeas and cook for a further half an hour or until the peppers are tender.
7. Mix the yoghurt with 3 tbsp of water and drizzle over the curry.

I am going to add a further post including some starters with side dishes and a mushroom pilau rice.