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This healthy chicken & lime curry is easy to make and jam-packed full of flavour from the homemade curry paste. It’s low in calories and more than 3 of your 5-a-day, great if you’re on a diet or the perfect excuse for an extra naan bread and onion bhaji!

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This is one of those perfectly timed recipes where I decided a little while ago that I fancied coming up with a new curry recipe and by luck it was ready just in time for National Curry Week (10th-16th October 2016). Sadly my luck ran out with the timing, as I was hoping that I’d accidentally come up with something I could give a better name to than just curry (doesn’t it sound fancier to call it a chicken & lime jalfrezi or bhuna?). I was very tempted to just pick the closest match from the descriptions I found from a bit of googling but decided that it was cheating, so curry it is. If I had to choose I’d say it was a bit like a balti (but doesn’t have the tomatoes) or a dopiaza (but I only cooked the onions one way).

Whilst it’s a bit annoying not to be able to give this a proper name, I love the fact that I wasn’t constrained in which ingredients I should or shouldn’t use or how it should be cooked. It’s great to be able to just focus on the flavour and I’ve had so much fun over the last few weeks tweaking the recipe, adding things, taking them away – it’s what I love about what I do 🙂

The aim of the curry was to be full of flavour and to be healthy (full of veg and low in calories as we’re on a bit of a diet at the moment, although Jon is doing so much better than me – someone send me some willpower please!) and this one absolutely fits the bill. I made my own curry paste (which might sound fancy but actually means bashing together a load of stuff in a pestle and mortar – a great stress reliever if you need one!). The paste is mostly made from store cupboard ingredients with the addition of garlic, ginger and chilli. I’ve recently discovered frozen ginger and it’s perfect for things like this. In the past I’ve bought a lump of ginger root, used a little square and then found the rest lurking at the back of the fridge looking worse for wear a bit later. Using frozen ginger root means I have it when I need it, don’t have any waste, and once it’s bashed up into a paste you wouldn’t know it wasn’t fresh.

If you’re after other low calorie recipe inspiration then take a look at my index of delicious dinners with under 500 calories.

Chicken & Lime Curry

Active Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Serves 2 (could easily serve 3 with a little extra rice)

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 onions
• 1 red pepper
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 lime (zest)
• 300ml passata
• 200ml water
• Pinch of salt

For the marinade

• 1 lime (juice)
• 1 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp hot chilli powder

For the curry paste

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1″ cube of ginger
• 1 green chilli (add more or less depending on how spicy you like it, 1 makes it a medium heat)
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp fenugreek
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp tomato purée

Method

Marinate the chicken

1. Chop the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and place into a large bowl.
2. Add the lime juice (1 lime), hot chilli powder (½ tsp) and paprika (1 tsp).
3. Cover with cling film and leave to marinate while you prepare the rest of the curry.

Make the curry paste

1. Place the curry paste ingredients into a pestle and mortar (2 cloves garlic, 1″ cube ginger, 1 green chilli (stalk removed), 1 tbsp ground coriander, 1 tsp fenugreek, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tbsp tomato purée) and bash until there are no large lumps.

Cook the sauce

1. Slice the onions and roughly chop the red pepper into bite-sized chunks.
2. Heat the olive oil (2 tsp) in a large saucepan. Once hot turn the heat down to low-medium and add the onions and cook for 15-20 minutes until soft and starting to brown. Stir them regularly to ensure they don’t burn.
3. Add the cumin seeds and cook for 1 minute.
4. Add the red pepper, lime zest (1 lime), curry paste, passata (300ml) and water (200ml) and simmer for 20 minutes while the sauce thickens. Stir occasionally. Season with salt to taste.

Cook the chicken

1. About 5 minutes before the sauce is cooked, cook the chicken. Heat a frying pan, add the chicken and cook for c. 5 minutes until it is piping hot all the way through. Turn it during cooking to ensure it cooks evenly.
2. Once the chicken and sauce are cooked, stir the chicken into the sauce and serve. I like mine with rice or chapatis.

This is the estimated nutritional information per serving (excludes additional salt added during cooking and side dishes such as rice or chapatis). Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you want to learn more about how this is calculated.

Free From/Suitable For…

• Gluten-Free
• Corn-Free
• Dairy-Free
• Egg-Free
• Nut-Free
• Soy-Free

The ingredients for this recipe are easily available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.

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I’m sharing this recipe with the following blog challenge… #CookBlogShare with Hijacked By Twins, #FreeFromFridays with  Free From Farmhouse and Le Coin De Mel and #TheFoodCalendar for National Curry Week.