Thursday 14 November 2013

Eat Well For Less with Sainsburys - Winter Warming Vegetable Curry


There's no denying it, it's getting colder and that means I want our family meals to be be hearty and warming, keeping the whole family filled up and ready to brave the icy temperatures outside! We love a good curry and I find a  good old vegetable and lentil curry is a great way to feed the whole family a delicious meal on a budget. By combining tinned foods such as chopped tomatoes, lentils and chickpeas with fresh vegetables I can save cash without compromising on quality!


Being vegetarian, I buy a lot of fresh vegetables and find they can get rather costly, which is why I love the 'no frills' ranges in supermarkets. Sainsbury's Basics range offer great quality fruit and vegetables at fantastic prices, the only difference I find between these and the higher priced alternatives s that they may not be quite as appealing to the eye, but what does that matter when you chopping them all up anyway? Perfect for making curries or stews!



Sainsbury's challenged myself and some other lovely bloggers to create a a tasty meal using their basics range as the building blocks of simple, nutritious food.



The idea was to combine budget ingredients with more expensive ones to make a little go a lot further...




So off we went to Sainsbury's.



For less than £10 I purchased:



Sainsbury's taste the difference Sweet Potatoes (my luxury item!)



Basics Cauliflower



Basics Carrots



2 x loose onions



A large loose Red Pepper



2 x Basics chopped tomatoes



Sainsbury's tinned green lentils



Sainsbury's tinned chickpeas



A packet of Sainsburys Basmati Rice



2 x Sainsburys garlic and coriander Naan bread



Sainsbury's ground coriander



Sainsbury's fresh coriander 



(I had Garam Marsala mix and some other spices as well as mango chutney in the cupboard)  



I'd love to say I have some extravegant recipe to follow, but this is a really easy vegetable curry that I've been making since my student days and to be honest you pretty much chuck it all in!


  • Start by chopping up the vegetables
  • Then heat some oil in a pan, 
  • Add the chopped onion to soften, then add the red pepper
  • Add some Garam Marsala mix, corriander and any other spices required and stir in the lentils
  • Cook for a few minutes before adding the rest of the vegetables and stirring
  • Add in the chopped tomatoes
  • Cook for a few more minutes while stirring and add some water if required
  • Cover and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes on a medium heat stirring occasionally
  • Add some fresh coriander and season to taste...



Serve with basmati rice, Naan bread and Mango chutney!



Tada! 



So easy even a student could do it!



Watch it below...






This makes a great alternative to a takeaway too!

How do you live well for less? What is your secret 'budget' alternative?


Disclaimer: I was sent a £10 Sainsbury's voucher to take part in this challenge.



Check out some more great recipes here...

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11 comments:

  1. This looks great and so cheap, how many servings did you get out of it?? xx

    Kate H (NW Bloggers)

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  2. Sounds lovely. I do love a good curry, I've currently a chicken curry cooking in my slow cooker

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  3. thank you for the recipe - I'm trying to do more vegetarian cooking! Sounds simple & inexpensive!

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  4. It sounds lovely!

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  5. i LOVE curry! this sounds delish :)

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  6. WifeMumStudentBumFriday, November 15, 2013

    Yummy this sounds really gorgeous. I'm not a veggie but I would definitely give this one a try - love cooking good home-made winter warming food! x

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  7. Not a veggie but love vegetarian food - might just give this a whirl! I love Sweet Potatoes too!

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  8. This sounds lovely, I've never made veggie curry but I need to try it

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  9. I love the look of this and it's veggie too so I'm super happy and will definitely try it.

    Thanks very much for linking up with #recipeoftheweek. I've pinned this :) Also I've just put a fresh linky live for this week and would love you to join in.

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