Cauliflower, chick pea and spinach curry (kid friendly)

We’ve been eating lots of meat recently, too much. I really felt the need for a veg-packed dish with not a piece of flesh in sight. My kids will eat a curry, as long as it’s mild and creamy with a coconut sauce. They tend to deal with vegetables better when they are cooked till quite tender, so this curry has quite soft cauliflower, chick peas (which most kids, including mine quite like) and some spinach at the end. My kids have a rocky relationship with spinach. Sometimes they eat it, often they don’t. Fickle little fiends that they are! Does that mean I will stop serving it to them? Nope. They’ll keep getting spinach as long as I’m the one cooking. Yeah, baby! *sassy finger waving*

Because this is a mild curry (for chilli lovers, put some chopped raw chilli on top to serve, as in the pic), it needs the lime juice, which cuts through the creaminess. And it warrants generous seasoning too – just because the kids are eating it shouldn’t stop you seasoning with a salt. After all, homemade food has WAY less salt than pre-made sauces or ready meals.

I serve mine with simple boiled brown rice, which we eat a lot of. We’ve basically stopped eating white rice, as brown is so much healthier and the kids don’t know the difference. I actually prefer it. To cook brown rice: rinse rice, then add two parts water to one part rice, cover pan and bring to boil. Then simmer for about 30 minutes, until the water has all evaporated. I find a little almost half pint cup worth of rice is enough for 2 adults and 2 kids.

By the way, this is nice enough to have as part of a ‘curry night’ with your partner or friends, with a meat or fish curry and some naan bread etc.

Serves: 4
Prep time: 3 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 23 minutes

Ingredients: 
1 onion
1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2 tablespoons of coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1 small cauliflower
1 tin of chick peas
1 tin of coconut milk
125g spinach
1 lime, juice of
Pinch salt

To serve: 
Fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Fresh chilli, diced small
Brown rice

Instructions:

1. Soften the onion, garlic, ginger in oil for a few minutes. 
2. Add the spices to cook out for a minute more.
3. Now the cauliflower and chick peas. Add the coconut milk too. 
4. Let this lot come to the boil then simmer with lid on until the cauli’ is soft. Should take about 15 minutes. 
5. Lastly, add the spinach just before serving to wilt in the curry. Squeeze the juice of lime and season to taste with salt. Stir through some fresh coriander. 
6. Serve with brown rice and extra coriander and chilli for grown ups.