A little taster of what's cooking...
Yet another way to save on food waste… The Tastesmiths team are known for their veg consumption, we love it, so much so that we always prepare too much!
For this example, we used our Goan Fish/Prawn Curry Kit but tagged in a whole load of tasty veggies we had left from a Sunday dinner.
Even if you’re not over-cookers like us, this is a great curry to roast some veg specifically for…
We took inspiration for our veggie tray from Wicked Kitchen’s Vegetable Centerpiece on youtube, then took it a step further by doing what we do best and upcycling it into a curry, those roasted onions were a revelation!!
This cracking curry is super easy. Follow your Goan Kit’s instructions as normal, then after you’ve added your tomatoes, slide that veg into the mix.
For best results simmer your curry on a low heat for an hour, or prepare the day before and rest overnight to allow the curry’s flavours to really get into those veggies.
Potatoes, carrots, parsnips and broccoli all work well, add peas cauliflower or whatever you have laying around the pantry to fill the dish out.
We have a full ‘walk through’ of this dish over on TikTok, click the image below if you’d like to give it a watch, if you give it a go make sure and tag us “@Tastesmiths” on social media, we love seeing your creations, almost as much as we love eating ours and each month we pick a ‘Home Cook Hero’ from the tagged submissions who’ll win a substantial prize bundle!
In the UK, 6.7 million tonnes of food is wasted per year which totals to costs of £10.2 billion!
We’re not going to use this space to discuss food waste any further, if you’d like to read more, click here.
Below we’ll show you a great way to repurpose and reinvigorate some potentially wasted food this festive period!
The method is super easy, follow your included Balti Masala instructions as normal (we skipped the blending section for this example).
Mix your leftovers into the sauce at the ‘add the meat or veg’ stage, and stir it all together.
Most important when working with leftover food – leave it to simmer on a very low heat for as long as your patience allows (an hour would be perfect). If you have time – cook the day before and rest overnight – to really get those flavours into your meat and veg!
We were pushing our luck with those stuffing balls, but they came out beautifully (there were some sceptics in the team)!
There’s also a little cook through of this dish over on our TikTok if you’d like to see the stages, click the image above, or here to see it.
We’ve pulled together a collection of festive sides to compliment our curry kits this Christmas, whether you’re putting on a spread of Goan delights for a family visit, or filling out the table for that boxing day left-over Tikka Masala!
Click the images or the titles to head over to the full recipe!
“This typically coastal Indian speciality is a unique dish that requires some specific ingredients. Steamed spongy rice cakes, sanna are made with fresh coconut and Goan toddy, the sap collected from the bud of palm tree flowers. The batter needs to ferment for several hours and then is steamed in individual moulds. Sanna are eaten on their own, as well as with curries and stir-fries.”
“Although this malai kofta recipe does take some time to prepare, it is the ideal dish if you have vegetarians at your Christmas dinner table—but is also so delicious, even the meat-eaters will be asking for more. Cooked potatoes are mashed along with a mixture of vegetables, paneer (cheese), heavy cream, and traditional spices to form a dough. The dough is formed into balls, stuffed with nuts and raisins, and deep-fried before simmering in a rich gravy.”
“This dish is ideal for those who have a sensitive palate or who prefer a more mild-tasting dish; it is also a nice accompaniment to spicy and rich recipes as it will not compete. Palak paneer is a type of cheese, somewhat similar in texture to tofu. It is a perfect match for healthy spinach, fenugreek leaves, and tomatoes that are mashed until soft and seasoned with typical Indian spices.”
“Meera Sodha’s easy Peshwari Roti make a delicious accompaniment to any Indian meal. This easy to follow recipe produces sweet and savoury stuffed bread, that can be made very quickly. A must for curry lovers.”
“My take on an egg fry is a quick and simple fix when you have sudden unexpected guests at home. All you need to do is to halve hard-boiled eggs, lightly coat them with marinade and shallow fry. It can be served as a starter or as a side dish for rice. This egg fry is super spicy with flavours of red chilli powder, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom.”
“Make eggless, light, fluffy & Soft Pav Bread at home with all tips & tricks. Nothing can beat freshly made homemade Ladi Pav & once you start making your own pavs, you will stop buying buns from the market.”
After a Polish friend of ours introduced us to Pierogi, the cogs in our minds started whirring…
Pierogi are a traditional Polish dumpling found throughout Central & Eastern Europe. A lovely light dough that is super easy to make serves as a platform to deliver either sweet or savoury fillings.
In this example, we decided to fill our dumplings with a veggie Rogan Josh, we chose to finely chop the veg so it filled the pierogi nicely, otherwise, we followed the usual instructions for the kit, simmered it for an extra ten minutes to reduce the liquid.
These make a wonderful side, a portable snack for lunch or main meal.
What You Need
How To Do It
As always, we’d love to see them if you give them a go!
We’ve pulled together a selection of our favourite side dishes, sourced from customers, industry friends and the team here at Tastesmiths.
These dishes are perfect as a little accompaniment to a couples curry, family meals, or table fillers for a larger spread when hosting. Click the title of each dish to head over to the full recipe!
Let us know your favourites, or how you find these, over on our social channels.
“Everyone’s favourite takeaway staple and turned it into a warming pie that’s perfect for dinner and even better for leftovers the very next day.”
“Dal Shorba is a healthy and light soup/shorba made with yellow moong dal and spiced with dry ginger powder and pepper powder that gives it that powerful punch of spice, topped with lemon juice.”
“Vegetable pakoras are delicious, tasty and a great starter to any Indian dinner party.”
“Pureed spinach leaves cooked tender with added zests and cream.”
“These tandoori cauliflowers make for a filling and flavour-packed vegetarian dish. Who said vegetables had to be boring?”
“Kadhi is a popular north Indian dish, made with besan and yoghurt as main ingredients along with various spices with gram flour pakodas dipped in it. A popular lunch recipe across all Indian households!”
“Dr. Sam Prince’s sumptuous cauliflower dish is part of his mission to re-invigorate Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine, and these crispy florets go amazingly with the richly spiced dip.”
“This recipe is great served alongside an Indian banquet or on its own as a light and easy mid-week meal.”
Our Khoresh is the perfect autumn/winter dish. Hearty, filling, warming you from within on those cold days.
Great with meat or veggies, our personal favourite is sweet potato, carrots, aubergine and courgettes.
If you’re going all out, this is what you need to pair with it!
“Sabzi Polo is a staple on the Persian New Year’s table. It’s made with basmati rice and layers of fresh herbs, but what is most coveted is the tahdig—the crunchy crust that forms on the bottom of the pot during cooking.”
We’ve seen many methods and ingredients to create this dish, this is our simplified take on it!
What You’ll Need for 3-4 portions:
How To Do It:
Who knew marrows were so tasty? We did not, now we’re bingeing on these giant squashes at every opportunity, this simple recipe gives our Dhal Kit a new platform, in both presentation and flavour profile!
Better yet, it’s super simple, terrifically tasty, and fabulously filling.
Let us know if you give this a try, we’d love to see your version!
Shop our Dhal Kit, here.
In its June 2021 report on Obesity & Overweight, the World Health Organisation states that “the food industry can play a significant role in promoting healthy diets by reducing the fat, sugar and salt content of processed foods”.⠀
With our kits, you cook from scratch, with hand-picked fresh herbs and spices; that we’ve selected for their quality.
There’s no salt or sugar in them as standard.⠀
Also: no ‘E’ Numbers, no preservatives, no added colours.
Furthermore, in their April 2020 ‘Eating Healthy’ guide the World Health Organisation state:
‘An adult’s healthy diet includes the following:
With a Tastesmiths curry or marinade, you have complete control over your meal, so they’re super easy to build healthily.
👉🏼 Tried adding some beans or chickpeas to your chicken Makhani?
👉🏼 How about subbing out your white rice for brown, or a side of cauliflower and broccoli.
👉🏼 We add no sugar to our kits.
👉🏼 Saturated fats and trans-fats can be minimised by mixing beef portion in your Madras a portion with vegetables, such as green beans or courgettes!
👉🏼 There are no industrial-produced trans-fats anywhere in our range 🤓
👉🏼 We add no salt to our kits either.
We’ve linked both reports below, and would love to hear your tips and suggestions for healthy eating!
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet
If you’re inclined to scratch cook a curry, and if you’re shopping with us we’ll assume you are, you’ll probably find a shop-bought-naan a little underwhelming, and anti-climatic. This recipe is easy, loads easier than it looks, and ends up with plump fluffy naans which soak sauce superbly.
It looks like quite a few steps, but essentially you’re about to mix two bowls of stuff, then mix those, waiting a bit, then applying some heat to your naans…
What You Need…
What You Do…
In a bowl mix:
In a large bowl add
Add the flour mixture to the yoghurt mixture and stir well, this will produce a very soft, sticky dough.
Make sure that you’ve gathered together all of the flour at the bottom of the bowl and then cover the dough with a sheet of cling film and rest for 30 minutes.
After half an hour, pour 1 tblsp of any oil on to your work surface and rub it out to the size of a dinner plate.
Tip the sticky dough on to the oil and roughly knead the dough into a ball. This should take around 10 seconds and then put back in the bowl, cover with cling film and leave for an hour.
After an hour, lightly flour the worktop and place the dough on it. Pat it into a circle and cut it into 6 pieces.
You already roughly have your classic naan teardrop shape. Put the oven on to 200C/180C fan/390F.
Melt a large knob of butter/4tblsp oil (or a mixture of the two) in a small pan and grate 1 clove of garlic into it, along with a handful of chopped coriander (if you like it)
When the butter has melted, turn the heat off and leave the flavours to infuse while you cook the naan.
Put a large frying pan on medium heat, don’t add any oil to the pan.
When the pan is hot, roll out the first of your triangles to around 1cm thick using extra flour to stop them from sticking.
Stretch the triangle as you place it on the hot frying pan. Brush some of the garlic butter onto the top of the naan as it’s cooking. Soon you will see little bubbles appearing on the surface.
Keep an eye on the underside of the naan so that you can take it out when it’s starting to brown.
Using a spatula/fish slice take the naan from the pan and place it on to the racks in the oven. This will finish off cooking the top while you get on with the next naan.
Repeat the process until the dough has been used up. Keep a close eye on the naan in the oven and take them out if they start to get brown.
They soak up the sauce perfectly and taste wonderful. Give them a go with your favourite curry and let us know how you find them!
On the beautiful west coast of India, Goan food makes the most of what is freely available there—coconut and fish!
But what if fish curry isn’t for you? As ever, our flexible kits have you covered!
Chicken & Paneer
Not a fan of fish? No need to miss out on this fresh-tasting curry! As with all our kits, the protein you add is entirely down to you. There’s an old wives tale that chicken goes with everything, we’re not one to argue! For an extra treat cube some paneer into this indulgent fakeaway at the final stages.
Monkfish Cheeks
A customer favourite that really compliments the blend of spices in our fish curry! The mild sweet nature of monkfish fits our Goan Fish/Prawn Curry incredibly well, we recommend pan-frying the cheeks until lightly browned before adding to your curry. These will really benefit from sitting overnight to maximise the flavours they absorb if you have time.
Salmon & Prawn
The classic fish curry combo! Either of these alone makes for a wonderful curry, but we like to mix the textures of the firm, juicy prawns with the soft flakes of the salmon. For best results follow the step by step instructions included on the kit to achieve that authentic taste of Goan beach life!
Cauliflower
Vegan, vegetarian, beautiful with veggies! Low in calories and super tasty, cauliflower is a great base for any curry, but we find it works especially well with our Goan. Either pre-cook your veg and add to pan when your tomatoes go in or pop your cauli’ pieces in after you’ve browned your onions and simmer until they are fork-tender.