MINT SAUCE IN YOUR MID TWENTIES: THE FAKEAWAY SPECIAL

Is there anything more satisfying on a rainy weeknight than hopping into bed and ordering a curry? No.

Is my childless, mid-twenty lifestyle privilege showing? Possibly.

Welcome to Mint Sauce In Your Mid Twenties (if you missed the last installment, I’d suggest going back and reading it, if not for the recap, for the delicious Greek Lamb Burger recipe we whipped up) where we explore the place of lamb in the diet of millennials who love food but find cooking in this stage of life a bit of a minefield.

Now, back to curry in bed.

The only issue with ordering in a Korma for one (despite the extortionate delivery fee) is that the portions are HUGE and Indian restaurants (my preference) often pack their curries with enough cream to smother a thousand scones. RIP calorie intake.

In an effort to have my health and eat my curry too, I headed to recipes.co.nz on a drizzly Thursday afternoon to see if they could keep my waistline and tastebuds happy and hopefully be whipped up in time for the date with 6 hours of Gossip Girl I had planned. Low and behold: ‘’Coconut Lamb Rump Curry with Turmeric and Pumpkin’’. Cooked in under the time it would take for my local delivery driver to deliver a single Garlic Naan PLUS it included veges. Perfect.

Shopping basket in one hand, recipes.co.nz page open on my phone in the other, I started to think about the benefits of home cooking I’d discovered in this journey…

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·         Healthy swaps

Following a recipe doesn’t need to mean buying every ingredient listed word for word. I tend to sleep better without a belly full of basmati (as delicious as that is) so when shopping for my curry dinner accompaniment I swiped a bag of cauliflower rice instead. Ah, the beauty of the 21st century, no more hacking at a head of cauli to get a low carb alternative…

The same can be said for swapping regular coconut milk out for the ‘light’ option and avoiding the unnecessary cals with the same delicious taste!

·         Portion control

Along the same lines, this recipe serves 4 but I’m only cooking for 2 so with some quick shopping maths (halving the quantities listed) I can easily avoid wastage and keep my Tupperware clean for another day!

·         Hunting for specials

Is there anything more satisfying than getting something half price? You feel like you’ve won at life when the exact ingredient you need it on special – this is a weeknight high that food delivery simply doesn’t offer.

·         Seasonal shopping

The recipes.co.nz weekly email collates all the recipes that feature ingredients which are in season, so you don’t need to scour the website yourself BUT if something tickles your fancy, it’s easy enough to swap out something like asparagus for broccoli when you hit the shops and still get a delicious, almost identical result.

·         Lazy hacks

The recipe won’t judge you if you buy pre-chopped lamb rump and frozen pumpkin chunks. I’m not saying I did, I’m not saying I didn’t, all I’m saying is that the only thing I did cut during this recipe was 10 minutes off my prep time.

Back home and whipping up my cauli rice and light Coconut Lamb Rump Curry with Turmeric and Pumpkin Curry, it strikes me that this is another chill, ‘everyday’ way to enjoy lamb I’d never considered (ie: it doesn’t include three hours of roasting or Christmas dinner).

As with last week, a massive foodie revelation was made: coconut and lamb is a flavour match made in heaven. Luckily I can put those two ingredient into recipes.co.nz and fuel my obsession with many coconutty lamb recipes to come.

Two portions of Coconut Lamb Rump Curry served up less than 40 minutes from when I arrived home from the supermarket (thanks to my lazy shopping hacks), it even looked great so my flatmate was super impressed (spot her super instagrammable pic below)

Serving suggestion: in bed with your favourite trashy TV playing (obviously)

Ingredients: $27.60

Cost per serve: $13.50