CHICKPEA AND SWEET POTATO CURRY

Prep: 5 mins Cook: 40 mins Serves: Four

This wholesome curry is mild and fragrant, rather than hot and spicy, and is further lifted by the addition of sweet potato, meaning the whole family will love it. If you like more heat, feel free to ramp up the spice to suit your tastes, but I find this is the perfect balance that keeps everyone, from the spice-averse to the chilli-heads, more than happy.

Ingredients

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● low-calorie cooking spray

1 cup (115g) frozen chopped onions

1 tsp frozen chopped garlic 2 cups (300g) frozen sweet potato chunks

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp ground cumin

2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes

2 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 x 400g can reduced-fat coconut milk salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Spray a large saucepan with low-calorie cooking spray and place over a medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring continuously, for 2-3 minutes until soft.

2. Add the sweet potato chunks, curry powder and cumin and stir to combine, then add the chopped tomatoes, drained chickpeas, tomato puree and coconut milk and stir again. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and leave to cook for around 35 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender and the sauce has reduced and thickened slightly.

To serve

Once the curry is cooked, season to taste with salt and pepper, then serve with your choice of accompaniments.

To freeze

Once cooked, season the curry to taste, then set aside to cool to room temperature. Once cooled, ladle the curry into a large, labelled, freezer bag and freeze flat for up to three months.

To reheat from frozen

Remove the bag from the freezer and leave to completely defrost in the fridge, ideally overnight. Once defrosted, pour the contents into a large saucepan and place over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until piping hot all of the way through. Serve.

The corvid family of birds feature in myths and legends around the world with crows, ravens and magpies given special significance in many different cultures.

In Celtic mythology, crows and ravens are linked to the goddesses of death and war, possibly inspired by their tendency to feast on carrion in the gory aftermath of battles fought in the Middle Ages. A chilling account in The Anglo-saxon Chronicle of the battle of Brunanburh between England an alliance of the Scots and Irish in 937AD detailed how ravens had torn flesh from the bodies of dead soldiers. Early poetry talked of screaming ravens and the birds being “greedy for slaughter”. Banshees in Scots and Irish folklore also took the form of ravens. And if their call was heard over a house it was considered an omen of death on the people living there. But their part in mythology led to the majestic birds being persecuted almost to extinction in Britain by the early 20th Century. The birds have been protected by law since 1981.

But even between 2016 and 2018 more than 1,000 ravens were culled each year under a licensing system to protect other species such as upland waders.

Ravens are now recognised as one of the most intelligent species of bird, and modern-day superstition is now more associated with another bird from the corvid family – the magpie. Saluting a single magpie and the rhyme One for Sorrow are both part of a legacy linking the black and white birds to luck, either good or bad. Scottish folklore also has it that magpies have a drop of devil’s blood under their tongues and that their presence at a window meant death was not far behind. But science debunked one of the most commonly believed myths about magpies, that they steal shiny objects like rings and take them back to their nests. A study published by an Exeter University academic in 2015 found no evidence that magpies were attracted to shiny trinkets.