Recipe: Super easy leftover Christmas turkey curry

It’s Boxing Day, everyone’s still stuffed from the unapologetic gluttony of the Christmas Day pig out and there’s still a mountain of leftover turkey to use up.

Turkey curry is a British staple in the days after Christmas. The beauty of this recipe is that the sauce can be made and frozen well in advance of the mad final dash before the big day for minimal stress later on.

Whenever you fancy knocking up a quick and easy meal, all you need to do is defrost the rich, spicy curry sauce, toss in that surplus turkey meat and enjoy.

See also: 5 tips from dairy farmers for reducing costs

Cashew Nut Curry

Serves 6-8

Ingredients 

• 6 cloves of garlic, minced 
• 50g ginger, grated or finely chopped 
• 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp of chilli powder
• 1 tsp of ground coriander 
• 1 tsp of ground cumin
• 1 tsp of garam masala 
• 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
• 100g cashew nuts (or ground almonds) 
• 2 tsp of salt
• Leftover turkey
• 50ml coconut cream / double cream 

© Seasoned Cookery School

Method

1. Prepare your ginger and garlic and get all of your ingredients out – when you start cooking, the heat of the pan can quickly burn the spices if you aren’t prepared. 

2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large heavy-based saucepan. Fry off the ginger and garlic until it is fragrant (you don’t want it to start taking on colour). Add the spices and stir for 30 seconds, being careful that they don’t burn.  

3. Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer. 

4. While the sauce is simmering, blend the cashew nuts to a fine paste (you can add a little water to help this if you like). If you feel like cheating, you can substitute for ground almonds or a nut butter.

5. Add the ground nuts and salt and simmer for 15 minutes until rich in colour and taste. 

6. Either remove from the heat and cool at this stage or add the leftover turkey, ensuring that the meat is piping hot before serving. 

7. Finish with coconut cream or double cream if eating straight away and enjoy with fluffy basmati rice and your favourite accompaniments.