I love a curry but sometimes I don’t have the time or inclination at the end of the day to really do it justice.

I always have curry paste as a cheat ingredient in my fridge which means a Friday night curry is a real and simple possibility without resorting to a ready meal or takeaway.

For my chicken and lentil curry, I use a madras curry paste. It’s a few minutes work and then it bubbles away for a while whilst I tackle the growing pile of laundry or collapse on the sofa!

OK, it might not be particularly authentic, but it is a hugely satisfying end to the week.

Don’t forget to double up the recipe so you have some for the freezer.

Serves 4

Ingredients	Equipment to have ready
1 tbsp vegetable oil	Chopping board
1/3 jar Pataks madras spice paste	Sharp knife
2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks (or swap the chicken for 4 turkey breast fillets)	Large casserole pan with a lid
400g tin tomatoes	Spoons
175g cooked yellow split peas
50g creamed coconut (from a block), roughly chopped
6 tbsp mango chutney (I like Geeta’s)

Method

1. Heat the oil on a medium heat in a large casserole pan.
2. Add the spice paste and cook out ,whilst stirring, for a few minutes until you see the oil separating from the paste.
3. Add the chicken and coat in the paste. Cook for a few minutes until the chicken starts to seal (turn white on the outsides).
4. Add the tomatoes and stir well to mix the paste into the tomatoes then pour in half a can of water and stir.
5. Stir through the lentils and put the lid on.
6. Bring to the boil and turn down the heat to low. Simmer for 45 minutes.
7. Remove the lid and stir through the creamed coconut so that it melts into the sauce.
8. Cook for 10 minutes with the lid off to allow the sauce to thicken a little then stir though the mango chutney before serving.