Home-cooked curry in a hurry?

[bakedpotatoforlunch]

Looking for some tasty, tried and tested home recipes for tea time/evening "curry in a hurry" with basic ingredients for family of six including veggy option for two of us.

I'd love to be able to throw something together and present something delicious if possible!

Curry paste, tin of tomatoes and whatever veg and/or meat you want.

Pataks curry pastes are nice but Asda balti paste is tasty too.

Jamie O does a good generic family curry sauce with lots of veg and chickpeas whizzed up. I batch cook it and freeze, then fry up panner etc or roast cauliflower and add at last min.

Jamie's family friendly curry sauce on Tesco website.

Meera Sodha's 20 minute fish curry is good!

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Peel and boil carrots and potatoes, and whatever else veg you have. Fry onions and peppers in oil.

Add curry powder and some flour to the onion pan and dry fry. Add any of the following at the same time; coriander, cumin, turmeric, garam masala.

Add the drained boiled veg. Dry fry for a few mins. Add some tomato puree and some stock or water. Let that boil off, thickening up and salt to taste.

You can serve as soon as it is seasoned and thick enough. I usually put rice on then and serve in 15 mins.

I learnt this in the 80s and although I've developed into more technical curries, if needs be this one does the job in the shortest amount of time.

Fish, or prawn curry will be quickest to cook although not the cheapest option.
Or just cook a basic vegetable curry of some kind plus some dhal for protein.
Saute onions, garlic, ginger and chillies in oil, (buy frozen chopped onions, pureed frozen garlic and ginger for ultra speediness) add prepared vegetables like potatoes, carrots, frozen green beans/peas, some good curry paste, a tin of tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes till the vegetables are done.

You could also add some creamed coconut if you have some.
Serve with rice and/or Indian breads (the latter ready made)
.

Blend onions, tomatoes, ginger & garlic (I make a large batch and store in my freezer and use when I need for a quick curry)
Let it cook for a bit then depending on how spicy and spiced you want the curry - 1-4 tsps each of garam masala, curry powder, chilli powder. That’s your base then add whatever meat or veg.

This is fantastic. I'm feeling inspired (and hungry) already! Please do keep ideas rolling in. I'm taking notes of them all!

The Curry Guy has many quick recipes. Prepare and freeze a base sauce first.
https://greatcurryrecipes.net/category/base-sauce/

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/prawn-curry-hurry

You can adapt it to veg

This one is nice -

https://chetnamakan.co.uk/chickpea-paneer-masala-rice/

Mindful Chef curry recipes are great, there are a few on their website, for example
https://www.mindfulchef.com/healthy-recipes/speedy-pasanda-chicken-curry

I cook my protein (chicken or quorn), add onions, peppers, mushrooms and a tablespoon of curry paste. Add a carton of passata, then near the end of cooking time a tin of coconut milk...... yummy

I second taking the time to make a base curry sauce, makes throwing together a midweek restaurant quality curry so easy! I also make batches of chicken tikka for the freezer and freeze in portions too so it's even quicker.

I think OP is too polite to query some suggestions, but I'm not !
Giving a list of spices and or pastes, but with no quantities per person, is not very helpful. Unless you grew up in a curry-eating household, you would not instinctively know how much to use.

I make curries from scratch, but I still have to follow recipes. I like the "3 Sisters" books

This curry paste is the best I've tried:

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/the-spice-tailor-butter-chicken-curry-paste-125g

For a quick tea I cook frozen chopped onions and a couple of grated carrots in a knob of butter, then add cubed chicken and the curry paste, plus a bit of water and let it all simmer until everything is cooked. Sometimes I add in spinach or other greens.

I would think the OP knows the weights of vegetables she will need for a recipe to feed her family of six. As for pastes etc I have always found the instructions on the side of the jar to be useful.