Wobble-Less Wednesday - Chicken Tikka Masala

The one thing I hate about changing up my eating habits is that I suddenly start craving everything naughty - pizza, pasta, takeaway. So I'm on a mission to make take away options the healthy way :)

My favourite take away choice is Indian, especially the creamy Tikka Masala, but with a minimum calorie of 650 without rice, I needed to find a way of cleaning it up.

Normally I would use a jar of paste, instead I made my own paste - it was super easy and it made a jar of paste that I could use again.

I used 100g of chicken, and 60g of brown rice per person.

For the paste you will need:

2 cloves garlic
1 thumb-sized piece fresh root ginger
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons garam masala
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons groundnut oil
2 tablespoons tomato puree
2 fresh red chillies
1 small bunch fresh coriander
1 tablespoon desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons ground almonds

First, peel the garlic and chop, before toasting in a dry pan with the sliced ginger until it browns. Then add to a blender and grind to a powder. Then throw in the rest of the ingredients and blend into a paste (easy!)

Next cook off your chicken chunks, and then mix with two tablespoons of the paste in the pan. To make it creamy I added one tablespoon of half fat crème fraiche but you could use plain yoghurt, or just have it with the paste only. Mix in some spinach and you have a yummy tikka.

I used brown rice to keep the calories down and help fill up. With rice this roughly comes out at about 500 calories, but it’s much cleaner and healthier than a take away.

This was so easy and yummy, plus I've now got a jar of paste to use for other meals - hint, mix the paste with chicken before grilling on a griddle for a lush salad topper.

What do you think? A better alternative to take away thats for sure, plus a load cheaper as well!! xx