My Easy-Peasy Jamaican-Style Meatball Curry with Rice & Peas
I accepted the ‘Hungry to Happy’ challenge to make a quick, but tasty, family meal using Richmond’s Mini Meatballs, and here’s my creation!
This girl decided to go back to her roots, (well one side of them!) and put a modern twist on a Caribbean classic, Jamaican potato curry with rice and peas, using Mini Meatballs!
Traditionally this curry would be slow cooked for 3 hours, but that isn’t helpful after you’ve spent a long day at work, but still want your children to have a decent, home-cooked meal!
So I’ve taken parts of the classic recipe and added some special shortcuts to speed it up, including using already-chopped frozen veg/potatoes and using meatballs that only take 8 minutes to cook!
I’ve also changed some of the ingredients to make it toddler and child-friendly (e.g. swapping red wine vinegar for balsamic vinegar and using Heinz baby vegetable stock instead of regular stock).
Here’s the recipe… enjoy!
Jamaican Meatball Curry Recipe
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Curry Ingredients:
Half a pack of Richmond’s Mini Meatballs
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced or use frozen packet
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp ginger (powder)
1 tbsp thyme
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp Reggae Reggae Sauce
Half can of coconut milk (200ml)
500ml Passata
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
Sprinkle of mild chilli powder to taste
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large sweet/white potatoes cut into 2cm pieces (or can buy already peeled)
Frozen red and green peppers (already chopped)
Heat a little of the oil in a frying pan, and then add the Mini Meatballs. Brown these off on a medium heat and then put aside.
Heat the rest of the oil in a large pot on the hob, and add the onion, garlic, peppers and ginger. Cook this for 5 minutes before stirring in the thyme, balsamic vinegar, Reggae Reggae sauce, coconut milk, passata, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sugar and the chilli powder.
Bring the mixture to a simmer, and then add the meatballs and potatoes. Add enough water to cover the potatoes, then put the lid on and cook on a medium heat for 25 minutes.
If you want the sauce to thicken, leave it to cool for a little while before serving.
Rice & Peas Recipe
Rice & Peas Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced or use frozen
400g basmati rice
Half a can of coconut milk (200ml)
600ml baby-friendly vegetable stock
1 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp thyme
400g tin of black-eyed peas
Sprinkle of mild chilli powder
Black pepper to taste
Heat the oil on a medium heat in a frying pan, then add the onion and cook this for 5 minutes. Add the rice, coconut milk, veg stock, ginger, thyme, black-eyed peas and chilli powder.
Bring the mixture to the boil, and then reduce the heat to low. Cover with a lid and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the liquid has evaporated.
Season with pepper to taste, and then serve!
This post is an entry for BritMums’ Hungry to Happy Challenge sponsored by Richmond Mini Meatballs.
5 Comments
pinkoddy
12th June 2013 at 5:47 pm
That looks very tasty and my husband would welcome it, My picky children I'm not so sure though. Thank you for sharing – I may give it a whirl.
kateonthinice
24th June 2013 at 1:27 pm
Tasty and interesting. Commenting for myself and on behalf of BritMums and thanking you for taking part
Tracy Nixon
2nd July 2014 at 4:43 am
This sounds delicious thank you!
Claire
4th July 2014 at 9:23 pm
It's such a gorgeous recipe, I've not done it for a while so need to start cooking again!
Tracy Nixon
8th July 2014 at 4:41 am
I followed this recipe and it was really tasty! Thank you!