Recipe: Cheesy Peasy Curry Toast

An opportunity to sample a few pots in Vini & Bal’s range of “rustic Indian curry sauces” provided a yummy answer to me wondering what to make for lunch this afternoon. Let’s see … I’ve got this jeera sauce … some wholegrain bread … some peas in the freezer … So I dug round the cupboards, went to the shop for some fresh coriander and paneer and came up with this cheap and cheesy little ditty: Cheesy Peasy Curry Toast.

Cheap and cheesy? Geez, this might become my signature recipe, especially considering how frickin’ easy it was to make and how tasty it turned out to be. Basically mutter panner on toast with some Cheddar umph added to the mix, my recipe relies heavily on Vini & Bal’s cook-in sauce to do most of the heavy lifting.

Lunch today was my first time to try a Vini & Bal’s product, and I’m impressed. The ingredients list for the jeera (and all the sauces) reads like home cooking – no additives or preservatives (it’s vegetarian and gluten-free too). So, shorter shelf life maybe but maximum yum without all any dextro-whatever crap.

Vin & Bal’s curry sauces are available at Sainsbury’s. Find out more at viniandbals.com.

CHEESY PEASY CURRY TOAST Yum

Ingredients (6 servings)

• 1 pot of Vini & Bal’s Jeera (300g);
• 1 pat of butter;
• 6 slices of bread for toasting;
• About a cup of frozen peas;
• 200 to 226g of paneer;
• About a cup of grated mature Cheddar;
• Juice from a lemon wedge;
• A handful of chopped fresh coriander;
• 2 or 3 chopped spring onions;
• Black pepper to taste.

Method

• Preheat your oven to 150ºC;
• Place a saucepan on a hob at low heat;
• Add a pat of butter to the pan;
• Once the butter has melted, pour in the jeera; give it a good stir;
• While the jeera is warming up, take half of the paneer and slice into thin strips;
• Cut the other half of the paneer into small cubes;
• Add the strips to the bread (about three strips per slice of bread);
• Sprinkle the Cheddar evenly across the bread;
• Place the bread in the oven and bake until the bread is toasty and the cheese has melted to your liking;
• Give the sauce a stir and mix in the peas and the cubed paneer; cook until it the paneer has just started to melt;
• Remove the toast from the over and scoop out even amounts of the sauce to pour over each piece of toast;
• Top each piece with fresh black pepper and a squirt of lemon;
• Garnish with fresh chopped coriander and spring onions.

Serving

Whether made to be a quick fix snack, sliced up as casual canapés, or prepared alongside a salad as a proper meal (I’m thinking of making this recipe again with some scrabbled eggs for breakfast), I reckon this spiced up take on cheese toast is an easy peasy lemon squeezy option worth keeping in mind.

Read more tikichris recipes.