Fragrant Red Thai Vegetable Curry With Brown Rice

Rinse your brown rice, add it to a pot with plenty of cold water and bring to the boil over a high heat

Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 20-25 min or until it's tender with a slight bite

Once cooked, drain, return it to the pot and keep covered until serving

Peel and finely slice your brown onion[s]

Peel (scrape the skin off with a teaspoon) and finely chop (or grate) your ginger

Peel and finely chop (or grate) your garlic

Deseed your pepper[s] (scrape the seeds and pith out with a teaspoon) and chop into thin strips

Add your butternut squash cubes to a heatproof bowl

Cover the bowl with cling film and pierce a few holes in the top

Put the bowl in the microwave and cook for 3-4 min or until the squash is fork-tender

Heat a large, wide-based pan (preferably non-stick) with a generous drizzle of your vegetable oil over a medium heat

Add your sliced onion to the pan and cook for 2-3 min, or until starting to soften

Once the onion has softened, add your chopped pepper to the pan and cook for 2-3 min further or until starting to soften

Boil half a kettle

Chop your creamed coconut roughly (if required!)

Dissolve the chopped creamed coconut and your vegetable stock mix in 250ml [325ml] [425ml] boiled water

Add your soy sauce and a pinch of sugar – this is your coconut stock

Cut your lime[s] in half

Add your red Thai curry paste to the pan with the chopped ginger, chopped garlic and your ground paprika and cook for 1 min or until fragrant

Add the coconut stock and your sweet pea pods to the pan and cook, covered, for 5 min or until starting to thicken

Add the cooked butternut squash to the pan and cook, uncovered, for a final 3-4 min, or until the sauce has thickened and the sweet pea pods has slightly softened

Remove from the heat, add the juice of half the lime[s] – this is your fragrant red Thai vegetable curry