Ingredients:

1/2 butternut squash (£1.45) - 73p

1/2 culinary pumpkin (£1) - 50p

3 carrots - 33p

1 pointed pepper - 65p

1 purple sweet potato - £1

200g red lentils - £1

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Pantry ingredients:

Panko breadcrumbs

Curry sauce (using Golden Curry ~34p per cube or homemade* - trust me, it's actually very straightforward!!)

Rice

Cornflour

5-spice or other seasonings as preferred

Soy sauce

Butter

Flax seeds/ ground flax (optional)

Oil

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Garnish & optional extras:

Pickled daikon radish, pickled ginger, lao gan ma/ crispy chilli oil, crispy garlic, sesame seeds, spring onions & wasabi pumpkin seeds.

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TIP: you can use the other halves of the squash & pumpkin to make a simple soup- making two hearty meals with one set of ingredients!

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Brief Method:

• Slice and remove seeds from the butternut squash, peppers & peel carrots. Put in an oven tray until cooked. Depending on the size, you may prefer to dice the squash, slicing of the skin before or after cooking.

• Prepare your pumpkin - removing the seeds and stringy flesh.

• Slice and steam or boil. Once cooked, remove the skin - it should come off very easily. 

• Cook the lentils in the pumpkin water or prepare separately.

• Combine all ingredients and mash with a fork. For the pepper/ carrots, you may want to blend these separately. But ensure when combining the mixture retains texture- don’t blend the squash/ pumpkin! Season as preferred. I like using 5-spice!

• Put in the fridge for half an hour.

• Prepare your curry sauce in the meantime so it just needs heated through when ready to serve.

• Peel and slice your purple sweet potato into 1cm rounds.

• Prepare bowls for your croquettes - including a cornflour bowl, a panko breadcrumb bowl and a ‘wet’ mix, e.g. a flax egg.

• Take a spoon of the mixed veg, shape to a ball, flatten into the cornflour, lightly dip in the flax egg and then breadcrumb with the panko. 

• Repeat for as many 'croquettes' as needed and follow the same process for the sweet potato rounds. 

• Fry in oil, or add to an air-fryer. These can also be baked, but you will not get as golden a colour. Once each is fried, add to a tray in the oven to keep warm and continue crisping up.

• Once all are fried, prepare rice & garnishes. Heat the curry sauce.

• Serve & devour.

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* Homemade curry sauce for this katsu dish is surprisingly easy! I make mine somewhat on instinct now, but recipes like this are a great starting point:

https://hungryhealthyhappy.com/katsu-curry-sauce/

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