Our student intern, Florence, was inspired to make this sweet potato and black bean satay curry when walking around our Plymouth warehouse and seeing huge tubs of surplus peanut butter.

The recipe:

• Serves 4
• Vegan
• 2 of your 5 a day

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable/ olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped/ grated
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 5 tbsp of peanut butter (I used crunchy)
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-2cm pieces (about 600g)
• 1 x 400 tin of coconut milk
• 1 x 400 tin black beans, drained and rinsed
• 200g bag of baby spinach, torn into shreds
• A handful of peanuts to sprinkle on top (optional)
• Can be served with rice and/or naan bread

You will need:

• Measuring spoons
• A sharp knife
• A vegetable peeler
• A sieve
• A medium-large lidded saucepan
• A fine grater (optional)

What to do:

1. Heat the oil over a low-medium in the saucepan then add the onion. Cook for 5-10 minutes until softened. Add the garlic, chilli and ginger and cook for a further 2 minutes. 
2. Add the cumin, coriander and garam masala and cook for a further minute before adding in the peanut butter, sweet potato, coconut milk and black beans. Turn the heat up and bring to the boil then lower the heat, cover with a lid or two pieces of foil if you don’t have a lid and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the sweet potato is cooked through. 
3. Add the spinach and cook until it has completely wilted.  
4. The curry is now ready to serve! You can sprinkle with peanuts if desired and serve with naan breads and rice.  

Nutrition per portion without rice and naan bread: 

Energy	Fat	Saturated fat	Carbohydrate	Sugars	Fibre	Protein	Salt
465Kcal	24.6g	9.9g	48g	14.1g	10.9g	13.9g	0.6g

Tips for the recipe:

1. A grater is useful if you have one to grate garlic and ginger and the ginger doesn’t need to be peeled if you do this. If you don’t have a grater then that is ok as finely chopping with a knife will work just as well. 
2. If you have lots of ginger, then you can cut it into portion sized chunks (no need to peel) and freeze. Then when you are ready you can grate/chop this straight into your dish. Chillies can also be frozen whole or pre chopped. 
3. The seeds and the white membrane hold a lot of the heat in a fresh chilli so depending on your preference, you can leave them in for a hotter curry or deseed it if you prefer it milder. 
4. Don’t worry if you don’t have all or any of these spices. You can use what you have such as chilli powder or chilli flakes or you can leave them out entirely all depending on what ingredients you already have and if you are cooking for children. 
5. Leftovers can be stored for 3-4 days in the fridge, or they can be portioned into freezer suitable containers and frozen for up to three months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and then reheat until piping hot all the way through. 

Easy swaps:

1. As we are in October, you can use any vegetables currently in season in place of the sweet potato and spinach such as: 

• Pumpkin, butternut squash, winter squash, turnip and parsnips can all be added at the same time you would the sweet potato in step 2. 
• Cauliflower and broccoli take less time to cook so they can be added in 5-10 minutes before the end of cooking time. 
• Kale can be shredded and added five minutes before the end of cooking time. 

2. I have used crunchy peanut butter for this recipe just to give it a bit of extra texture, but you can always use smooth and sprinkle peanuts on at the end. 

3. The black beans can be replaced for any beans you have such as: kidney beans, butterbeans, cannellini beans etc. 

Three more ways to use up your peanut butter:

1. Drizzled on top of porridge, pancakes or over Greek yogurt. 
2. As a dip for slices of apple, bananas or strawberries as well as breadsticks or spread on top of oatcakes/crackers. 
3. It can also be added to smoothies along with Greek yogurt, milk, oats and fruit for a balanced and satisfying light meal/snack.