A few days ago, my house mate cooked up butter chicken with her slow cooker, it looked yummy and smelt sooooooo good!! That night,unfortunately, I had to satisfied with my boring looking stir-fried vegies with boiled eggs..  The next day, I tried to recreate the vegetarian version of the creamy-orange looking curry. I searched for vegetarian butter – chicken recipe to find out what’s in the sauce. Most recipes seemed pretty simple, and I can pretty find all the ingredients in the pantry. In the end, I made up my own recipe, inspired by all recipes I found. The end result was a huge pot full of smooth-mild curry, not as sweet as butter chicken curry sauce, but waaay better than any other curries I made in the past. That’s why I decided to post my recipe here. On the side, was jasmine rice, (I know, it’s supposed to be basmati rice, but I didn’t have any) cooked with 4 – 5 crushed cardamom pods.

I reduced the amount of peanut butter (1/4 cup into 1 tbsp) because I simply run out of it, I think the curry would be much creamier if I add more. I also downsized the amount of butter in the recipe, I don’t know why, but I tend to reduce any butter in every recipes I found. One more thing, instead of heavy cream, I used light sour cream.

In food processor, blend until smooth:

  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 tbsp curry powder (I used keens)
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • salt and peper
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 3 medium potatoes (boiled, to shorten cooking process)
  • 1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1 bunch of green beans
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream / sour cream / coconut milk / soy cream
  • 3 tbsp butter / margarine
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter (I used macro smooth peanut butter)
  • 1 tin diced tomatoes

melt 1 tbsp butter, and stir fry the onion mixture for 3-4 min

add tin tomatoes, stir and scrape the bottom of the pan to release some of the onion bits stuck on it, add peanut butter, bring to a boil.

throw in the vegies, add some hot water if its too thick, cook uncovered  for 10 min, season with salt and pepper.

turn of the stove, stir the rest of the butter / margarine, and stir in the cream.

Serve with rice or naan.