Our House of Spice – an authenic Indian masala curry spice blend with a medium spiced tomato and onion sauce.
I absolutely love spicy food; not too spicy that you can’t taste the flavours in the dish, but spicy enough to get those taste buds going and warm up the cockles on a cold, windy Shetland day.
Cumin and coriander are two of my favourite spices, and I use them liberally in many of my dishes. My experience with Indian cuisine is somewhat limited. Ready made sauces in the shops don’t have a powerful enough kick, and all the thickeners and additives put me off trying many brands. Spice wasn’t something particularly used in my childhood meals, so I’ve no experience to fall back on – my own blends can be somewhat of a hit or miss, as my taste testing family can attest to!
Our House of Spice comes to the rescue!
I received this gorgeous little sachet of spices in the post this week from Cambridge-based small business Our House of Spice. What immediately struck me about this packet was its simplicity. Simple, quality herbs and spices with a handy little recipe included on the back of the card to try out. I love that the spices aren’t completely blended either – the little splotches of colour in the bag really appeal to me.
Our House of Spice is owned by two sisters: Nadia and Julia Latif. Using spice blends and recipes passed down through the generations their aim is to bring authentic Indian cooking into the home. They believe that great food tastes even better when shared, so each of their packets will feed four hungry people. Step-by-step instructions are included using easily obtainable ingredients found in the store cupboard and fridge.
Nadia and Julia take great pride in keeping their products free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives, and they care about the environment: their packaging is fully recyclable.
As soon as the masala spice blend arrived in the post I wanted to try it out immediately, so for lunch I scanned the contents of my fridge – there was one large butternut squash in there calling my name. That, the masala spice blend combined with a tin of chickpeas in water made for one absolutely fantastic lunch!
Our House of Spice also produce a tarka dhal blend, a seasoning mix for baked chicken (their family take on tandoori chicken), a Bombay potatoes blend and a seasoning for Raita.
The masala blend retails for £2 and can be purchased online from their website. Find Our House of Spice on Twitter and Facebook too!
Butternut Squash & Chickpea Masala Curry
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1.5 large onions finely chopped
- 1 sachet Our House of Spice Masala Curry spices
- 1 400 gram tinned chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 150 ml water
- 700 grams butternut squash peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 400 gram tinned chickpeas drained and rinsed
- Shetland sea salt to taste
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Instructions
- Add the oil to a large saucepan and heat over a medium low heat for two minutes.
- Add the onions and cook until they are slightly browned at the edges, approximately 20 minutes.
- Add the contents of the spice packet, the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and water. Stir and cook for four minutes.
- Add the cubed butternut squash and cook over a medium heat for about 20 minutes, adding more water if required.
- Add the drained and rinsed chickpeas for the final five minutes of cooking, just to heat through. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Notes
Linking up with The Spice Trail food blogging challenge by Vanesther over at Bangers & Mash. This month the theme is Temple Food.
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Pot Roast Pierogi & Noodle Kids
And there was silly old me thinking that vegan food was tasteless !
This is so easy to make and so visually appealing. Must try it !
Thank you thank you thank you !! I’m experimenting with veggie curries at the moment, especially with chickpeas, so I will be trying this out!!
Oh my god yes this is literally my favourite curry. I agree cumin is such an essential part of a curry that it does not taste the same without it!
Looks lovely, am definitely going to try this recipe.
Oh this sounds lovely! I love curry, especially vegetarian. Thankyou for sharing with us i am going to make this 🙂
I like the look of this but can’t handle my spice sadly
Love curried food
That has so many of my favourite foods in it, it looks divine.
looks delicious would this work substituting the butternut squash for potatoes instead?
Looks wonderful – great colours and a winning flavour combination.
a great meat free recipe will definitely be giving this a go
Am a huge butternut squash fan! Its so versatile!
lovely photo – the curry looks so warm and inviting – and we had curry powder in my childhood but not much in the way of using our own mix of spices so I have learnt a lot of about Indian cooking from blogging but have a lot more to learn – even finding good spice mixes is a good learning experience – I always like to look at what spices they use these days.
Sounds delicious – love butternut squash!
Perfect timing – I have several butternut squashes in store that won’t keep for ever and we all love chickpeas(which I buy in glass jars rather than tins here in France!). Thanks for including the spices that go in the mix as I’ll have to add those individually with no spice mix to hand.
Loving the sound of this curry. Best of all it’s so simple to make!
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I experiment a lot with making my own curry blends but never seem to get them quite right, these packets from House of Spice sound like a much easier option.
This looks fab! I am a huge fan of butternut squash in curies and casseroles. Delicious, affordable and good for you too.
I love a good curry, but I am very fussy and I have to be able to taste the spice rather than just ‘heat’. This looks like a very very tasty pot…. bookmarked!
Looks like a nice curry, pretty colours too.
It’s a tasty combination. Like the dish it’s served in too.
Looks great.
Oh yes, please! Your masala curry looks divine – so tempting! I’ve just received some samples from Our House of Spice. Really can’t wait to try them out on the strength of this dish. And such a perfect entry for the Temple Food challenge on #TheSpice Trail – thanks so much for linking up.
Isn’t it funny they called it masala curry. Masala is curry, so that is like saying curry curry. Looks great though, I’d be happy to tuck into this curry curry 🙂
I am a big fan of curries, and this masala curry looks delicious! 🙂 x
It was really lovely – so great to have the perfect curry spice blend to work with!
This looks so good! I love spice mixes, they make life so much easier, and this one sounds just lovely.
I’ve never used them before – usually the supermarket blends are in jars with liquid as well, and not so appealing. Love this blend!
I am not a huge spice fan but I dont mind a masala they are usually quite mild. I love that that spices all come pre measured and you can add them to your recipes
This version has quite a pleasant warming kick to it – really lovely!
Such a great recipe for this time of year, love the sound of those spices.
I agree! Just what I needed on a cold day 🙂
I’m usually not a fan of spicy food or Indian food but my husband is .. I’m always a bit hesitant on using cumin and coriander as well but I think I should definitely broaden my horizons and give it a try. This recipe looks very good though!
Ree x
Start with a little bit and see what you think. They really are lovely spices, and in this blend… whoa! 🙂
That looks absolutely delicious. I love a good curry. Luckily my mother was rather fond of spices, so I grew up with them and have always used them myself. Cumin is the one that gets used most in our house – I love it.
Thanks Choclette – it was rather scrummy! 🙂