Scrummy Chicken Laksa

This scrummy chicken laksa is a perfect weeknight evening meal and very versatile!

There is an Asian fusion restaurant down the road from my work and my most recent visit has been with my team to celebrate a birthday over lunch!  That’s also where I first tasted a laksa.  The thing I love about laksa is that it’s a low carb, very tasty bowl of comfort and so easy to make.

Diabetics: this is a really good recipe for you too.  Tried and tested on a friend of mine who has recently been diagnosed as a diabetic.  In fact, it was one of the lowest blood sugar readings she has had after an evening meal! I added an extra dollop of peanut butter which also helps maintain blood sugar levels, so if you’re a diabetic give this a try 😊

Vegans: it’s very easy to adjust this recipe if you’re a vegetarian or vegan.  Simply replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock and replace the chicken with your plant protein of choice.

Heat options: I use 2 dried chillies in my laksa.  I always have dried chillies in my house but you can use fresh chillies too.  As a comparison, the 2 chillies are roughly a medium on the Nando’s scale – adjust the amount of chillies or remove completely – whatever you prefer!

Healthy options: A laksa is usually made with rice noodles but to keep it low carb I have replaced it with spiralised butternut squash. Feel free to replace the spiralised butternut squash with another vegetable of your choice, perhaps spiralised courgettes!

Fridge to belly: roughly 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

5 roughly chopped spring onions

2 chillies

4 peeled garlic cloves

root ginger roughly 1cm by 3cm, peeled and roughly chopped

20g turmeric (roughly 2 heaped teaspoons)

10g paprika (roughly 1 heaped teaspoon)

20g sesame seeds (roughly 2 heaped teaspoons)

handful coriander

100g peanut butter

30ml lime juice (roughly 1 lime)

30ml soy sauce

vegetable oil

coconut milk

1 litre chicken stock (2 cubes + water)

4 skinless chicken breasts, cubed

150g petit pois

150g bean sprouts

300g spiralised butternut squash

Method

1. Firstly, we need to create a smooth laksa paste.  This can be done by adding the spring onions, chillies, garlic cloves, ginger, coriander, turmeric, paprika, sesame seeds, peanut butter, soy sauce and lime juice into a food processor and blending.  I usually blend it for quite a while, inspecting it every now and then until I can see the fresh coriander is in very fine particles.
2. Add a little bit of vegetable oil into a pot and heat using low heat. 
3. Once the vegetable oil is warm (but not hot) add the laksa paste and gently cook for a couple of minutes.  You’ll start smelling the beautiful smell of turmeric and you’ll also see the paste go slightly darker in colour.  Watch out that you don’t cook it with too much heat and too fast – it does burn easily!
4. Now add the coconut milk and chicken stock; and keep on stirring until all the ingredients are mixed in well and the laksa is simmering away.
5. Add the cubed chicken breasts and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add the petit pois and bean sprouts and simmer for 2 minutes.
7. Lastly add the spiralised butternut squash and simmer for a further 3 minutes.
8. You can serve with some fresh lime, fresh coriander and fresh chillies or you can just tuck in – depends on how hungry you are!

Hope you enjoy trying my first published recipe – let me know how you get on or if you have any comments or questions 😊