Organic and Free Range – both of these types of food are very important to me. Even though we are on a budget for food we try to buy local and have the food sourced from the best places we can afford.

It really bothers me when you are in a supermarket and you see the food origin of something that could easily come from the UK but instead has been shipped over from beyond mainland Europe. I get it with fruits that cannot grow in our climate but meat and fish is another matter.

When Sainsburys contacted me and told me about their Organic September campaign I knew I had to take part. I try and buy organic veg if it’s on offer but it’s not always possible but my rule is as long as I try it’s better than nothing at all. Sometimes the product you want is beyond your budget or sometimes it’s just not available and that’s exactly what happened to me when I went shopping for the ingredients for this recipe.

I wanted to share one of my favourite curry recipes and I was intrigued to see was there any taste different using all organic ingredients but I hit a massive stumbling block with the key ingredient, the lamb. I really needed a leg or shoulder of lamb but the only organic lamb in my local Sainsburys was lamb mince. Mr T suggested making a keema curry but I knew it wouldn’t be the same. It needs the chunks of meat to bring it all together. I had all the other organic ingredients in my trolley and then I realised, it doesn’t matter than I can’t get every ingredient from the organic range, the main thing is I’m trying and making that effort to use better quality ingredients in my cooking. Something is better than nothing at all.

I felt good making this curry, it felt clean and wholesome and even though most of it was from the organic range it was still cheaper than eating out. Mr T also enjoyed the organic wine Sainsburys kindly sent us. I'm not a fan of alcohol but he seemed to enjoy it (well the bottle was empty by the time we went to bed!)

This is our go to recipe for curry, the original is here but we have adapted it over the years and now we always make it when people come over, it’s a definite crowd pleaser. It does involve a bit of prep but once it’s done you can leave it simmering on the pan for hours until you are ready to eat.

Lamb and Spinach Karahi

A good glug of sunflower oil

550g onions diced

50g Garlic (yes you read that right)

50g fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

1tbsp ground turmeric

1tbsp hot chilli powder

1tbsp ground cumin

1tbsp paprika

1tbsp ground coriander

1tsp salt

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

120ml water

1kg lamb leg or shoulder cut into small chunks

350g spinach

2 birdeye chillies (more if you like it hot!)

½ tbsp garam masala

A bunch of fresh coriander

Enjoy!

Thanks Sainsburys for the opportunity to get involved in your campaign, it’s been a great challenge!