If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ll have seen I dabble in a bit of cooking. A few brave souls have asked me for recipes to some of the dishes I rustle up so here’s the first. Enjoy.

This is one of those cracking low fat, low carb recipes for when you’ve got tickling for a takeaway but want something a little healthier. OK, so it won’t quite hit the same spot as a ghee-laden, mega-madras complete with pillowy naans bigger than your face, but it also won’t leave you groaning on the sofa, calculating how many burpees it’ll take to burn that bad-boy off.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Cod loins pieces, two plump ones
Asparagus spears, a bundle
Fine green beans, a handful
Watercress, two handfuls
Red onion, half
Garlic cloves, three
Red chilli, half
Coriander,  large bunch
0% fat unsweetened yoghurt, 250ml
Cashew nuts, handful
Garam masala, dessert spoon
Coriander seed, heaped teaspoon
Mustard seed, heaped teaspoon
Cumin seed, heaped teaspoon
Turmeric, heaped teaspoon
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

First things first, dust the cod loins in the garam masala and set aside at room temperature. Put a griddle pan on maximum heat.

Heat a dry saucepan, add the coriander, mustard and cumin seeds and toast, moving them around a bit so they don’t burn. Put them in a pestle and mortar (or small food processor) and grind up. Break up the cashews a little and toast them dry in the same pan and set those aside as well. This all literally takes two minutes – it really develops flavour to make up for the lack of fat.

In the hot pan, warm some vegetable oil, turning the heat down to medium-low. Slice the red onion fairly finely and add to the pan with a pinch of salt – the salt will draw the water out of the onion ensuring they soften rather than colour too much. Once all slippery, slice the garlic and add to the pan, along with the ground spices, turmeric and cashews. Finely chop the chilli and stir through.

Spray the cod with oil and add lay confidently in the smoking hot griddle pan. Depending on the thickness, cook the loins for three minutes without touching them before gently turning them over and adding the asparagus and green beans to the griddle pan. You can also use a standard frying pan – I just like the snazzy stripes for presentation.

With the heat low, pour the yoghurt in with the onions and spices. Stir gently and don’t be tempted to turn the heat up – without the fat, the yoghurt is much more susceptible to splitting which does not for a creamy curry make. Finely chop the coriander and stir half into the sauce (the stalk end tends to work well here). Three minutes or so later the sauce should be hot (but not boiled), so make an attractive pool in the bottom of a bowl.

By now the fish and veg will be done. Season and lay the asparagus and beans across the curry sauce – I point them all in one direction because I’m a little bit OCD like that. Use them as a platform on which to rest the cod before sprinkling over the rest of the coriander and daintily perching the watercress on top. Once in the sauce it doesn’t miss a dressing. A slice or two of chilli will make it look pretty.

I tend to have it just like this but if this feels a little too light, a bit of brown rice won’t do you any harm, nor will a sneaky naan if you want more substance.

Let me know how you get on – I’d love to hear from you in the comments or on Insta or the Twitz.