A FATHER-OF-THREE loves curries so much he has cooked his family an Indian-style meal every day for the past 20 months – even on Christmas Day.

Dan Toombs, of Low Worsall, near Yarm, has urged more people to try making curries after his penchant for the dish transformed his family’s lives as his children Katy, 15, Joe, 13, and Jennifer, nine, and wife, Caroline, all prepare and eat the health-conscious meals together.

He said: “My favourites are the ones the kids like most.

"They took a while to get used to having Indian food every day, before growing to love it.

“It has been a family thing and has become a way of life.

The kids come home from school and we all get our hands dirty cooking, it has been great for us to spend time together.”

The 47-year-old managing director of a promotional merchandise firm said his family had a British Raj-style Christmas last year with a roast turkey, marinaded in garlic, yoghurt and spices, and Bombay potatoes.

The family sometimes have Indian lassi drinks and lentil pancakes for breakfast.

He said no one in his family had put on weight as the home-cooked food did not require the same amounts of oil and butter used by Indian restaurants to make the dishes quickly.

Mr Toombs said: “We have been doing this for 20 months now and are not eating vindaloos and madras every day, sometimes there is no spice at all.

“Normally it is recipes from different parts of India, but every now and then we try and mix it up a bit with food from Nepal or China with Indian roots.”

Mr Toombs said he developed a taste for south Asian food after emigrating from northern California 18 years ago, and started out trying to recreate dishes from British Indian restaurants and takeaways.

He now concentrates on recreating traditional food from the sub-continent and has launched The Curry Guy blog featuring 500 recipes, with 30,000 followers on Twitter.