Saturday, October 30, 2010

Lisa Tries... Fall Vegetable Curry

Recipe: Fall Vegetable Curry
Cooking Light October 2010

Last weekend I was walking around the grocery store trying figure out what I wanted to make for dinner and for lunch the next day.  I was in the deli and meat/poultry sections frowning.  Everything looked gross.  Processed meat in a big huge chunk wrapped in plastic.  Ground sirloin with blood in the package.  Blah.  I went to reach for a package of boneless skinless chicken breast but then withdrew when I saw chicken feet packaged next to the poultry.  Ugh.  I've never particularly liked eating meat/poultry with skin and bones.  All burgers and steaks had to be well done.  I liked to pretend that I wasn't really eating body parts of an animal.  I've been weird about that since I was little.  So walking around the grocery store disgusted with everything I left with a few frozen goods and not much else.  I decided that I needed to look into meatless recipes as alternatives and incorporate them into my weekly food intake.  This recipe showed up in my email the nexy day from myrecipes.com and it looked like a good recipe to start with my journey of meatless recipe options.







What You Need
1.5 tspns olive oil
1c diced peeled sweet potato
1c small califlower florets
1/4c thinly sliced yellow onion
2tsp madras curry powder (I only had regular curry powder and I used a lot more)
1/2c organic vegetable broth
1/4tsp salt
15oz can of chick peas, rinsed and drained
14.5oz can of no-salt added diced tomatoes, undrained (I used fire roasted tomatoes based on review comments)
2tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/2c plain reduced fat Greek yogurt (I used non-fat Greek yogurt)

I added toasted cashews because the picture showed cashews even though the recipe did not.  I put a couple of handfuls of unsalted organic cashews on a baking sheet and toasted at 350 for 10 mins. 

What To Do
Heat olive oil in a large skillet and add sweet potatoes and saute for 3mins.  Add cauliflower, onion, and curry powder and cook for a minute, stirring.  Then add broth, and the next 3 ingredients up til the tomatoes, bring to boil and then cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 mins or until tender. 

I made brown rice and put a few spoonfuls on a dish and then topped with the vegetable curry.  I then topped with cilantro and a spoonful of yogurt.  I forgot to add the cashews during picture taking but added them after.

Verdict
This is a beautiful-looking dish that plays on the taste buds.  Sweetness of the potatoes, tartness of the yogurt, curry goodness flavor, crunchiness of the cauliflower, the fire roasted tomatoes were spicy and then the nuttiness of the cashews.  It's a very tasty mix.  The cauliflower was a little tricky for me to cut up.  Is there a proper way?  Anyway, this is very easy to make and very filling.  Would definitely make this again.