Day 293: Lentil & Veg Curry
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It’s a miracle that we didn’t have finger food for dinner tonight, considering I have spent most of today editing/revising Grazing for a spring re-release. Why on a Sunday? Because I said I’d have it all done last Wednesday. I was born without time management skills; it’s one of my more significant defects. (Which is why now, at almost 10 on a Sunday night, I’m settling in for what promises to be an all-nighter in front of the computer.)
How I made the dinner decision: I tested a daal dip with lentils and curry the other day and had about a cup of leftover mooshy lentils. Also: too many peppers and tomatoes I bought while they were cheap, a bag of spinach in the fridge, and half a can of coconut milk left over from said dip. Coconut milk is shockingly high in fat, particularly the saturated kind, and so when I use it I use the light variety – otherwise you could use evaporated milk and a capful of coconut extract for the same effect.
Easy Veg Curry
AuthorJulie
In a large skillet set over medium-high heat, sauté the onion in oil for 2-3 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Add any veg that take longer to cook (ie potatoes and cauliflower) along with the curry paste and cook for a few more minutes.
Add the pepper and any other veggies you’ve chosen. Sauté them for a few minutes, just until the vegetables start to release their juices and soften.
Add the tomatoes and cook until most of the moisture has cooked off, then add the coconut milk and chutney and bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the apple and cook for about 5 minutes. You could always add some shrimp or leftover chicken or turkey) right about here too.
Season with salt and pepper and stir in the spinach; cook for a minute, just until it wilts. Serve immediately over rice with chopped peanuts sprinkled on top.
Ingredients
Directions
In a large skillet set over medium-high heat, sauté the onion in oil for 2-3 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Add any veg that take longer to cook (ie potatoes and cauliflower) along with the curry paste and cook for a few more minutes.
Add the pepper and any other veggies you’ve chosen. Sauté them for a few minutes, just until the vegetables start to release their juices and soften.
Add the tomatoes and cook until most of the moisture has cooked off, then add the coconut milk and chutney and bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the apple and cook for about 5 minutes. You could always add some shrimp or leftover chicken or turkey) right about here too.
Season with salt and pepper and stir in the spinach; cook for a minute, just until it wilts. Serve immediately over rice with chopped peanuts sprinkled on top.
TOASTED WITH PEANUT BUTTER??? Why did you have to plant that suggestion in my head?
Mmmmm….I love a good curry and I really LOVE coconut milk & in fact stocked up today. So sad about the high fat content!
What’s your experience/opinion on making your own yogurt cheese? I’m about to try it for the first time tonight [soy version] and hope to elliminate cream cheese & even mayo from our lives. My W is dairy free for health reasons and my butt needs to be…I have a fat tooth which spreads to other areas! Hoping yc will help.
It could be worse robyn, she could have suggested say PC Dulce de Leche or Nutella – neither of which I can keep in my pantry…which is a good thing since I happen to have made banana bread tonight too. 😉
I’d love to tell you that yogurt cheese can replace all the fatty dairy in your life, but sadly it cannot. In my world, anyway! You may like it more than I do. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it, it just isn’t quite the same. You may have difficulty making it properly with soy yogurt.. does it contain gelatin?
A new Grazing?! Yay! My copy is dog-eared, stained and falls open automatically to some of my faves. Not that there’s anything wrong with that …
Question & a comment for Mrs. M.
The question: I have considered adding coconut extract to evaporated milk, but the only coconut extract that I have found is imitation. Is there such a thing as “real coconut extract”?
Mrs. M. Donvier (for one) sells a yogurt cheese maker. It works great. I bought mine at the housewares place in the St. Lawrence Market (if you are in the GTA).
K
I have to know….. does M eat all this kind of thing? How did you manage to convince him he needed grains instead of BEEF. 🙂 still working on Mark!
Why is bottled ginger okay but bottled garlic not?
That curry recipe looks fantastic. Now that the weather is getting colder, curry dishes are my go-to “use up the produce drawer” recipe. Dare I say, curry is the new chili? In my kitchen it is, at least.
Re: the high fat content of coconut milk – yes, it’d be hard to recreate the creaminess of curry made with milk/heavy cream/etc. (there’s a reason why everyone loves Indian Butter Chicken!), but I have found that substituting a mix of yogurt and raw, finely-blended cashews (or almonds, or walnuts) also makes for a nice consistency and taste–the nuttiness plays off the zing of the curry, and only needs a dash of lemon or lime juice to round it out.
Bottled ginger is usually just ginger, and tastes like ginger; bottled garlic usually has other ingredients (I’ve seen modified milk ingredients on bottled minced garlic!) and just seems to taste nasty – it’s nothing like fresh.
Another trick: peel and puree a bunch of fresh ginger and freeze it in ziploc bags – flatten it first, so that when frozen, you can snip off a piece of ginger and add it directly to your recipe.
Hey there.. when you say curry paste, which kind do you mean? I know you live in Calgary so we probably have similar stores here in Mississauga.
I realize this post is almost 1o years old now!!, but I am making this for dinner tonight via your cookbook and can’t find where to add the lentils in your directions. I googled to see if I could find a recipe online, and I still can’t see the direction for lentils. Am I missing something? I am also curious about the curry paste. I’ve never used it before and was about to substitute curry powder when a different google search vetoed that idea. I ended up using a little bit of cardamon, cinnamon, cumin and coriander instead. It’s really good! Now to see if it’s husband and toddler approved…..
Oh geez, sorry about that! just add them with the rest of the veggies…