Veg Out With This Spicy Curry!

This is our one year landmark blog posting, and we are paying homage to that first meal with another Indian flavored dish. We learned the hard way (see first posting) that a spice grinder is a necessary tool for making your own spice combinations. The hum of the grinder is music to our ears!

This time around we were inspired by a friend’s vegetable curry recipe, which was posted on her Facebook page. We thank Verla for the recipe and allowing us to share it with all of you. We have included it below.

As usual we could not leave well enough alone and decided to roast the vegetables. (For all of you following the blog, you know how we love our roasted veggies.)

Due to Meg’s fascination with all things mechanical, we are using her new “Yonanas” machine for our frozen desert. For those of you who don’t watch QVC, the “Yonanas” machine makes a dessert out of frozen bananas and other fruit combinations. (We have since seen it at Target and Wal-Mart, so hopefully you can find one where you live.)   You can expect more frozen concoctions as we move into summer. (We have it on good authority that summer is coming.)

Chai "Yonanas" being made

Our Vegetable Curry


1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, and cut into bite size pieces
1 large onion, cut into wedges
2 cups mushrooms, halved
5 medium red potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
1 package firm tofu, diced
1/2 c. golden raisins
2  tsp. curry (or to taste)
3 tsp. garam masala (or to taste)
2 tsp. fresh grated ginger
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. turmeric
1 can (14 oz.) lite coconut milk
2 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Toss all vegetables except mushrooms with olive oil. Spread on parchment lined cookie sheets, season with salt and pepper to taste and roast in 375 degree oven for approximately 40 minutes, stirring once during roasting.

Put coconut milk and chicken stock in pot, add roasted vegetables and spices and bring to low simmer.

Melt coconut oil in sauté pan and add cubed tofu, grated garlic, grated ginger and mushrooms. Cook, stirring, until tofu is slightly brown. Add to the pot with other vegetables.

Cover pot and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. (This is the amount of time you will need to cook the jasmine rice and steam the green beans.)

Vegetable Curry!

Curry and sides.Yum!

Apex Brut Reserve

Verla’s Butternut Squash Curry

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, and cut into bite size pieces
1 large onion, diced
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
4 medium red potatoes, peeled and cut in bite size pieces
12 baby carrots cut into bite size pieces
1 package firm tofu, diced
1/2 c. currants or raisins
2-3 tsp. curry to taste
2 tsp. garam masala to taste
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. pepper
5 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tsp. chicken boullion
1/2 tsp. tumeric
1 can (14 oz.) lite coconut milk
1/2 - 1 C. powdered milk

Put veggies in stock pot, add enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Add spices to taste. Add coconut milk and currants when curry is about 1/2 cooked. On medium-high heat boil for 40 minutes or so until squash, carrots, and potatoes are tender.

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

When you are cooking this meal you need to step outside (even the garage works) and come back in to appreciate the exotic aromas wafting through the house. It is intoxicating!

We love spice and by tasting as we cooked, we  adjusted the amounts to suit us. One of the advantages of making your own spice blends is that you can control the heat and other flavors.  Here's Meg's version of garam masala which we used in our recipe.

Meg’s Garam Masala

Heat the following in a dry skillet until toasted, about 4 minutes, then pulverize in a grinder:

2 T coriander seeds
2 T cardamom seeds
2 T black peppercorns
1 T cumin seeds
1 T brown mustard seeds
20 cloves (1 t)
1 stick cinnamon, crushed
1 arbol chile, without seeds and stem
1 t nutmeg
1 T star anise, crushed

Store, airtight, in a dark, cool location.  Use with abandon!

In Verla’s recipe she used vegetables she had on hand, and we feel this would work with a variety of vegetables. We chose to use the same selection and were pleased with how satisfying this meal was.
Our sides included jasmine rice and fresh green beans.

The Apex Brut was a wine we sampled at one of the Total Wine classes last year. It was $12.99 and went well with the curry. Our ten dollar limit on the wine price has been challenging, due to escalating prices, and we are giving ourselves some latitude this year.

A dry Riesling would also complement this meal very well. See our very first blog for a good Riesling.

Yonanas Chai Spice

Prep time: 2 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 frozen over-ripe bananas
1 t garam masala spice
2 t grated fresh ginger
ginger snap cookies for topping

Instructions:

Sprinkle garam masala spice over bananas.  Insert fozen bananas.  Stir in bowl to combine.  Sprinkle crumbled ginger snap cookies on top.

Chai Spice Yonanas