Peas, Potatoes and Cauliflower in Curry Gravy (Aloo Mutter Gobi)

Today's post turns gravy international: a tasty Indian-inspired curry gravy (and curry sauces in India are called "curry gravy", I'm not making that up to fit with the theme here) loaded with three of my favorite veggies; Peas, potatoes and cauliflower. (Also known as Aloo Mutter Gobi)
Join me as I continue blogging onward through "A Month Of Vegan Gravies" for Vegan MoFo.

Cauliflower is abundant and cheap in the winter farmer's markets around here, so we loaded up on the weekend; In fact, one of the market sellers told me our valley here in the shadow of Mt. Rainier grows cauliflower commercially for most of the grocery stores in the US!
Wow. I knew there were a lot of vegetable farms in the area but still found that fact interesting...

Here's what lil' Sprout requested we do with the cauliflower tonight. She LOVES all things curried and spicy, VERY spicy.

Don't be put off by the long list of spices - they're not difficult to find and NOT "hot", just very flavorful. They're well worth locating. This makes a very flavorful curry. Enjoy.

Peas, Potatoes and Cauliflower in Curry Gravy
(Aloo Mutter Gobi)

• 1/2 medium-large head of cauliflower, broken into bite-size florets
• 1 medium potato, cubed
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp powdered fenugreek (if you have it - not absolutely necessary)
  
• 1/2 tsp red cayenne pepper (more or less depending on how spicy you like it)
  
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp. fresh pressed garlic
• 2 tsp. Madras curry powder
• 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 2 Tbsp minced or grated fresh ginger
• 1 cup frozen or fresh peas
• Aprox. 1 cup finely chopped fresh, or 1 8 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup coconut milk

Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. (I use a large, rather deep cast iron skillet.) Add the seeds and stir until they sizzle and "pop". This releases the spices flavor and infuses the oil with it.

Add the onion and ginger, stir-fry for a few minutes until onion is starting to brown at the edges.

Lower the heat and add in the spices from garlic to curry powder. Stir only a few seconds to get the spices coated with oil and just starting to heat.
Add the potato and cauliflower and stir well to mix in the spices. Add the salt.
Add the water and let the vegetables cook until tender. I cover the pan and let the veggies cook in their own juices which are released with the salt.
Stir every 5 minutes to evenly cook the vegetables, you may want to remove the lid to let water evaporate once potatoes start to soften.

When water has evaporated or vegetables are cooked, add green peas, tomatoes and coconut milk. (I tend to really mash up the tomatoes - my kids *think* they don't like tomatoes in curry)
Simmer for another 10 min. Turn off heat and allow to sit for a few minutes. This really blends the flavors.
Serve with rice.
(OK, I served it with quinoa today because I discovered we were OUT of rice. No one complained!)

Pumpkin and Potatoes in Red Curry

My Mom gave me a small mountain of wonderful fall veggies this weekend, and tonight I made just a smallish dent in them with this random curry sort-of-thing.

Sorry for the dreadful picture - winter lighting in my kitchen is awful.

I think Caribbean cooking uses pumpkins and curry, so hopefully the flavors I came up with don't seem too outrageously weird to anyone... I know it was devoured by my family.

Pumpkin and Potatoes in Red Curry

2 Tbsp. coconut oil

1 medium onion,chopped

2 red or green bell pepper,chopped & deseeded

1 Tbsp. Red Curry Paste (or any curry paste you like, or curry powder)

1/4 Tsp.ground cloves

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 cups peeled, cubed pumpkin or Hubbard squash

2 cups cubed white or red potatoes

1 regular size can stewed tomatoes

1 cup water

1/4 tsp. salt

1 large garlic clove,crushed

1 tsp. finely shredded fresh ginger

fresh cilantro (optional)

Heat oil in a large heavy saucepan.

Add onion and pepper, stirring a bit until onion is tender but not browned.

Add the curry paste or powder and cook for just a minute or two to incorporate the curry into the oil.

Add the cloves, tomatoes, pumpkin, potato, stewed tomatoes, water and salt.

Stir to mix.

Cover and cook on lowest possible heat, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. If it gets too thick, add more water, you want it to be stew-like.

When pumpkin and potatoes are tender, and pumpkin is thick and sauce-like, stir in garlic and ginger and cook uncovered for 5 more minutes. Taste and add more salt or pepper if desired. Garnish with cilantro if you suddenly remember at the last minute that you have some!

What to do with all those New Spring RADISHES!!

So, are some of you growing little gardens or visiting the local Spring Farmer's Markets or getting CSA boxes? I love all the beautiful produce that shows up locally at this time of year, one of my favorites being the simple, often ignored RADISH!!

I've had a bumper crop already this spring, and while I LOVE them raw, there are actually several tasty ways to enjoy them cooked tender crisp...

This recipe is probably the most unique use I've discovered for cooking with radishes, Indian Spiced (or sort-of curried) and so so GOOD!! Definitely give this a try!!

A local Indian restaurant makes something similar and this is my attempt to copy.

Indian Spiced Radishes

8 French Fingerling potatoes or any similar, small, new potato

12 fresh radishes - ends trimmed and sliced into medium thick rounds (or quartered, if you prefer)

1/2 cup cooked garbanzos

1/2 cup frozen petite peas (or fresh if you're that lucky!!)

1 onion - finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp cayenne or to taste

1/4 teaspoon of each turmeric (or curry powder) and salt (or to taste)

1 teaspoon of peanut oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

pinch fenugreek seeds (optional - not necessary, but nice if you have them)
pinch fennel seeds (optional, not necessary, but nice if you have them)

Parboil the potatoes until tender but firm. Quarter and set aside.

Heat peanut oil in flat, dry skillet and toast cumin, mustard, fennel and fenugreek seeds just until they start to "pop".

Add the potatoes, onions, garlic, turmeric and salt.
Fry and brown a bit until onions are cooked.

Add radishes, peas and garbanzos, and stir gently until radishes are seasoned, warm, and lose a tiny bit of raw crunchyness... serve garnished with chopped parsley or mint.

Serve with warm Indian bread of your choice.

Curried Cashew-Vegetable Soup from "Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons" by Nava Atlas

Well, today's post is a bit different and very exciting for me, because I've been asked to participate in a "Blog Tour" for cookbook author Nava Atlas, in celebration of today's release of Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons . Now in its 4th edition; many of you may remember the cookbook as "Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons".
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First, a technical note for fellow cook-book geeks like myself: While fairly similar to the third edition (the one with the green cover) this edition is significantly different from the original first edition; first, all the recipes are now vegan, and second, there are mouthwatering photos... and check out the beautiful new cover!

Fellow bloggers are participating as well, simply Google "Nava Atlas Blog Tour" and you'll find their posts too! (I may come back and add links when everyone's posted).

This cookbook has been a family favorite of ours for quite some time. Come on people, it's full of soup recipes - who doesn't like soup? You really can't go wrong with Nava's recipes, they're always tasty, easy to prepare and have ingredients I can find at a "regular" grocery store. I also admit, quite selfishly that this particular cookbook is near and dear to my heart because the author includes one of MY recipes. (African-Inspired Quinoa Peanut Soup which I'll spare you from blogging about yet AGAIN!).

For this momentous occasion, I narrowed the many delicious options down to one of my family's favorites; Curried Cashew-Vegetable Soup. I think you'll LOVE this one!

Here is the recipe, (with the author's permission of course) straight from the book, **the only change I made was to use carrots and potatoes instead of the green vegetables, making it a more hearty, winter stew. Enjoy!! (Oh, and we added grilled vegetable sandwiches to ALSO celebrate our new panini press. Double yum!!)

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Curried Cashew-Vegetable Soup

With notes of ginger, curry, and citrus
6 to 8 servings
Cashew butter make an offbeat, rich-tasting soup base.
This luscious soup is good hot or at room temperature.

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large celery stalk, diced
4 cups water
1 cup cashew butter
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger, to taste
2 teaspoons good-quality curry powder, more or less to taste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch of nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice, or more to taste
1/2 cup orange juice, preferably fresh
3 cups steamed fresh green vegetables (such as finely chopped broccoli, green peas, diced zucchini, cut green beans,or any combination) **I used potatoes and carrots
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Thinly sliced scallions for garnish
Chopped cashews for garnish, optional

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onions, garlic, and celery and sauté over medium-low heat until all are lightly browned.
Transfer to a food processor with 1 cup of the water and process until smoothly pureed, then transfer back to the soup pot.

Or add 1 cup of the water to the soup pot and process with an immersion blender until pureed. Add the remaining 3 cups water and bring to a rapid simmer. Whisk in the cashew butter, about 1/3 cup at a time. Stir in the ginger, curry powder, cumin, nutmeg, lemon juice, and orange juice. Return to a rapid simmer, then lower the heat.

Cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Stir in the steamed vegetables. If the soup is too thick, add enough water to give the soup a slightly thick consistency. Season with salt and pepper, then serve. Garnish each serving with scallions and chopped cashews if desired.

Curried Pumpkin (or Squash) Soup

My Mom gave me this funny-shaped Hubbard Squash that we thought looked rather like a Turkey. So we decided to have it for Thanksgiving dinner. But then plans changed; we didn't end up doing Thanksgiving at home, we didn't have squash... (I'll tell ya all about it in a day or two) instead, we cooked this up first thing, upon our return tonight...

Repeat of one of my old favorites: And it makes for the most beautiful pictures. I couldn't stop snapping photos, it was so colorful!

CURRIED (and Roasted) PUMPKIN (or Squash) SOUP

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2 Tbsp. margerine

1 small onion, chopped

1 small garlic clove, pressed

2 tsp. curry powder or paste (I much prefer paste!), or to taste

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly-ground black pepper

cayenne to taste

2 Tb. brown sugar

1 Tb. very fine grated fresh ginger

Aprox 24 oz. vegetable broth

3 cups pumpkin or squash puree - either from a can, frozen or bake/steam your own and mash (my fav.) **See Note following

3/4 cup coconut milk (or 1 can of it is fine, so there's no waste)

chopped fresh green herbs for garnish

Melt margerine in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion 5 minutes, until softened. Add garlic, curry powder, ginger, salt and pepper and cook 1 minute more.

Add broth, sugar, water and puree; mix well. Reduce heat to low.

Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.

Stir in coconut milk. Puree soup in blender in batches until smooth.

Heat through before serving.Adjust seasonings - sometimes needs a pinch more sugar, or salt or cayenne - depending on your tastes.

Garnish with whatever green herby things you can find.

**I cut small sugar pumpkins or squash in quarters and roast until soft, then puree with a little vegetable broth for this recipe. Today I used the hubbard squash.

Curried "Chicken" Pitas

I'm probably more of a "fake meat" fan than many veg. type people, but I swear I don't use it ALL the time.
It seems that recipes I post often do have it for one reason or another. Maybe because these seem to be the recipes that people request and are the most popular with my friends and family? Who knows.
You could probably use tofu, tempeh crumbles or any "chicken-y" seitan product here, I just happen to like the taste and texture with the Morningstar product.
At any rate, here's our lunch.

Curried "Chicken" Sandwiches

1 Package Morning Star Farms Chicken-Style Meal Starter Strips,
thawed but NOT cooked
(or other vegan "chicken"-strip style product).
2 stalks celery
1/2 small, mild onion
3 Tb. Vegenaise or to taste (depends on how much dressing you like)
1 Tb. sweet pickle relish or to taste
2 tsp. Madras curry powder, or to taste (I use lots more)
pinch salt
pinch sugar
pinch sage
couple grinds black pepper
1/4 cup golden raisins or dried cranberries
2 Tb. chopped, roasted cashews (or peanuts or almonds)

Leaf Lettuce
Pita Bread
Mango Chutney (optional but it's good if you just happen to have a jar of it randomly sitting in your fridge).

Put "Chicken" in bowl of food processor and pulse several times until chopped medium-fine (or as chunky as you like it - my kids like it finely textured, I like it very chunky).
Dump in a small mixing bowl.
Put celery and onion in food processor and chop coarsely.
Add to chicken.
Put Vegenaise, relish and seasonings in small bowl and whisk with a fork. If too thick add a bit of soymilk.
Mix dressing into chicken mixture.
Adjust seasonings to your taste.
Stir in raisins and nuts.
Serve in pita bread, with lettuce and chutney.
Insanely yummy-liciousness.
Makes about 3 or 4 pita

----Thanks to fellow VBer "sallyomally" for the wonderful suggestion of adding chutney and almonds (sorry, all I had was cashews and they tasted pretty good so I went with those). I think chopped apples or grapes would be good in this too!

ALOO MUTTER GOBI (Spicy Cauliflower, Peas and Potatoes)

Cauliflower is abundant and cheap in the winter farmer's markets around here so we loaded up on it today - in fact, one of the market sellers told me our valley here in the shadow of Mt. Rainier grows cauliflower commercially for most of the grocery stores and produce vendors in the US! Wow. I knew there were a lot of vegetable farms in the area but still found that fact interesting...
Fortunately, my kids all LOVE the stuff too, so I take advantage of that fact, and here's yet another reason I'm loading up on cauliflower:

"Cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower and brussels sprouts contain a compound called indole-3-carbinol (I3C), a potent antioxidant that breaks down estrogen in the body, that reduce the risk of breast cancer and other estrogen-sensitive cancers, like cancer of the ovaries and cervix." ~American Cancer Society

So YAY! Great reasons to eat the stuff.
Here's what my lil' Sprout requested for part of the cauliflower tonight. She LOVES all things curried and spicy.

Aloo Mutter Gobi (Spicy Cauliflower, Peas and Potatoes)

I tend to like this with a lot more sauce than you might find at some Indian restaurants - we like extra flavors to soak into the rice with the vegetables. Don't be intimidated by the long list of spices, it's not overly "hot" and WAY easier than it appears, well worth it for the authentic taste.

• 1/2 medium-large head of cauliflower, broken into bite-size florets
• 1 medium potato, cubed
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 tsp. fenugreek seeds (can be made without - though it does add flavor)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp red cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp. fresh pressed garlic
• 2 tsp. curry powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 2 Tbsp minced or grated fresh ginger
• 1 cup frozen or fresh peas
• Aprox. 1 cup or 1 8 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup coconut milk

Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. (I use a large, rather deep cast iron skillet.) Add the seeds and stir until they sizzle and "pop". This releases the spices flavor and infuses the oil with it.

Add the onion and ginger, stir-fry for a few minutes until onion is starting to brown at the edges.
Lower the heat and add in the spices from garlic to curry powder. Stir only a few seconds to get the spices coated with oil and just starting to heat.
Add the potato and cauliflower and stir well to mix in the spices. Add the salt and garam masala.
Add the water and let the vegetables cook until tender. I cover the pan and let the veggies cook in their own juices which are released due to the salt.
Stir every 5 minutes to evenly cook the vegetables.
When water has evaporated or vegetables are cooked, add green peas, garam masala, tomatoes and coconut milk.
Simmer for another 10 min. Turn off heat and allow to sit for a few minutes. This really blends the flavors.
Serve with rice.
(OK, I served it with quinoa today because I discovered we were OUT of rice. No one complained!)