potato and cauliflower curry

chopped and roasted potato (drizzled with oil) in the oven for about 30 min at 350 degrees F. Then I sauteed some cauliflower, defrosted some frozen peas, and added a premade curry sauce. served everything over whole wheat couscous.

my brain is dead from finals right now, so that's all the writing you're getting from me. this is, however, a fantastic finals meal because you don't have to think too much about it or walk out to your local indian place in the freezing cold, but its super delicious.

-Lola

quick indian lunch

you guys, i feel bad. i left you for a week, and now all i have to offer is this boring, but tasty lunch. at least there's a pretty picture. look:
i don't even remember everything that was in here, but the basic idea is this--saute veggies (i apparently used carrots. i think there were some onions in there too) in olive oil. add a sprinkle of curry powder (i used both sweet and hot. but be careful! i added way too much and this was too spicy. i ate in anyway, but i was tearing up by the time i finished), half a can of chopped tomatoes with juices, a handful of baby spinach, half a can of chickpeas (drained), and a sprinkle of cinnamon, plus a tiny sprinkle of chili powder if you want it spicier. stir, and enjoy topped with chutney (mine was cilantro chutney. yummy! but also kind of spicy, not the cool, refreshing antidote to the spicy curry, which is what i was expecting. lesson learned: taste things before throwing them onto your lunch) and cashews.
-Lola

thai curry with bamboo shoots and tofu

yesterday on the way home I realized we didn't have any ingredients for dinner, so I stopped at Sunshine. Sunshine is a Japanese grocery store, but that description does not do it justice. It is a magical land of canned congee, unidentifiable (to me) veggies, a million different kinds of noodles, and most importantly, pocky. But unfortunately, I cannot live on pocky alone and I wasn't sure how to cook the strange veggies, so I came home with rather normal ingredients. I did get some bamboo shoots, which I had previously only had canned and pre-cooked, but that was about as exotic as my ingredients got. Here's what we made with my purchases:
Thai Curry with Bamboo Shoots and Tofu pictured above, serves 2, as usual no measurements are exact
ingredients:
-about 8 oz winter bamboo shoots, cut into strips
-about 1/2 cup snow peas
-fried tofu (I bought it pre-fried), cut into bite size chunks
-1 cup shitake mushrooms, cut into strips
-about 1/2 cup thai green curry (we used TJ's)
-rice for serving
- about 1 tablespoon butter/ butter substitute for frying (we used earth balance)
Melt the butter in a nonstick skillet. Add bamboo shoots and saute for about 5 minutes. add the shitakes and snow peas and continue sauteing until the bamboo shoots are browned on the edges. add the tofu and the sauce, simmer for about 2 minutes, then serve over rice.
This turned out very good. The best part was the bamboo shoots, which were crispy and almost caramelized from the butter.
Today, I used the last little bit of bamboo shoots to make a delicious curry.

This was just bamboo shoots, chick peas, rice, and peas, sauteed in earth balance and loads of curry powder and cumin, topped with some delicious mango chutney that our mom sent us for our birthday.
and lastly,one of the awesome plates our mom sent us (with the remains of a curry on it):


thanks mom!
ps. there's a giveaway for probars here

coconut milk and tomato curry

every monday night, rita and i have dinner with the hare krishnas. in addition to providing weekly free vegan food to broke college students, our local hare krishnas are just generally kick ass guys, who tell random and hilarious stories about climbing mountains and becoming the pope. i guess you have to be there. (side note: last week we joined the sikhs for dinner instead. they had better food, although the wait was long and it was a one time thing so we can't go every week. i don't know anything about india or its religions, so i hope the sikhs and the hare krishnas aren't bitter rivals or anything).
on hare krishna night, dinner always consists of a vegetable curry, white rice, green salad with this really tasty almond dressing, and halavah, a desert made with flour, sugar, and water, and flavored with fruits, carob, or peanut butter. recently, they made a curry with coconut milk, so we decided we'd try our own version.
coconut milk and tomato curryonce again, i fail as a food blogger because i rarely measure anything. sorry! but quantity of the veggies is up to you and not that important. we made about 4 servings, but it was very saucy, so you could probably make it more servings with more veggies but the same amount of coconut milk and tomatoes
*cauliflower
*peas
*chickpeas
*oil
*1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with juices
*1 14 oz can coconut milk (we used light)
*curry powder
*couscous, to serve (ours had tomatoes and lentils in it...yum!)
*sriracha, or other hot sauce, to taste (definitely needed the hot sauce, at least for me)
1. break off whatever amount of cauliflower heads you want. saute in oil with a big pinch of curry powder for 10-15 minutes, until the cauliflower is a little soft.
2. add however many peas and chickpeas you want(we used about a cup [?] of each). stir.
3. add coconut milk and tomatoes (including juices).stir in pot until thoroughly heated.
4. served over cooked couscous with hot sauce.
now we just need to learn to make halavah...it is tasty stuff, seriously.

easy curry, parts 2 and 3

two variations on the aforementioned easy curry.
first one is with lentils, second one is with about a cup total of kidney beans and black beans. they both have half an onion, one carrot, and about 1/4 cup trader joe's punjab spinach sauce.


saute your vegetables until just starting to get soft, about 5-10 minutes. add your legumes, stir, add your sauce, and heat, stirring for about 3 minutes. top with your favorite chutney (i used suki's mint chutney and i looked, but can't find a website for them. its available at the ferry building farmer's market in san francisco though) or plain yogurt and almonds.
this is one of the things i make when i need a quick lunch and want to use up some leftovers. just throw pretty much whatever veggies you have in there, add some beans or lentils (trader joe's sells pre-cooked lentils which makes this dish super fast and easy), and your favorite indian sauce, and you have a warm, comforting, and healthy lunch.

easy curry

first of all, thank you to anyone who has commented here. i love reading all your nice comments! also thanks to anyone who followed us over from wordpress. sorry for switching it up on you like that.

anyway, today's recipe is pretty simple, but its delicious and its one of those things you can pretty much throw whatever left over vegetables you have into.
without further ado,
easy curry! serves 1
as i said, you can use almost any leftover veggies. i used:
*1 cup leeks, the dark green parts only, sliced
*about 1/2 a small red onion, sliced
*1 smallish tomato, chopped
then you've got your legumes. i used:
*about 1/2 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
you can also use lentils or kidney beans
last component is the sauce. any kind of indian curry/simmer sauce will work. trader joe's has a bunch of great ones. i used:
*1/4 cup seeds of change madras simmer sauce
*1-2 Teaspoons olive oil
1. heat oil in a nonstick pan.
2. add leek and onion, saute until soft, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently
3. add tomato, continue to saute for 3 minutes, stirring frequently
4. add sauce, stir to coat ingredients
5. add chickpeas, stir in mix in. cook 1-2 minutes, until thoroughly heated.
6. add sriracha to taste (some sauces are spicy already, so you might not need any hot sauce). serve with warm naan, if desired.