Curry is one of my favorite things to make. For one thing, it can bear unbelievably high spice loads, so I can mess with it till I like it, without worrying about killing the flavor the dish is aiming for. Thanks to a little inspiration from the old roommate, this one is a new go-to, maybe even replacing my potato one with coconut sauce...
Curry is almost inherently vegetarian. My mom has one phenomenal recipe for a chicken curry with delicious breading in a tomato sauce with potatoes. Just thinking about it makes me drool. But other than than, I feel like most good curries use lentils, chickpeas, potatoes and cauliflower to hold the blend of aromatics and spices together. Which means curry=cheap, super easy, and I don't have to worry about raw food contamination. As raw meat to this day terrifies me, this is always a good thing.
The only caveat with this recipe is the cauliflower is essential, I think a substitute like potatoes or lentils would just make it too heavy. So if you don't like cooked cauliflower, back away from this recipe. I love it, but I know a lot of people don't (due to its resemblance of small cooked brains I assume... oh fun memories).
This curry is from Allrecipes.com, which I love in terms of content, even though its not one of my beloved recipe blogs. I love it anyways. Allrecipes is great because it manages to avoid the few things I do hate about recipe blogs, namely food terrorism and pretentiousness. For example, the dear Pioneer Woman has a big thing against pre-shredded cheese, because well, its apparently not the same and we must all put our finger at risk to grate artisanal cheddars. And lots of other food bloggers have nit-picky things about baking your own bread, because its SO MUCH HEALTHIER AND BETTERER AND YOU ARE A HORRIBLE HUMAN BEING IF YOU DONT. (they aren't usually that aggressive, but I tend to project my failings upon them). Allrecipes though, it never judges me. It tells me, you know what is good Em, pesto out of the tub, and curry blends out of the jar that come pre-mixed, and pre-shredded cheese. And I appreciate that Allrecipes doesn't judge me. Plus, I always find their recipes very idiot-proof and cheap. So go them.
I did mix this one up a little bit. Rather than use canned diced tomatoes, which I can't stand, I used my new best friend, tomato sauce. I also only used half a can, because I don't like to push myself too hard to embrace new things. Then, because I had no fresh ginger on hand, I used 1/2 the amount (1 tsp) of the powdered stuff. I also, as you can see, cheated and used the baby carrots out of the bag. I like that I have to chop them less, what can I say.
I still wasn't happy with the flavor though, so I also doubled the amount of curry. I specifically used madras hot curry (thank you mom, for bringing me awesome spices), which I generally find intense as far as spice blends go, but the cauliflower post boil really soaked up the measly 1.5 tsp without taking on any color or heat, so I added more. I also left out the cloves and the peas, 100% because I forgot to put them in. The peas I am sure would have made it even better, as peas make all curries delish. Also, I didn't feel like boiling rice, so I served it on its own. Still good.
Ultimately, I loved this. It was super filling, and helped me soar through my all-veggie weekend when I made it on Saturday and then.. gasp... ate it for breakfast on Sunday. Don't be judgy.
<3
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