So Good, So Good

I've been watching a lot of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, but "so good, so good" really fits this recipe. It's actually delicious and has the ability to be as spicy or mild as you'd like.

Vegetarian Korma from www.allrecipes.com

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil 
• 1 small onion, diced                                          
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 potatoes, cubed
• 4 carrots, cubed                                                
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and sliced
• 3 tablespoons ground unsalted cashews
• 1 (4 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 teaspoons salt                                                   
• 1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream 
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro for garnish

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and cook until tender. Mix in ginger and garlic, and continue cooking 1 minute. Mix potatoes, carrots, jalapeno, cashews, and tomato sauce. Season with salt and curry powder. Cook and stir 10 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
2. Stir peas, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, and cream into the skillet. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro to serve.

Ground cashews? I thought that would be too much like flour, so I chopped them quite a bit. I think the dish would be good with larger cashew pieces as well. 

I felt like such a chef making this meal. Wasn't it beautiful while adding the ingredients? :)

Did I mention that this is so good? I used way less salt than called for, yellow peppers since I had those in the house, and based on some of the reviews I used coconut milk instead of heavy cream. I added the coconut milk in step 1 (another recommendation in the reviews) to help the potatoes cook. Ten minutes is not nearly long enough for that. I didn't have fresh cilantro either, but I served the meal with whole-wheat naan bread and brown rice. Yum. My son and I both really enjoyed this. The sad part is that Ron is out of town and not even here to be official taste tester! We have plenty of leftovers, so maybe he can have some tonight when he returns. The nutritional information on the allrecipes page shows tons of sodium, but mine is pretty low. Check your tomato sauce and also your frozen peas. Yes, sometimes, salt is added to frozen veggies! Good ingredients make a recipe good.

Here's the tomato sauce I use. If you don't mash your own tomatoes, this is the next best thing!

Action Item: I think I've said this before, but try allrecipes.com if you haven't already. I found this recipe using the "search by ingredient" option. I had yellow bell peppers and potatoes in the house that needed to be used, so I searched just with those two ingredients.

For Further Reading: I like to use Sun Brand Madras Curry Powder, but you can make your own if you don't have a favorite. Lots of recipes are out there, here's one to try.

(Patsy, if you've read this far... is this similar to the curry dish you made us long ago? It was one of Ron's favorites!)

Shrimp Curry

I'm going to share my first recipe. I picked this one not because it's the healthiest, the easiest or our favorite, but because it's a good example of how recipes can be adjusted and still work!

4 Tbsp butter (yes, butter, but we all use it sometime... maybe coconut oil next time?? I use unsalted butter too)
4 Tbsp flour (I use whole wheat flour)
4 tsp curry powder (heaping teaspoons and our favorite is Madras)
2 cups milk (I use SKIM milk)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I often use Lite Salt*)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ginger, ground
1lb shrimp, cooked
5 cups cooked rice (I use brown rice)

In a medium saucepan, melt butter and flour and curry powder. Cook and stir one minute. Stir in milk. Cook and stir until thickened (yes it will thicken even with skim milk). Add salt, pepper and ginger. Fold in shrimp and heat thoroughly. Serve on rice.

There you go. Easy and with some substitutions that make it a little better for you! I good addition or substitution is peas; they taste great with curry in my opinion. A cup of peas has less than 100 calories but lots of protein, fiber and micronutrients.

*Lite Salt... something I haven't done much research on. I guess I could just use less regular salt. It's on my list to investigate. I bought Lite Salt for popcorn since someone in our family struggles a little with keeping blood pressure low.

Action item: Go through a favorite recipe and see where you can make a change for a healthier meal.

Further reading: Wild vs Farmed Fish