Indian Love

I love Indian food. A lot. My mom hates curry, so growing up I had very limited exposure to curry based cuisines, especially Indian. No time to waste making up for lost years spent not eating curry! Indian food is a fantastic cuisine as much of it is vegetarian to begin with, the only challenge is it is heavily dependent on dairy, but most of that is easily substituted. I make an Indian feast at least once a month. The following was the latest round.

I made Susan from FatFreeVegan's Rasedar Rajma. I made no real changes to the recipe (please pick your jaw up off the floor). It was really delicious, I highly recommend it. It does call for a couple of spices which you may not have, but you should be able to locate them easily if you have an Indian grocer around. Otherwise, you can find practically any spice you could possibly want at Penzeys. If you use a lot of spices, or have a few people to share with, I think San Francisco Herb Co. is a fantastic resource.

From Vegan Dad I made Potato and Cauliflower Curry which was also super delicious. B liked this one especially (of course, he's happy any time I serve him potatoes). I didn't have any fresh chili so I just added a couple dashes of hot sauce. I also had the better part of a cauliflower to use up, and only four small potatoes, so I think I ended up reversing the proportions of potato and cauliflower, but we really liked it.

The final dish was lightly curried zucchini and peas. I added coconut milk, but decided after that it would have been just as good, probably better, without. The dish looks pretty, but was nothing to write home about, so I'm not going to post it until I figure out a better version.

To go along side, I made a half recipe of Tandoori Rotis by Vegan Dad. Here's a picture of them in the oven. The one on the left has been in about a minute, the one on the right is just before it came out. It was my first time making a bread this way and I was so excited it worked that I made B come into the kitchen to look!

While they puffed up perfectly I was less than thrilled with their texture, they were too tough for me. I plan to try them again, they are a super fast, but next time I'm going to try kneading them less. I also added 2 tablespoons of soy yogurt instead of the last 1/4 cup of water, in hopes that would tenderize them, but alas it did not seem to. I also added a teaspoon of curry powder, but it wasn't enough flavor to stand up to the other dishes.

I encourage you to make your own Indian feast. It's delicious, nutritious, and makes great leftovers!