Another day, another curry. As we did last week, we’re continuing in the vein of easy and healthy recipes for the new year by featuring a delicious veggie-stuffed curry. This is adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit, and it’s a quick meal that you can easily make vegan by swapping out just one ingredient. We liked how many different flavors there are here, and after a long day we were also grateful for a recipe that cooked up quick and had minimal prep time. If you’re intrigued and want to try a good, easy, vegetable-based meal, we’ll walk you through it all, from start to finish.
To make this, you’ll need:
- Vegetable oil
- A pound of mushrooms
- A bay leaf
- Cumin seeds
- An onion
- A jalapeño
- Garlic
- Fresh ginger
- Coriander
- Curry powder
- Paprika
- Cayenne
- Turmeric
- Tomato paste
- 1/2 pound of green beans
- Heavy cream (or coconut cream for a vegan recipe)
- A lime
- Rice
You can start with just a little bit of prep: cut all your mushrooms into thumb-sized pieces, trim your green beans and cut them in half, finely chop your onion and jalapeño, and prepare your rice according to the package directions. Then warm a tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat in a large pot and add in half the mushrooms, plus a pinch of salt. Let them cook on one side for about 4 minutes, until they’ve begun to brown, then flip them over to cook on the other side for 4 more minutes. Take them out and put them aside, then cook the rest of the mushrooms in the same way, adding in more oil and salt.
Now in the same pot, warm another 3 tablespoons of oil over medium heat and stir in your bay leaf and a teaspoon of cumin seeds. Add your onion and jalapeño, plus grate in 3 garlic cloves and a large piece of peeled ginger. Cook all this for 15 minutes, until the onion is fully browned but not burned. Then mix in a heaping tablespoon of coriander, a teaspoon of curry powder, a teaspoon of paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne and 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric. Cook for about 3 minutes more, then stir in 3 tablespoons of tomato paste to cook for another 3 minutes.
Pour in 1 1/2 cups of water and bring everything to a simmer, then add the green beans and your cooked mushrooms to the pot, plus a punch of salt.
Finally, measure out 1/2 cup of heavy cream (or coconut cream), then partly cover your pot and simmer everything together for 15 minutes, until you have a thickened sauce and the green beans are cooked. Take out your bay leaf and stir in the juice from your lime plus a tablespoon of so of extra cream.
Now you can serve up your curry with rice and wedges of your lime.
While it does take some time for this curry to come together, the process of cooking it isn’t too hard: you just chop some veggies, measure out a bunch of spices, and let it all cook and simmer together. And what an amazing meal it is – you’ve got nine different herbs and spices, plus vegetables, plus a creamy curry sauce, making for a rich, warm, and very flavorful winter meal. This was an amazing dinner, filled with veggies and tons of different tastes, and it’s great for something meat-free and healthy if your goal in this new year is to eat better without sacrificing deliciousness.