Fall Vegetable Curry

Recently, my friend Vanessa sent me an email about the Fall Vegetable Curry that appeared in a recent Cooking Light. The message went on for a good paragraph explaining how wonderful she thought the dish was. During our next phone conversation, she brought it up again. Sounds like I needed to check this recipe out, right?

The thing is, she's pregnant and went absolutely barmy for a time over anything curry. I think she would have gone bananas over curried Easter Peeps. So I wrote the name of the recipe on my recipe folder and forgot about it until this past weekend when I was putting my weekly menu together. I wanted something different for Meatless Monday, so I thought, "Oh, what the hell."

Fall Vegetable Curry

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1 cup diced peeled sweet potato

1 cup small cauliflower florets

1/4 cup thinly sliced yellow onion

2 tsp Madras curry powder

1/2 cup vegetable broth

1/2 tsp salt

1 (14.5-oz) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (15-oz) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained

2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup plain 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt

The Verdict: I owe my friend an apology. This curry really is good enough to tell others about!

I wasn't sure if this would be all that exciting since it's largely vegetables, vegetable broth, and curry. But I was wrong. The mix of vegetables is perfect--potatoes and onions work in any cuisine--and the Madras curry packs a huge flavor punch. The Madras curry, by the way, was the second spice I bought this week to add to my spice cabinet. To be specific: the spice is called hot Madras curry. Vanessa told me that she didn't have Madras curry on hand and used just plain curry; I thought that I'd play it safe by using one teaspoon of Madras and one of regular. If you're a regular reader, you'll know that we avoid overly spicy in our house. The aroma of the Madras is extremely pungent and nearly burned my nose, but I had nothing to fear. I think I would have been fine to use the two teaspoons as the dish was not at all spicy.

The yogurt dolloped on top is a delicious accompaniment to the rich spices in the dish. And the weirdest part to me was that the chopped cilantro really pulled the flavors together in the dish for me. I hate cilantro normally, but it was just right in this recipe.

I served our vegetable curry with basmati rice. Basmati rice, if you don't normally eat it, is worth having on hand. Alone, it's a wonder food with it's fragrance and soft texture.

Aside from the cauliflower, this dish was also a hit with my son. Thinking about him, and then the dish, it just struck me that plumped raisins (raisins that have sat in hot water for about 10 minutes, then drained) would be a great addition to this recipe.

If you need a break from meat dishes, give this one a try. It's fairly easy to put together, as well as fairly quick. And it really is as good as the source said it would be.