Tempeh, Mushrooms and Veggies in Tomato Cashew Curry

Thursday … Not my Favorite Day this Week

Getting up at 4:45 in the morning is not on my list of fun things to do. I am not a morning person but this was ridiculous. The sun came up almost 2 hours after I got up. The full moon was beautiful this morning but I wasn’t actually conscious enough to really enjoy it. I tried to take some pictures of it but none of them were “perfect”.

After Dan left for the airport to make his 6:50am flight to Florida I tried to start my day. Heavy emphasis on tried. I got on the scale to find out the damage from so much eating out and it went up 2.4 pounds in one day. Needless to say I got on twice to confirm this since I knew there was no way I overate by 8,400 calories yesterday (3,500 times 2.4). Heck that is about what I eat in a week.

Even though I know the increase on the scale was probably water weight due to consuming more sodium than usual (since my normal is almost none)l it didn’t exactly give me an appetite for breakfast this morning. Also I knew I wasn’t going to be very active (based on the yawning that I have been doing all day) so I waited until mid-day to grab some lunch and skipped breakfast today. I was also just too tired to get myself anything beyond water and iced green tea.

Lunch was one of my huge salads which consisted of: 1 head of romaine, ¼ cup salsa, ½ cucumber thinly sliced, ½ carrot thinly sliced, 4 Roma tomatoes and a good sized dollop of cheezy white bean dip. I am really loving the cheezy white bean. This is going to be making regular appearances at my house. Who knows it may become as popular as the baked falafel. ;-)

I finally ended up getting a nap in that I intended to be an hour or an hour and half and it ended up being 3 hours. Clearly I was physically exhausted this morning.

For my afternoon snack I had a banana and 6 walnut halves. As always I added the nuts to make certain that I absorb any fat soluble vitamins and to make the snack more satisfying.

To accompany the banana I decided a cup of frozen grapes would be good. As you probably noticed I eat a lot of frozen grapes.

Dan called as he was getting to the airport to find out if the flight was on time since he was running later than he wanted and of course it was on time. However he got to the gate with a few minutes to spare so everything was good on that front. I am happy to have my hubby back home. Even though he was only gone today like being downtown it still seemed worse since I knew he was thousands of miles away. I like having him close by I suppose. ;-)

Once I found out Dan didn’t have dinner before getting on the plane I knew I needed to have something ready for him to eat once he got home. I shifted into chef mode and started thinking about what would be good for him tonight. There was a piece of tempeh in the refrigerator that I thought would be nice to use. Here is what I made tonight:

Tempeh, Mushrooms and Veggies in Tomato Cashew Curry
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 large yellow onions, cut into bite sized chunks (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
1 inch fresh ginger, finely minced or grated
4 carrots, cut into bite sized chunks
approximately 3 cups fresh tomatoes, pureed
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
1 ½ teaspoon black mustard seed
¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
1 pinch ajowan seeds or substitute thyme the flavor is very similar
1 pinch red pepper flakes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 ounces three grain tempeh cut into small bite sized pieces
¼ pound fresh shitake mushrooms (stems removed), cut into bites sized pieces
zest of 1 lime
½ cup raw cashews pureed with the juice of one lime and water enough to make it process
cooked grain to serve as the bed for the dish (I used brown basmati)

Directions:

Combine the onions, garlic, ginger, carrots, tomato puree and spices and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tempeh and mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the lime zest to pan with the veggies. Process the cashews and lime juice, add enough water so that you get a smooth puree. Add the cashew crème to the pan and stir to thoroughly combine. Simmer until everything is heated through.

Serve over a cooked grain or baked sweet potatoes. If desired garnish the dish with sliced almonds, cilantro or crispy onions. Tonight’s dish had a few sliced almonds for crunch.

Nutritional Information (not including the grain or garnish):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 308.08
Calories From Fat (34%) - 105.27

Total Fat - 12.57g
Saturated Fat - 2.36g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 76.33mg
Potassium - 1135.96mg
Total Carbohydrates - 39.24g
Fiber-  7.58g
Sugar - 13.03g
Protein - 16.94g

Comments:

This is a quick dinner but one with nice Indian flavor. I make variations of this dish quite often because we like it so much.  I am sure this isn't traditional since I am Italian, not Indian, but we like the flavors so it works for us.

To accompany the curried dish we had a green salad on the side that consisted of romaine, diced Roma tomato, thinly sliced cucumber and carrot, topped with marinated mushrooms and roasted red peppers.

Signing out:

That is going to be if for me today. I must say it feels good to be caught up on my posts. Tomorrow will be my usual whirlwind of errands and checking on the parents. However with a little luck there will be time to spend in the kitchen tomorrow afternoon. I hope you had a great Thursday and have fun plans for the weekend. Talk to you again tomorrow.