Vegan Mofo 1.1: Veggies in Curried Tomato & Peanut Butter Sauce over Brown Basmati

Happy first day of Vegan Mofo everyone! I hadn’t intended to sign up this year because my November is crazy but then I realized there was no reason not to. I am going to try my best to post at least once a day. With a little luck that will happen. My plan is to number my posts by day and then post within the day. For example 1.1 would be the first post of the first day. If there is a second post that day it would be 1.2, etc. I am going to do that for my long time readers that have gotten used to one post per day so they don’t miss anything. I expect my posts will be shorter this month due to my schedule.

For those of you that don’t know me I a foodie who became vegan a few years ago due to cancer. My husband (Dan) and I both love good food with a lot of flavor. The recipes I post are full of flavor. However I also try to make them as healthy as I can. I always cook with health as well as flavor in mind.

Some of our favorite cuisines are Italian, Indian, Japanese, and Thai. I am of Italian heritage so Italian is hands down my favorite. Indian food is something that I have cooked for almost 3 decades since college when my best friend had come to the US for school from Madras, India. Tonight I made an Indian inspired dish because we had not had any in a few days.

Since the post of our Sunday activities is going to be huge (and probably require more than a few separate entries) I decided to start Vegan Mofo with our dinner tonight which was a simple affair. I made quick and easy curried veggies over brown rice. Here is what I did:

Veggies in a Curried Tomato and Peanut Butter Sauce over Brown Basmati
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, peeled and diced (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
½ tablespoon fresh ginger, minced or grated (if it is organic you can leave the skin just be sure to clean it well)
4 cups fresh or 28 ounces canned peeled diced tomatoes (fresh has much less sodium)
4 cups water
½ tablespoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
½ tablespoon coriander seed
½ tablespoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
¼ teaspoon ajowan seeds
freshly ground black pepper, to taste (be generous since the piperine in the black pepper makes the turmeric more bioavailable)
crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
3 tablespoons reduced-fat peanut butter, or to taste
2 carrots, cut into bite-size chunks
2 parsnips, cut into bite-size chunks
2 Japanese eggplants, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 crowns broccoli, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 ½ cups brown basmati rice
3 cups water

Directions:

Combine the onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, water, spices, carrots and parsnips. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the sauce has begun to thick, about 30 minutes.

Combine the rice and water and cook. Depending on the type of pan you are using the rice will take anywhere from 35 (using enameled cast iron) to 50 (using stainless steel) minutes to cook including the time to bring the liquid to a simmer. Start the rice at the time appropriate for the material of the pot. Having the rice finished a little early isn’t as much of a problem as too late since the rice will hold better than the veggies.

Add the peanut butter (to taste) to the sauce and mix to combine. Next add the eggplants and cook for 10 – 15 minutes. The broccoli gets incorporated the last 15 minutes of cooking so it doesn’t get overcooked. To finish add lime zest and lime juice and stir to combine. Serve over rice.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 375.32
Calories From Fat (14%) - 53.25

Total Fat - 6.37g
Saturated Fat - 1.15g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 61.13mg
Potassium - 1325.55mg
Total Carbohydra tes -73.74g
Fiber - 13.7g
Sugar - 13.49g
Protein - 11.05g

Comments:

This dish has a lot of flavor. It is certainly not traditional. I used reduced fat peanut butter for the fat component rather than coconut milk (or even light coconut milk) to reduce the saturated fat. The broccoli was added at the end to retain the maximum amount of nutrition. If you are okay with adding more fat this dish would be great finished with a sprinkle of chopped peanuts, slivered almonds or roasted cashews for texture. The cilantro and spinach rice I made a few days ago would also be great with this dish and would add extra vitamins and minerals.

Signing out:

Tomorrow will start out early here since it is Election Day which means it is time for me to sign out. Talk to you again tomorrow.  I hope everyone had the best Monday possible.