coconut curry red lentil soup with dried currants

Thanks to the little baby now at the center of my life, I have a new appreciation for single vessel meals that have the flexibility of being abandoned without overcooking.  Brace yourselves for more soups, stews, and casseroles on this blog!  I know... how stereotypical American...  well, so is my inspiration for this soup!  Good old Martha Stewart (or one of her ghost writers) inspired me to take a different spin on my usual red lentil soup by adding coconut milk and dried fruit.  Yum! 

Ingredients:
olive oil
1 1/2 c. carrots, diced
1/2 c. onion, diced
4 T. fresh grated ginger
half a head of garlic, pealed and minced
1 1/2 T. curry powder
1 T. salt
8 c. water
2 c. red lentils
1 16 oz. can coconut milk
dried currents
cilantro

Saute the carrots, onion, ginger, and garlic in olive oil until the onion is translucent.  Add the curry powder and cook for a minute.  Add the salt, water, red lentils, and coconut milk.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.  Use an immersion blender to partially blend the soup.  Serve with dried currents and cilantro.

vegan curried vegetable pot pie

For added inspiration, the hosts of Dark Days Challenge are posing smaller themed challenges (one-pot meal, valentine sweets, vegetarian meal, breakfast) within the larger challenge of eating local, sustainable food in the middle of winter.  This week's themed challenge was to create a one-pot meal and because I love my cast iron skillet and I love that you can pan fry with it or bake with it, I decided to do both with it.  I also decided to use coconut milk which is a very non-local choice, but it makes this dish vegan. Who knows, if I did the math, it could possibly have less of an environmental impact than dairy.  Has anyone done the math?

Filling Ingredients:
2 potatoes, diced
1 red onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 oz. mushroom
1 c. frozen peas
1 c. frozen corn
black garbanzo beans, boiled
canola oil (not local)
salt (not local)
black pepper (not local)
1 T. sweet curry powder (not local)
1 T. hot curry powder (not local)
dash of apple cider vinegar (not local)
1 (14oz.) can coconut milk (not local)

Dough Ingredients:
whole wheat flour
cold water
canola oil (not local)
ground flax seed (not local)

Unfortunately, I ended up having a few extra dishes to clean up: a small pot and mixing bowl.  The small pot was for boiling the garbanzo beans but that was an easy clean.  I had to use a mixing bowl to mix the dough.  I also used the mixing bowl to pour out the cooked filling while I laid out a bottom crust though you could easily go with just a top crust.

roasted parsnip fries with creamy curry dip

Today was the tail end of a heavy snow/rain storm. The farmers at the farmer's market seemed pretty elated with the precipitation even though it meant they had to sell their produce in bad weather. We were pretty happy too since they showed up despite the bad weather. We were able to purchase some local produce including parsnips!


The farmer that we bought the parsnips from recommended roasting them like steak fries so when we got home, that's what we did! We were brainstorming a dip for the fries, and we remembered a delicious curry dip with pub fries that we had at local restaurant a few weeks ago. Since it was still storming outside, we decided to entertain ourselves by making the curry powder from scratch, but you could just as well use a store bought curry powder.


Serving Size: snack for 4

Roasted Parsnip Fries Ingredients:
1/2 lb parsnips
2 T. canola oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. cumin, ground
1 t. coriander, ground

Creamy Curry Dip Ingredients
3/4 c. (6 o.z.) yogurt
1/4 c. water
1 T. frozen turmeric, minced (or 1 t. ground turmeric)
1 t. frozen ginger, minced
1/2 t. cumin, dry roasted, ground
1/2 t. cardamom, dry roasted, ground
1/2 t. coriander, dry roasted, ground
1/2 t. dark brown mustard, dry roasted, ground
1/4 t. cayenne pepper, dry roasted, ground

Cut the parsnips into quarters or eighths and put them in a large bowl. Coat them in oil and spices. Roast the parsnips at 425 for 30 minutes in a preheated oven, flipping them halfway through.

If using pre-made curry powder, just add 1-2 tablespoons to the yogurt, along with 1 T. of canola oil. If attempting to make the curry powder from scratch, grind and dry roast all of the spices. You can use ground turmeric, but I bought a tiny piece of fresh turmeric root and wanted to try it out. If using frozen minced turmeric or ginger (a great way to keep these ready for use), cook them in 1/4 c. water in the microwave or on the stove until the water is all or almost all gone. Add 1 T. oil, the dry roasted spices, and finally, the yogurt!