Is the wind chill keeping you inside, cozying up to your heater? Tired of sitting inside, bored and culture-less, eating the same dorm food or maybe chomping on the stew you cooked last Monday? If that’s the case, then spicing up your meals with a flavorful and ethnic vegetarian meal will surely inspire a little excitement in your life. For the vegetarian non-savvy, abstaining from meat is, as a general rule, a very environmentally friendly choice. Not only do you cease supporting harmful and unnatural practices toward animals like CAFO farming (unless you purchase naturally raised meat), but you also reduce your carbon footprint since the livestock industry takes up 10 times more land than crop-based food industries and emits anywhere from 18 to 51% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Here is my own special Indian-style veggie-lentil-potato super curry, improvised by yours truly. The recipe is forgiving, so feel free to play around with ingredients. I’ve made sure to note what ingredients you can buy at a local store in Kirksville—Countryside Market—so you can support a solid local food businesses.
Photo provided by http://www.mediterranean.com
(This is a fake picture. But maybe your curry will look JUST LIKE this sparkling dish!)
Ingredients:
3 green onions, chopped
2 tbsp fennel seeds*
2 tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp minced garlic
Oil to sauté*
Lentils (8 oz. bag)*
1 cup brown rice*
Two large potatoes, chopped*
A mixture of the following vegetables, to your own taste (or other veggies, if you like)
1 cup of peas*
1 head of broccoli (maybe less), sliced and chopped
1-2 carrots, sliced
4 whole mushrooms, sliced
2 large tomatoes, diced
Water and flour as needed
Ground coriander*
Turmeric powder
Curry powder*
Cinnamon*
Chili sauce (I prefer Sriracha. There is a rooster on the logo, you can’t miss it)
Salt to taste
*available at Country Side Market (a few minutes north of Wal Mart), where you can purchase quality, local ingredients. This supports the local economy, reduces CO2 emissions of long transportation. The rest are available at HyVee or Wal Mart.
You might want to do the following ahead of time, since you might not have enough kitchenware to cook the lentils, rice, potatoes, and the sauce at once. I had that problem, at least, and multitasking all three things can get a little tricky.
- Boil 2 ¼ cup water. Add rice, simmer on low until done.
- Meanwhile, boil 3 cup water. Add lentils, simmer on low until done.
- Meanwhile, cover potatoes with water and boil, simmer on low until done.
- Warm oil in a skillet. Sauté green onions with garlic, fennel seeds, and turmeric powder. Cook until onions are tender. Do not let garlic burn!
- Meanwhile, make sure vegetables are chopped. Add broccoli and carrots to green onion mixture, in a wok or other large pot, heated around medium or lower. Add about ½ cup of water, and add more as needed for consistency so it’s a paste, not watery. Add curry powder, coriander, and turmeric to taste, and add a few spoonfuls of flour to keep the mixture like a paste, not watery. Let cook until carrots are tender then add the rest of vegetables. Continue to heat on medium.
- When lentils and potatoes are tender, add them to the mixture. Add more flour, water, coriander, turmeric, and curry powder as desired. Add a little cinnamon if you’re feeling adventurous. Add plenty of salt, and add chili sauce to taste.
- Enjoy, with brown rice!
Congratulations! Sit back and watch some Bollywood to celebrate your triumphant completion of this completely authentic *cough* Indian curry.
Down to Earth 