Pumpkin Chicken Coconut Curry Stew

Pumpkin Chicken Coconut Curry Stew

After Halloween, I had a big pumpkin that I wanted to breakdown into pieces that I could consume. It was a very fun and rewarding experience. And it was shocking home much pumpkin you got from just one little pumpkin! If you are looking for cost savings meals in the fall, definitely consider buying pumpkins. The pumpkin was also a great ingredient for a coconut curry. You could also use sweet potato as well.

ingredients:

2 cups+ raw fresh pumpkin cubed
red pepper
chicken breast
onion
1 can coconut milk
1 tbsp curry powder
1-2 tsp cayenne pepper

garlic
1-2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
ground pepper
1 tsp brown sugar

handful of cilantro

lime

chicken stock

directions:

1. Dice up some onions, and put them in a medium size to large pot in some oil or butter. Start to cooking the onions down until they become caramelized. While the onions are cooking, prep your other ingredients. Make sure you have your pumpkin in cubes, maybe 1 inch wide. Also some red pepper. If you haven't done so already, you could cook the chicken breast in the oven before hand and cut that up. Or you could cut the chicken and put it in the curry at the same time as the pumpkin.

2. After the onions are done cooking, you can add your spices, and garlic to them. Heating the spices will help reinvigorate them. After a few minutes, add your coconut milk. If the coconut milk doesn't look like enough, you can also add a little chicken stock to stretch it out. But don't add too much or you'll lose the coconut goodness.

3. Toss in your pumpkin, chicken, and red pepper at this time. And turn down to medium heat. Let it simmer and cook the pumpkin through. Maybe 15-20 minutes.

4. Once the pumpkin has cooked through taste the curry. Is it salty enough? Is it sweet enough? Is it spicy enough? There is a good chance you might want to add some salt, brown sugar, or cayenne pepper just to get it right.

5. Once the curry is done. Spoon it into bowls. You could eat it with rice. But definitely eat it with a squeeze of lime for some freshness and acidity. Also, some chopped cilantro.

Chickpea Sweet Potato Cauliflower Kale Curry on Cauliflower Rice

Chickpea Sweet Potato Cauliflower Kale Curry on Cauliflower Rice

This coconut curry was delicious! It was the first time I added sweet potato to a curry and I think it turned out very well. By getting some of the sweetness from the onion and sweet potato, I found I had to add less sugar to the curry itself (as I like mine a little sweet pared with the coconut). The cauliflower rice was an idea I got from Jamie Oliver.

ingredients

1 can chickpeas
1 can coconut milk
1 onion
1 sweet potato
1/4-1/3 cauliflower
A handful of kale
1 tbsp of curry powder of paste
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 turmeric (mostly for colour)
1/2 coriander
1/2 brown sugar
1-2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp salt

directions

1. Start by prepping all your ingredients by chopping the sweet potato into chunks, dicing the onion, slicing the kale into thing strips, and opening your cans of chickpeas and coconut.

2. Begin cooking by frying your onions in some kind of flavourless oil until they are translucent. You can then add in your spices and garlic. Cook them for a 1-2 minutes to reinvigorate them.

3. Toss in your sweet potato, chickpeas and cauliflower as they will take longer to cook than the kale. Then add in your coconut milk (including most of the liquid if you want it a little soupy, if not try to use most of just the creamy parts) and any spices you haven't already added.

4. At this point things will need to cook for a while. Maybe 10-15 minutes. But this is the most important part because you need to taste the sauce of your curry. You want to find a nice balance. It needs enough salt, sweetness, and heat to really work.

5. After the sauce is tasting good and it has cooked down a bit and your vegetables are cooked through. Add in your kale. This should cook through in a few minutes.

6. Serve with rice or quinoa. Or you can blend some cauliflower in a food process until its the shape of rice. Steam it. And perhaps lightly salt it with a fine salt.

Curried Red Lentil Dhal

Curried Red Lentil Dhal

Made this recipe off a red lentil dhal recipe of Michael Smith's. It is easy, delicious, and healthy. What a great way to make lentils. If you eat it with some basmati rice, it is a full meal with everything that your body needs. Eat it with some cilantro and chopped red onion for some freshness and crunch!

ingredients:

1 cup red lentils
3 cups water
1 tbsp fresh ginger
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup butter

1 onion

handful of cilantro
1 tbsp spoon brown sugar (optional)

1/2 tsp of salt
basmati rice

directions:

1. Cook basmati rice in a pot, or rice cooker. Follow the directions on the package of your rice. Mine is usually 1 part rice, 2 parts water, a little salt, and 8-10 minutes simmering.

2. Put butter into a medium sized pot, and melt it down. Toss in one chopped onion and cook the onion down so it starts to caramelize. This will help add sweetness to your dhal. Stir in your spices (cumin, curry powder, cayenne, etc) in with your onions and cook for 2-3 minutes. This will reinvigorate your spices. Add the lentils, water and ginger to the pot. Add brown sugar if you like a touch of sweetness, but don't add it if you want to make it a little healthier.

3. Bring the pot to a full boil, and then reduce heat to medium to maintain a simmer. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes until lentils are soft.

4. Spoon lentils over rice. Garnish with cilantro and red onion if you wish.

Butter Chicken with Cucumber, Mint and Pineapple Salad

Butter Chicken with Cucumber. Mint and Pineapple Salad

Butter chicken has to be the most famous Indian dishes outside of India. But from what I've heard it's not actually called Butter Chicken there... or at least parts of India, but either way it's a yummy dish and I don't care. Butter Chicken is probably best with boneless skinless chicken thighs, but you could also use chicken breast if you want to be healthier.

ingredients:

1 - 1/2 pound chicken thighs
1/4-1/2 cup cream
tomato paste or 1 can diced tomatoes

1 onion
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 cup butter

1/4-1/2 cup yogurt

1 cucumber
handful of fresh mint
1/2 a pineapple

directions:

1. Mix yogurt with cayenne, cumin, salt, pepper. Cover this yogurt mixture on to the chicken thighs. Then bake chicken thighs in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

2. Chop up onions, and sautee them in a frying pan until they start to get caramelized. Then toss in your cayenne, cumin, curry powder, coriander into the onions and cook for a few minutes to reinvigorate your spices. Toss in some tomato paste, or canned tomatoes, and cook down until tomatoes seem cook. Transfer mixture to a food processor, or blender, or use a hand blender, and blend til smooth.

3. Mix in some cream and butter until the mixture to help make it creamy and velvety. Then put in your cooked chicken thighs and let them cook out a little more in the sauce.

4. Serve butter chicken over rice. And a great salad to accompany it would be some chopped pineapple, cucumber and mint. Dress is with a little vinaigrette or keep it plain.

Curry Acorn Squash and Apple Soup

Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Making fresh rolls, instead of spring rolls or egg rolls is incredibly easy as the rice paper cooks so quickly. The only hard part is wrapping them. But honestly, it is A LOT easier than making sushi or something like that. So it is worth a try making theses at home.

ingredients:

rice paper
shrimp
cucumber
carrot
vermicelli noodles
garlic

rice noodles
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp white wine vinegar, or rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
bean sprouts
onions

directions:

Fresh Rolls:

1. Slice cucumber and carrot into thin strips. Slightly sautee shrimps with garlic in butter in a frying pan until they are cooked through. Keep shrimps whole, or consider slicing them in half for your rolls.

2. Spread out your fillings in bowls to get ready to prepare the rolls. Make sure you have a flat surface like a large plate or cutting board that you can put your rice paper out on.

3. In some boiling water, submerge each rice paper one by one. Will only take 1 minute to cook. After the rice paper is cooked and malleable. Put it on a flat surface and spoon in some of the carrots, cucumber, vermicelli noodles, and shrimp. Fold sides and bottom in, and roll up.

4. Take rolls and dip them in your favourite plum sauce, or sweet chili sauce.

Curried Noodles:

1. Bowl some rice noodles in a pot until they are cooked through.

2. Mix curry powder, white wine vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar into a bowl or measuring cup and set aside.

3. Cut onion into small slices, and start frying them in a pan. While the onion is cooking, chop bean sprouts in about half or smaller pieces. When translucent, add in your noodles and bean sprouts. As they are cooking pour in your mixture of curry powder, vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar. Mix around until the noodles are all coated. Remove once the bean sprouts are cooked through.

Paneer Pasanda

I ate this at my friend's wedding a couple years ago and after wards I needed to figure out how to make it! I LOVE paneer!

Chickpea Curry

Chickpea Curry

Ingredients:

1 can Chickpeas
1 Red pepper
1 Green pepper (Sometimes I will do orange instead)
1 Onion (white or yellow)
1 Garlic Clove
1 can Cocunut Milk (or 1/2 can)
1 tablespoon Curry Powder
1 tablespoon Cumin
1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric (mostly for colour)
1/4 teaspoon Chili Powder
Salt
Olive Oil
Water

Instructions:

1. Dice up a red pepper, green pepper, and onion. Mash up some garlic. Add these elements into a frying pan, in perhaps some margarine. Add some salt to help release the water in the vegetables. Add 1 can of chickpeas. Then cover with water so everything is submerged. Cook on
medium heat.
2. After a while, the chickpeas will soften, you will see the skin start to peel off a bit. And the water will evaporate.
3. Once the water has evaporated, it is time to add the spices. Put in 1 tablespoon curry, 1 tablespoon cumin, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
(you can add more if you want it hotter but I really recommend this amount) and at least 1/2 can of coconut milk. (I usually don't shake the can up and just add the creamy half floating on the
top and chuck the rest)
4. Let that cook down, so the coconut milk and spices reduce and become sticky. Once sticky, add in a little olive oil and mix it together. (oil isn't necesarry but maybe helps bind it and give
it a little shine)
5. Serve with basmati rice.

Vegetarian Curry Pad Thai

Vegetarian Curry Pad Thai

Ingredients:

1/2 pack of pad thai noodles
1/2 pack (250 grams) firm tofu
1-2 cup fresh bean sprouts, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Salt
Oil or margarine for frying

Sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon curry powder

Garnish:
1 or 2 green onions
1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts - just a small pile to put on top
1/2 lime or lemon, cut into small wedges (lemon is probably better because it is sweeter)

Instructions:

1. Soak the dried rice noodles in cool or lukewarm water for 30 minutes, or until they're limp but still firm to the touch; later cooking in the wok (or big frypan) will soften them more. Drain the noodles thoroughly in a colander and set aside while preparing the other ingredients.
2. Chop 1 green onion, and 1/4 cup of peanuts into small pieces. Leave to the side for the end.
3. In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sugar and curry powder; stir well to melt the sugar. Taste and adjust flavors to the desired combination of salty, sour, and sweet. Marinate tofu in this over night.
4. Fry 1 egg scrambled on the side, with maybe some salt. Don't overcook it because you are gonna add it in later. I just like to make sure it is fairly cooked before going in. Break it up, or cut it into strips/ribbons of egg.
5. Heat a wok or frying pan over medium-high heat until it is hot. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and stir-fry the tofu with some crushed garlic (when you remove the tofu from the marinade, remember to save the sauce on the side). When tofu starts turning golden brown, add in noodles
and remaining marinade. Let the noodles soak up the marinade. Add a little extra water if needed.
6. Add the chopped bean sprouts and egg once the noodles are pretty well cooked, and cover with a lid. Leave until the bean sprouts are cooked.
7. Add chopped green onion and peanuts on top as garnish. Add lime or lemon wedges on the side. Squeeze lime juice over each portion before eating.