Kitchen Sink Cashew Curry

For this month's ingredient - ginger - I wanted to use it in typical Indian fashion, freshly grated and sautéed with garlic, onions and spices. The trouble was that I didn't quite know what dry spices I wanted to use. So while the result is decent, it's not a "wow, I'm definitely making THAT again" recipe. My goal was to keep it relatively healthy overall, feature veggies and non-meat proteins, and use some whole wheat noodles b/c I wasn't in the mood for rice or naan.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp whole coriander seeds

1 tbsp whole cumin seeds

oil for sautéeing

1/2 tsp turmeric

salt

4 large cloves of garlic, minced

2 inches of fresh ginger, grated

2 small/medium onions, chopped

2 serrano chilis, minced

8 oz. fresh green beans, trimmed and cut in half

6 oz. baby bella button mushrooms

2 cups small cauliflower florets

14 oz. package of extra-firm organic tofu

1 3/4 cup plain fat-free yoghurt

7/8 cup light cream

1 cup (or more) roasted and salted cashews

fresh cilantro

I served it with Ronzoni whole wheat linguine (6 oz), prepared al dente.

Directions:

In a dry frying pan, roast the whole spices. When fragrant and toasty, remove from heat and grind in a spice grinder. (I keep an inexpensive hand-held coffee grinder specifically for this purpose). Heat oil in a large (12") frying pan. Add ground spices, turmeric, ginger, and garlic, and sauté for a minute or so, until fragrant. Add the onions and chilis, and sauté until the onions start to get soft. Add salt, vegetables and tofu. Cover and let steam for 5-10 minutes, until the veggies are crisp-tender. Add the cream and yoghurt and let simmer, uncovered, until the sauce is a bit thicker and veggies seem done. Stir in a bunch o cashews. Adjust salt to taste. Sprinkle with cilantro to garnish.

The result:

Well, it was tasty, but it felt like it was lacking something. I don't know if it's acid (a lot of curries have tomatoes), or more hot chilis (I can barely taste any heat- maybe my chilis were too mild), or if the cream or yoghurt needed more fat, but it's not quite where it should be. The sauce was a bit watery, too. I was worried about simmering it down even further, though - I didn't want to overcook the veggies.

I think that next time I wouldn't use cumin, either. Maybe I'd do curry powder and coriander instead. I think coriander and cumin go better when you're also using warm spices like garam masala, and in the dishes that include raisins and things. Using noodles - especially whole wheat linguine - isn't exactly traditional, either. But I was in the mood, and the noodles seemed to go well with the the stuff.

Overall it was decent and quite healthy (I think it was, at least), but I'd make some changes to the spices and heat next time.