Indian food that's not too weird.

[Trashette]

So lately we've been experimenting with vegetarian Indian food using the Kitchens of India brand. This is a curried chickpea thing..it's really good. You even get a CD of good ol' fashioned classical Indian music in the box. And if you have a picky-ass boyfriend who won't eat rice, cous-cous is a yummy alternative for a whole grain.

Juuust thought I would share:

[crash138]

I've never tried Kitchens of India....looks good

and couscous is actually a pasta so depending on the mfg. while depend on if its made w/ whole wheat or refined wheat

you might want to have him try millet, it is smaller and sweeter (kinda) than rice almost similar to couscous but is a whole grain.

I learned WAY too much about whole grains making baby food for my little monster =)

[tinabina]

Mmm, looks like good stuff to begin with, but it comes with a CD of Indian music too? That's awesome.

If you really want to play with cooking Indian food, here's a great site: www.manjulaskitchen.com. She's got cooking videos that really break it down, and it looks sooooo good. It's all vegetarian, with some vegan too. If you have an Indian market near you, the stuff is easy to pick up pretty cheaply.

[bex]

My boyfriend adapted a channa masala recipe to this:

Serves 3 (possibly 4) people. Takes about 15mins to prepare.

INGREDIENTS

* 2 tbsp Olive Oil
* 3/4 a medium onion, chopped


* 2 large cloves of garlic, all minced up
* 2 Tbsp curry powder
* 2 Tbsp tomato paste


* 2 15oz cans of garbanzo beans (drained, but keep 3oz [6 tbsp] of liquid from can)
* 1 Tbsp lemon juice
* 1 teasp salt
* Black pepper to taste


* 6oz coconut milk
* crushed red pepper (cayenne) to taste (add lots to make it spicy!)


* 1Tbsp margarine




DIRECTIONS

Heat up the oil in a large frying pan. Fry the onions until they're just starting to brown.

Throw in garlic, curry powder, tomato paste. Mix in 3oz of liquid from garbanzo bean cans. Stir it all up and let it simmer for a couple minutes (stir occasionally).

Add beans, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Simmer for about 3 minutes.

Mix in coconut milk and cayenne. Let simmer for 2 more minutes. Stir occasionally!

Add in the margarine and stir to melt. Let it simmer some more until the peas are softened and nice to eat which is probably another 5 minutes.

Serve over rice.

It's delicious!

[eatyrspleens]

thank you for sharing these! i love indian food and am always looking for easy ways to feed the craving without actually having to go to a restaurant. now if only i could find a good recipe for naan (and could actually do it right!)...

tasty bite is also a decent brand for indian/thai food as far as ready to eat meals go. www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce/ExecMacro/tastybite/home.d2w/report


this, too, is really, really good.

[tinabina]

Ah, I've seen that Golden Curry around, but I've never been sure if I should try it. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm actually really intimidated by naan >> I've seen a few recipes and videos on how to make it, so I might try it sometime. I'll let you guys know how it goes if I do.

[bex]

any of those recipes happened to be vegan, by any chance?

[amandatague]

i used to work with this guy from india so i have his family recipes for channa masala and tandoori chicken. i'm thinking about making tandoori tofu and swapping out all the dairy for soy dairy in the semi near future.

[bex]

do it!!

[tinabina]

I used tofu instead of paneer once in mattar paneer, it worked pretty well. Not the same flavor, but still fun little chunks that gave a good flavor and texture contrast...