Sunday Supper 10: Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry

Recipe available at Delicious Magazine

I know, for the sake of my own health goals and for the general, you know, health of the earth, I need to eat more fruits and vegetables. Or rather, I need to center my diet around fruits and vegetables in a more substantive way than I do. I'm always happy to have a tasty veg side dish next to a meaty main, but that doesn't quite cut it. I need to make the plants the star of the meal more often. Or even, the whole meal.

But I have a huge problem when it comes to considering a vegetarian or vegan diet, or even just a meal here and there. Namely, that problem is a failure of imagination. When I start to think about what plant-based meal I'd like to make, my mind goes blank. Well, not blank, my mind goes to mac n' cheese. Pretty much always. (But that's not exactly an improvement over meat, health-wise.) Or, my mind goes to a place of deprivation anxiety. Like the moment I decide not to eat meat for a day or a week, the idea of every other food in the world evaporates from my mind, and I just make a salad because it's the only plant-based meal I can think of, and I get sad.

Enter this recipe. I'm not sure what drew me to it initially, or what made me save it in my recipes-for-blog queue. I love sweet potatoes, and I love curry, though I don"t think I've ever made one. I wasn't specifically looking for vegan recipes when I flagged this one, and wasn't planning on a vegan Sunday Supper when I chose this one for this week. But it seemed like it was full of potential. Vegetable-y enough to channel some oncoming spring vibes and hearty and filling enough to cope with Chicago's second winter.

I had a few of the basics of this recipe and headed out to my new favorite local multi-ethnic market for the rest. This recipe does require a couple of "specialty" items you may not find at every market. Leeks, for example, are not always available everywhere, and red lentils can be tricky to locate unless your grocery has a pretty ample selection of beans and dry goods. So this might be a good occasion to drive a little further to a larger market, if necessary.

Then there's the curry paste. (A new ingredient for me). Even in my market with aisles and aisles of ethnic specialties, I couldn't find the exact brands or flavors the recipe recommends, so be prepared for some searching. I went with a pretty basic Red Curry Paste, and it packed a flavorful punch into the final dish (though not a ton of heat).

I also found and picked up a couple of tins of Panang Curry Paste, so stay tuned at some point for an attempt at my favorite Thai curry dish.

The Cooking

I set out, when I started this one, to do something I always say I'm going to do but always sort of skip. Doing all my mise en place before I ever apply heat to pan. I know I'm supposed to do this when I cook. And I genuinely always have the best intentions. But this time I did it. And it was a huge help to have all the slicing and chopping and rinsing and draining and can opening done beforehand. If there's one thing I recommend to make your at home cooking process more enjoyable on a day you're not really feeling it, it's this. Do your prep work. Let the focus of knife work relax you. Then, when it's time to cook, you won't be rushed. You'll be ready.

When you start to sautee, it's going to feel like a LOT of onions. But they'll sweat down considerably with the leeks. As they sweat, they'll sweeten up a lot, too, giving the final curry a really lovely background sweetness under the richness and heat.

Once you start to cook in the curry paste and the ginger, the magic starts to happen. Curry paste is a flavor bomb, combining the powers of red chili peppers, garlic, sea salt, lemongrass and turmeric (among others). And ginger is just one of those things that will take a dish from "Oh, that's really good" to "Damn, that's delicious." A couple of notes:

• Yes, you can make your own curry paste, but the cost of those ingredients is going to far outweigh the cost of a tin of paste.

• Make sure you check the ingredient list if you want a truly, completely vegan meal. Some curry pastes include shrimp paste.

After that, everything is simply simple. Drop in all those veggies and things you've already prepped (clever you) and give that bad boy some simmer time. While it's simmering, go ahead and make some rice, and prep your garnish items of choice.

The recipe calls for serving the curry with yogurt to cool things down a bit. I didn't do that, because I find it a bit laughable. This curry wasn't at all spicy in my opinion. But, that's totally a matter of personal taste and dependent on the curry paste you end up using. If you're spice-sensitive, by all means grab some yogurt. I think it'd be a nice counterpoint. I opted for some simple, fresh, un-messed-with seedless cucumber. I loved it and highly recommend.

Preparation Notes

• Overall, this curry was great. I do wish it had been a bit hotter and a bit warmer. I think some cinnamon would do that trick for me. Maybe toss in a stick or two of cinnamon right before the simmer and remove before serving.

• When I combined all the ingredients, the mixture seemed a little bit dry. To make sure I had enough liquid to survive the simmer, I added about half a coconut-milk-can full of water.

• CONVERSIONS

  • This recipe comes from a UK magazine, so if you're cooking in the US, you'll need to do some converting. Here are some helpful tips:

  • For the canned goods, the 400ml size is standard for what you can find in the US, too (13.5 fl oz coconut milk, 14.5 oz diced tomatoes, 15.5 oz chickpeas)

  • 25g of red lentils is a piddling amount, so I rounded up to a scant 1/4 cup

  • 115g of spinach is probably around 2 cups (packed). I had more so I used around 3 cups. It's all going to wilt down anyway, so knock yourself out.

  • Fresh coriander (as the recipe calls for) is what the Brits call cilantro. Honestly, they're the same thing, so I'm not sure why we have two distinct words here in the US.

Rating: 4/5

Will I Make It Again: Yeah. I think this is a nice one ot have in the repertoire. A good vegetable-based go to.

The Recipe