Well, we’re back and settled in from a quick weekend away in Ottawa, visiting our friends Andrew and Meg. Always a good time. They were nice enough to embrace our veghead ways for the weekend. Meg whipped up some hot for food pumpkin scones (delish!) and they took us to The Green Door Restaurant for lunch and Pure Kitchen for supper on Saturday. Pure has these really great Korean BBQ cauliflower wings that I need to try and recreate stat.
At some point, during the weekend Andrew and I were reminiscing about my food habits in university. I barely cooked. Andrew was an unofficial roommate and we agreed that he spent more time cooking in that house than I did. Being on student loans I was extremely cheap with my money. I just couldn’t justify grocery shopping for fresh produce knowing that I didn’t feel comfortable cooking and that most of the produce I would buy would end up in the trash as I didn’t know how to buy the right quantities and would procrastinate using it up. I lived off of pantry staples like granola bars, dry cereal, kraft dinner, canned soups, peanut butter and the occasional quesadillas and shepherd’s pie. I remember in my last year I bought myself a meal plan so that I would force myself to eat proper meals.
A couple years after university I started my first job working in PR for a lot of food associations and started to dabble with cooking. It really wasn’t until I went plant-based that I started to really learn how and love to cook. I’ve come such a long way. I don’t look at cooking as a chore anymore (at least 95% of the time I don’t). I’m so much more comfortable and don’t feel the need to follow a recipe with every meal I make. It’s so liberating. Its also so satisfying to make something out of thin air and have it taste amazing!
Anyways, that’s a long intro story into this recipe which was inspired by an eggplant curry we had at The Green Door Restaurant this weekend that I whipped up for lunch today.
ingredients (approx 4 servings):
- 1 tbsp. olive oil (if needed)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 tbsp. turmeric
- 1 tbsp. garam masala
- 1 tbsp. ground cumin
- 1 tbsp. ground coriander seeds
- 1 tsp. red pepper flakes (more or less for your spice preference
- 1 or 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3/4 c. water
- 1/2 c. coconut milk
- 1/2 medium eggplant, cubed
- 1 zucchini, sliced
- 1 c. mushrooms, sliced
- 2 handfuls kale, shredded
In a med/large pot heat olive oil if needed over med/high heat, if not using, use a splash of water. Add the garlic and onion and cook for two or three minutes until the onion is translucent. Next, add the spices: turmeric, red pepper flakes, garam masala, ground cumin, ground coriander, garam masala and salt. Stir and let the spices cook for about a minute. You’ll now want to add some water and the coconut milk… I guessed the amount of water but you want to ensure that there is enough liquid to turn everything into a sauce for the veggies to cook in.
Next! Turn the heat down to low/medium and add the eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms, stir and cover for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 20 minutes add in the kale, stir and cook for the last ten minutes. While that’s all cooking you can get some rice going.
If you give it a try, let me know how it turns out!! I’m looking forward to making it again!
