Navratan Kurma

Indian food has made it's way into my mind again recently. I have been missing the flavor of a good Indian dish. I used to go to an Indian restaurant in Folsom, CA called The India House and fell in love with the chicken tikka masala, much to my lactose intolerant stomach's dislike. They had other delicious food as well, including, well everything there was actually delicious. Anyway, I found this recipe and decided to try it because 1) the pictures captured my interest. 2) it is loaded with veggies. 3) it did not use cream like my favorite tikka masala. 4) it looked do-able and easy enough. 5) I like the woman's blog who supplied this recipe.

Here is the link to the actual recipe, I made some very slight modifications.
http://www.holycowvegan.net/2008/09/navratan-kurma.html

The ingredient's list at first was overwhelming; I panicked when seeing it for the first time. But after reading through it I calmed and found that it was mostly the spices that made the list so long.

 I started my Indian journey by letting 1/2 cup of cashew soak in water for at least 30 minutes. Then I started boiling the carrots, broccoli and sweet potatoes in water (they have different 'done' times so I could not boil all at the same exact time). I just boiled each until soft.

Next, I sauteed ginger and garlic in a skillet until soft and browned and started adding the list of spices to coat the onion mixture. After 1 minute I added the tomatoes and tumeric to the mix and watched until the tomatoes started breaking down. Next I added cottage cheese and stirred to incorporate for 2-3 minutes. I added the salt and then the cooked veggies. This is another recipe where you can just use what you have on hand in terms of veggies. I used about 4 cups of mixed veggies including all the favorites: sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, green beans, onions, zucchini, and tomatoes.

After several minutes or so on lower heat the mixture will thicken and get to be like a gravy that coats the veggies. In the meantime you can strain the cashews and add the soaked nuts to a food processor and blend until it becomes a paste. You then add this cashew nut paste to the veggie gravy deliciousness and stir in. Serve it up and ENJOY! I added a few squirts of braggs and siracha to mine after serving as always because I love the nutty heat this combo provides.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cashews (soaked and ground into a paste)

4 cup chopped veggies (cooked til tender)

2 Tbsp minced/chopped garlic
2 Tbsp minced/chopped ginger
1 medium onion chopped
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp poppyseeds
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp red pepper flakes


1/2 tsp tumeric
2 tomatoes

3/4 cup cottage cheese
salt to taste