IN THE POT | VEGETABLE & CHICKPEA CURRY

It’s been one of those days today.  Although on paper it doesn’t look like it should have been one of those days.  I woke at a reasonable time and put dinner on to cook before I did anything else.  This meant that dinner was on doing it’s thing before I went to work today.

I actually managed to leave the house today with a clean kitchen and dinner made.  A minor miracle in my world.

I then came home on my lunch break and did Week 1 Day 3 of the Couch to 5k program.  The people I work with are (mostly) gym junkies.  They’re always off to the gym or for a walk/jog/run on their lunch breaks so I thought I would follow their lead and I came home and hit the treadmill.  (Helps that we’re only 5 minutes down the road from work.)

I was really surprised.  I managed to do the routine, have a shower and get back to work all within the hour. I thought I would crash and burn in the afternoon, like I normally do, but I actually managed to make it to home time without suffering three-thirty-itis.  I’m thinking that this may be the way to get in my exercise time from now on.

I’m really struggling with the lack of time in my schedule and the mountain of things that I want to do so I figure if I can use my lunch break to get my exercise out of the way that’s time well spent. In fact with the time I saved by doing my exercise in the middle of the day I’ve been able to bake a cake this evening.  I’d say that’s a win-win all round.

As it’s Monday tonight’s meal was meat free.  I found tonight’s recipe online and it’s not bad.  The only thing that was a little disappointing is that the vegetables were kind of mashy.  I did consider putting it in a blender adding a tin of coconut cream and making a curry soup…. I might just do that with left overs.

(In my haste to consume dinner tonight I didn’t get a photo of the finished dish so you’ll have to make do with a cool print instead.)

Image source: Wallblank

Vegetable & Chickpea Curry

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons curry powder
3 teaspoons ground cumin
800g can diced tomatoes
1/2 lemon, juiced
300g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
150g orange sweet potato, peeled, diced
1 large carrot, peeled, diced
1 small red capsicum, diced
250g cauliflower, cut into florets
100g button mushrooms, halved
4 small yellow squash, halved
250g broccoli, cut into florets
steamed jasmine rice and natural yoghurt, to serve

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion. Cook, stirring often, for 2 to 3 minutes or until onion is soft. Add garlic, curry powder and cumin. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until aromatic.

2. Stir in tomatoes. Simmer for 3 minutes or until sauce thickens. Add 1/2 cup cold water, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, chickpeas and vegetables. Increase heat to high. Bring to the boil.

3. Spoon curry into slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 6 hours. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon curry over rice. Serve with yoghurt.

Source: Super Food Ideas – August 2006, Page 66 Recipe by Michelle Lucia