Meatless Monday with Simple Vegan Vegetable Curry

Hello and thanks for joining us for another Meatless Monday. Miratel took the Meatless Monday pledge which aims to preserve the planet and its inhabitants by eliminating meat one day per week as one of its CSR business initiatives. Each week, we bring a new recipe to help make meal planning sans meat easier.

Tonight for dinner we’re making a delicious vegan vegetable curry. This is a flavourful and simple dish which anyone can make regardless of their culinary skill set. Our meal today comes courtesy of the Martha Stewart kitchens at Everyday Food. Let’s get cooking.

Simple Vegetable Curry image courtesy of marthastewart.com/everyday-food

Ingredients (makes 4 servings)

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced small
• 1 cup long-grain white rice (or brown or basmati if you prefer)
• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon red curry paste
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (from a 13.5-ounce can)
• 1 sweet potato (about 3/4 pound), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 small cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1 can (15.5 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• fresh cilantro, for serving

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, heat 1 teaspoon oil over medium-high. Add mustard seeds and half the onion and cook, stirring often, until onion is soft, 3 minutes. Add rice and stir to combine. Add 1 1/2 cups water, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce to a simmer; cook until water is absorbed and rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.
2. Meanwhile, in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 2 teaspoons oil over medium-high. Add remaining onion and cook, stirring often, until soft, 3 minutes. Add curry paste and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in coconut milk and 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Add sweet potato and cauliflower and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer until vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Stir chickpeas into curry and increase heat to high. Simmer rapidly until liquid reduces slightly, 2 minutes. Serve curry over rice with cilantro.

If you have all the ingredients in the house, this meal is a relatively quick to make as it comes together in less than an hour including prep and cooking time. There are some additions you can make to the recipe to switch it up. One addition you can incorporate is to toss in cubed extra-firm tofu for added protein. Also, if you want to add more flavour use a vegetable stock in place of the 1 ½ cups of water the recipe calls for. If you enjoy your curry on the spicier side you may want to try hot mustard seeds instead of regular mustard seeds or even some chilis.

We encourage you to visit the Meatless Monday website and join us in taking the pledge to reduce meat consumption one day per week. It’s easy with delicious recipes like this one. Spread the word at work to promote the value of CSR business initiatives and make your green call centre, office, factory, shop, restaurant, hotel or salon even greener.

Enjoy!
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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.