11.28.11_Curried Broccoli Couscous

Ok. So maybe I felt guilty for doing so few posts this month. We decided to try and fit in one more veggie meal this month to try to make up for our delinquency. Lucky for me, Real Simple tweeted out a recipe for Curried Broccoli Couscous that sounded super yummy yesterday so I decided to give it a try.

Now I know we talk about how easy all of these recipes are but really, this recipe was insanely easy. All you had to do was saute broccoli florets (I used fresh broccoli but I'm sure frozen would work just as well) in a sauce pan with olive oil then add curry powder to coat the broccoli. Next add in golden raisins, chickpeas, and water and bring to a boil. Finally, add the couscous, remove from heat, cover the pan and let sit for 5 minutes. That's it. I was afraid the couscous wouldn't cook completely because I had never cooked couscous with other food in the same pan but it came out great.

To add some more texture and flavor I decided to use more than just the golden raisins. We found a mixture of golden raisins and craisins at the store and thought that the craisins would add a nice color and tart flavor. I also topped the couscous with sliced almonds for a little bit of sweetness and for a nice crunch. We ended up making 1.5 times the recipe so that we would have enough leftovers for lunch the next day. So scrumptious!

08.14.11_Vegetable Curry

My original plan for Sunday was to make homemade Indian food for the first time. My mom had bought some Garam Masala (a key ingredient I would need) and told me I could have some of hers because she had so much of it. I forgot to take some while we were out there on Friday so I decided to push back my plans of Paneer Tikka Masala for another week rather than buy my own huge thing of the spice. I still was craving Indian food and had found this recipe for Vegetable Curry that you made in the crock-pot. I thought this would be perfect since Phillip and I decided we wanted to go to the National Harbor for a bit.

I went to Safeway to buy all the ingredients and felt extremely healthy as I purchased nothing but vegetables and a can of coconut milk. Before this month, Phillip and I always looked at those people in the grocery store buying nothing but healthy things and were always so impressed. We are now those people. Anyway, this recipe could not have been simpler. While the onions were being sauteed, Phillip and I cut up all the other vegetables (carrots, zucchini, potatoes) and minced the garlic. I ended up buying frozen cauliflower (since we would not be using a whole head of it) and frozen green beans (since Safeway did not have fresh ones). After all the chopping was done, everything went into the crock-pot. 5 hours later, we had the most delicious curry ever. I served the curry over a bed of rice and bought some Naan from Whole Foods. A much better experience than our Saturday fail.
Side note: This recipe makes a TON of curry. After dinner and packing both of our lunches for the next day, there was still a huge Tupperware full of curry left. Nothing to complain about but you could definitely cut this recipe in half if you did not want leftovers for days. It didn't seem like much when I was reading the amounts of each vegetable but it barely all fit into my crock-pot.