Vegetable Coconut Curry with Chickpea Cakes
Creamy or spicy, simple or complex, powerful or understated … a meal’s sauce sets its tone. Sauces also provide a sense of place and heritage: take the same basic ingredients, for example, slap a different sauce on them, and all of a sudden you’ve gone from Mexican to Japanese. (Steak + peppers + onions + cumin + oregano + lime = a basic fajita; steak + peppers + onions + soy sauce + ginger + rice vinegar = a basic teriyaki.)
One of my all-time favorite sauce bases is an Indian coconut curry — it works equally well for veggies, fish, beef, and chicken. (I say Indian because of the Madras curry powder I use, but there are also plenty of delicious southeastern Asian curries.) There’s just something enchanting about the layering of warm spices — ginger, turmeric, cayenne, cumin, etc. — over the backdrop of creamy, rich whole coconut milk. And nothing could be easier than adding a teaspoonful of curry powder and splash of coconut milk to whatever you’re sautéeing at the moment.
In this case, I happened to have a rainbow of peppers, corn, spinach, and tomatoes in my fridge, so the dish nearly made itself!
Vegetable Coconut Curry
1 T. coconut oil
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
The kernels of 1 ear of fresh corn OR 1 cup of frozen kernels
1 medium tomato, chopped
Handful of baby spinach
1/3 cup whole coconut milk
1 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Sautée coconut oil, pepper, onion and corn over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until onion is translucent and you can poke through a kernel of corn with the tip of a sharp knife. Add remaining ingredients and carefully stir, then turn heat down to low and let simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
If you like, serve with a bread or grain on the side. A few chunks of pineapple would also be a nice compliment to the meal.
Enjoy!
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