reincarnation or the karma of curry

Friday night I decided to put my ailing eggplant out of its misery and employed it in the only way mushy nearly bad eggplant can be used in an honorable manner. I roasted it and used it in a makeshift curry.

I should have called it "Curry of the Damned" as it contained most of the items in my fridge that were on their last legs, but still clinging. You know, the veggies that you really aren't sure they have another 24 hours left in them. Such was the fate of my mushrooms, my cilantro, my tomatoes, my eggplant, my garlic... I found that steam frying the mushrooms with the garlic and roasting the tomatoes and eggplant until tender provided me with a veritable renaissance of flavor and after adding a can of pinto beans and half a bag of peas, I was left with a rather serviceable dish.

Of course, by the time I had finished with it I decided to just eat my left over chili and save the curry for later.

Sunday I decided that the rest of my veggies needed to be used before I could buy anything else. Solution? Batch cooking!

I made:

~Shepherd's Pie (using leftover mashed potatoes and the other half of the bag of peas)

~Chickpea Broccoli Casserole

~Tempeh Helper (my fancy name for VwaV tempeh sausage crumbles & gravy mixed with mushrooms, corn and steamed collard greens)

The Shepherd's Pie (not fit to be photographed, believe me!) was very good! I used a mix of red and green lentils, carrots, cremini mushrooms and peas for the filling.

Chickpea Broccoli Casserole is SO good! I got fresh broccoli in my Boston Organics delivery, so I used that and some organic carrots. I didn't use the breadcrumbs or the leeks, but it still tasted fabulous.



Tempeh Helper has become my new favorite dish. I think I just love anything flavored with fennel seeds and then adding gravy and CORN on top of that just makes it all better. The greens add a nice touch, and the gravy will get even the pickiest of eaters to dig in! The trick is to water down the gravy enough so that everything in the dish gets coated.




I swear, the beauty of left overs/batch cooking is that not everyone has to eat the same thing! M has been eating Shepherd's Pie two nights in a row and was not jazzed about the potential for leftovers for dinner. I promised him that I would do something good...

The curry was looking a little dessicated, so I heated about a tablespoon of Earth Balance in a pot and put in some curry powder and cumin seeds for umph. After things got sizzling, I added the curry and some soymilk. I added a little more EB for flavor and let it simmer. I cooked some rice and dug out some Trader Joe's Naan out of the bottom of the freezer. The naan, while very tasty is totally not vegan. Since M is an omni and a naan fiend, this tidbit is a non-issue (the punner in me really wanted to have a go there).

And voila! Curry, reincarnated.




Oh, and tip for all of you Trader Joe's fiends out there. If you haven't tried it yet, you HAVE to get some of their frozen Organic Super Sweet Corn. Words can't describe how awesome it is.