Fiercely Nutritious Potato Lentil Curry

May 24, 2010

Oh, there, I’ve just named our book : Fierce Nutrition. I should buy the .com.

All those other recipes I’ve posted, that’s pansy nutrition. This one is rugged. This is in-your-face nutrition. I don’t actually expect anyone to make it. I can barely believe that I eat it, but I am convinced it’s powerfully anti-aging as well.

We know we’re supposed to eat curry, for the cancer-fighting and possibly-Alzheimer’s-protecting effects of turmeric. I follow the advice in my favorite nutrition books pretty closely about how to combine it.

This dish is also a good way to get in spinach, which is not my favorite food, but here it disappears.

Here we go:

1. Beforehand, in a separate pot, cook 2c. lentils and 1c. split peas in 6c. water. Drain. You can put anything you like here that has a grain:water ratio of 1:2 and cooks in 20min or so. Why wash 2 pots when 1 will do the job? I sometimes use quinoa or the various bean blends at the Bulk Store.

2. Drag out the big pot. In it,

Cook 2 cooking onions, chopped, in 2 Tbsp. oil.

3. When almost transparent, add 6 cloves garlic, minced. Stir for 1 min. Don’t be shy with garlic, it’s just background flavor once it’s cooked. I bet you could add 12 cloves and barely taste it. Very healthy, very cheap.

4. Grate in about 2 Tbsp. fresh ginger. Don’t be shy with ginger, healthy and cheap.

5. Add 1 teaspoon curry paste (of the heat you prefer, I like mild), 3 tsp. curry powder, 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. coriander, 1 tsp. turmeric. Stir and cook for 1 minute. Sometimes I add extra turmeric, you can hide a lot in this recipe.

6. Dump in 1 x 28oz can tomatoes, and 1 x 6oz can tomato paste.

7. Add the cooked lentils and beans.

8. Add 3 sweet or 5 white potatoes chopped. If they’re white, I use small potatoes. I read somewhere that something in potato skins stops cancer cells in their tracks. I get more skin per surface area with smaller potatoes.

9. Add 3 large carrots, chopped.

10. Snip in 2 bunches fresh basil.

11. Add 1 container frozen spinach, or a bag of washed.

12. Add many grinds pepper, and salt if you like it. (Remember that canned tomatoes are quite salted).

13. Simmer till potatoes cooked. You know, 15 min. or so.

14. Eat with organic plain yogurt. My sister explained to me that organic yogurt has enough bacteria left, after the antibiotics fed to the cow, that got in the milk, killed the other bacteria, to set the yogurt without needing the addition of gelatin. If you don’t eat organic, look for no-gelatin yogurt.

What else could you add? Well, sky’s the limit. Green beans, celery, pepper. Probably anything but parsnip or radish.

I could show you some pretty picture, but it looks like this.

Free your soul.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Food & Recipes

Comments

3 Responses to “Fiercely Nutritious Potato Lentil Curry”

Jo on May 25th, 2010 2:50 pm

Oh, YUM.

I love sweet potatoes in a curry. In fact, I might be tempted to use all sweet potatoes and drop the normal ones.

It really does read delicious.

One tiny bit of clarification – is that 1x28oz can tomatoes or 1x8oz can tomatoes or 2x8oz can tomatoes? They come in 400g tins (16oz I think) over here in the UK, so forgive my confusion.
Christine Scaman on May 25th, 2010 5:14 pm

Jo, it’s 1 x 28oz tin tomatoes. I’ll fix it in the text.

I also forgot, and will fix, to add in 2 bunches snipped basil. Basil, cherries, and lime are my favorite flavors so I put basil everywhere I can.
Jo on May 25th, 2010 5:27 pm

Thanks!

I have similar obsessions about coriander (cilantro to you), sweet chili sauce and blackcurrant.