Homemade Curry in a Hurry

So, it was late last week, maybe Thursday, when I stared into my fridge and thought "here we go... what's for dinner?" And not in a good way. I wasn't excited at the prospect of rummaging around my fridge and pantry to whip up a delicious and nutritious dinner for my family.  I wish I was one of those moms that plans all meals ahead of time for the week, and preps all veg and fruit so it's ready to use when needed, but I'm not. I am that mom that THINKS about doing all these things and gets excited at the prospect of being organized, but never actually gets around to the physical act of organizing my kitchen life.  My dad used to call me the "Princess of the Land of Later" and for good reason.  I still hold that title today. 

Anyway, all this to tell you that, like any other good mom, I sat down and decided to open and peruse Pinterest for ideas of what to make for dinner. Any of you that are on Pinterest know the evil lures of this app.  It makes one feel extremely inadequate, but the beauty of "pinning" said "pins" is that you are then made to feel like you are halfway to the "adequate" mark - I mean, I pinned an idea.  It's good as done in my head now.  I went through my lovely Pinterest board of "Recipes to Try." Once again, this board is meant for good intentional purposes only. It's pretty to look at and mouth watering to read.  That's about the extent of my board usage. But last Thursday I was determined to USE one of those recipes! And... I found one! One that had pretty much all the ingredients that were sitting aimlessly in my pantry and I gave it a go. And it was glorious.  This fancy food thing isn't so hard after all.  I can't take any credit for this recipe, but will post my  add-ins or substitutes that I used instead of what was suggested. 

The recipe I decided to tackle was a Coconut Lentil Curry Soup dish.  Not something my family usually goes for.  We aren't exotic eaters.  The extent of my exotic eating reaches out to my

traditional family background food of "borscht and cabbage rolls." So this was a new world to me.  Luckily, I had the lentils (half a bag leftover from not-sure-when.  There was a month left to go on the expiry...score), a can of coconut milk was forlornly waiting to be used in something OTHER than my famous chocolate cake (I'll post this recipe another time), curry powder: check, garlic and oil: check, Fresh ginger: check (although dry is just as good),  tomato paste: nope.. "sub with ketchup" it says: CHECK! Veggie broth: I had run out of the veg broth AND cubes I usually use, so I decided to just use water.  A can of diced tomatoes. Shoot. Didn't have that. But I DID have some chunky spaghetti sauce, so I figured this was the next best thing. The recipe DID say to garnish with cilantro and add greens at the end. I was going to add some frozen spinach I thought I had in my freezer, but there wasn't any when I checked.  I had green onions so I went with those instead. And I went for it. 

I pretty much followed the recipe as to how to put it all together.  When it came to substituting, I added about a 1/2 jar of tomato sauce instead of the diced tomatoes.  And can I just say, it turned out AMAZING! The prep took me maybe 10 minutes.  And then I let my stockpot do the rest.  It took about 30 minutes to simmer and then I just left it on the stove until dinner.

Here's the thing. This curry soup isn't exactly "soupy." It turned out more like a stew, and I was happy with that.  If you want it more soupy, once you are ready to eat add a bit more broth or water to the dish to thin it out.  Or even coconut milk.  I ladled the curry onto a bed of rice and we topped it with the chopped green onions and a bit of chopped avocado.  YUM! The texture was meaty, and the dish left us all full and content for the rest of the evening. I wholeheartedly recommend this recipe.  10 minutes to make and completely worth the effort. And there are tons of leftovers for a next day lunch. 

Give it a try. If you like curry, you won't regret this dish at all! Check out the link to this recipe below.  Add or take away things to your liking and go for it! If you do try this, comment below with your opinion on the dish.

Have a great day, London!

Vegan Curry Lentil Soup (Courtesy of Vegangela.com)