Cooking Indian at home, attempt #2

Tonight I had big plans for an Indian feast.  This Vegetable & Tofu Korma dish, followed by "Ram's Cilantro Potato & Carrots."  I only made it as far as the first dish, so I'm saving Ram's for tomorrow's dinner.  It should work out well since there wasn't much in the way of leftovers from the Korma.

I got the Korma recipe from my favorite food blog, 101 Cookbooks.  Heidi Swanson creates her own vegetarian recipes tweaked from her favorite cookbooks.  The dishes always take advantage of fresh, local ingredients or interesting spices or both - all very simply.  While some of the ingredients may seem exotic, the techniques are always easy and straightforward.  And not only are the recipes delicious to read, the photographs are mouth-watering.  If you haven't seen the blog before, check it out now!

Because I didn't have all of the exact ingredients, I had to substitute a few things.  Last week I went grocery shopping and I know I bought a hunk of ginger.  Could I find it tonight?  Of course not!  So, I used powdered instead.  I also used cardamom seeds (toasted and ground) instead of ground cardamom.  For the veggies, I used potato, summer squash and carrots.  Since I neglected to pick up tofu at the grocery store, we went without that.

Everything smelled so delicious simmering on the stove.  All the spices are so warm and aromatic.  Next time I'll use less crushed red pepper flakes; they were a little too much for me.  Thankfully my husband had stopped at the Indian restaurant down the street to pick up some naan (flat bread) and raita (yogurt sauce.)  In the recipe there is a yogurt sauce, but the legit raita is something special - a sweet yet tangy and cooling sauce - that really made this dish. 

I served the Korma on top of tri-colored couscous, since it takes only a few minutes to cook, as opposed to rice.  Coincidentally, the couscous was the same color as as the veggies.  Topped with fresh cilantro, this veggie Korma was a great, warm, easy to cook, one-dish meal.  I suggest you give it a try.  It's yumtastic.