Vegetable Curry

Tuesday I made a vegetable curry without a real recipe, but it was so delicious I’ll write down what I put into it. I never have ghee on hand, so I always use a blend of butter and oil.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 teaspoon sweet curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 can low fat coconut milk
1 bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
2 or 3 chili peppers, seeded and chopped
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 potato peeled and diced
1 cup sliced carrots
1 small head cauliflower, broken into florets
1 can red kidney beans
½ cup red lentils
1 cup water or vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
teaspoon salt

Pick over and rinse lentils. Heat olive oil and butter. Fry seeds until they pop. Quickly stir in onion, garlic, peppers, potatoes, and carrots. Sauté until onions are transparent. Don’t burn the garlic. Stir in the red lentils, spices, water, salt and coconut milk. Cook about 15 minutes until lentils are cooked. Red lentils sort of melt into the sauce when they’re cooked. Add kidney beans and cauliflower and cook about 10 minutes until cauliflower is tender. Remove the bay leaf and serve the curry with basmati rice. Chopped peanuts are always nice to garnish a curry.