Indian Cauliflower and Sweet Potatoes

This is a great vegetarian dinner option, modified from a Bon Appetit recipe with chicken. It can be as spicy as you want, and the leftovers keep well for lunches.  It makes a lot of food, maybe 6 servings.  It’s also an easy recipe to vary, depending on what you have at home and what you are in the mood for.  So, here’s the basics:

The most important ingredients are a cauliflower, a large sweet potato or two small ones, onion, hot peppers (I used 2 with seeds for slightly spicy), chickpeas (or I’ve made this with tempeh, and that is delicious too), tomato paste, peanut butter, crasins or raisins, veggie broth or bouillon, garlic, ginger, cumin, and optional frozen green peas, cashews, or shredded coconut.  In this photo, I accidently included coconut milk instead of shredded coconut, but it is not used in this recipe. Oops.

Start by chopping up the cauliflower and the sweet potato into big chunks. Steam these together in a big pot with a little bit of water in the bottom.  While these are steaming, chop up the onion, jalapenos, garlic (3 cloves) and ginger if using fresh (1/2 inch size chunk). Once the veggies are steamed so that they are tender to the fork, take off the heat and set aside.  Saute the onions and friends in a big pot in a splash of olive oil.

Once the onions are soft and browning, add the chickpeas, 1/2 a small can of tomato paste, and 1 cup of veggie broth or 1 cup of water with some bouillon dissolved in in, and two big spoonfuls of peanut butter. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Stir everything together until the sauce is blended.  Stir in a big handful of frozen green peas if you have them. Add in the steamed veggies and a big handful of Craisins, and stir it all up.  Give it just a few minutes for everything to get hot, and then you are ready to eat!

Serve on top of rice or without, it’s pretty filling all by itself, although rice is usually nice too.  I like it topped with a little bit of plain yogurt and a couple of cashews.  Shredded coconut is also nice on top. Leftovers are good wrapped up in naan or good tortillas for lunch. Mmm….lots of leftovers!