Springtime Curry

Wpis w wersji polskiej: tutaj

The recipe I have for you today is, as promised in my last post, delicious Weeknight Curry from Heidi's Swanson cookbook Super Natural Every Day. Although I prefer to call it Springtime Curry as it's full of crunchy seasonal veggies. Like all Heidi recipes, the curry is not only very tasty but also super healthy.

It's a straightforward recipe that takes just a few minutes to prepare. I made my curry- the same as Heidi did- with cauliflower, zucchini, and asparagus, but you can use any veggies you have on hand. Heidi recommends another version of the recipe with peas, broccoli, and tiny cooked potatoes. You will need Thai curry paste for your recipe, the original called for red one, but I used green in its place. This is a very flexible recipe, so feel free to experiment. If you don't like tofu, you can leave it out, and serve your curry, for example with rice.

Springtime Curry

Serves 4

1 ½ teaspoon extra-virgin coconut oil or clarified butter

1 yellow onion

fine-grain sea salt

2 medium-sized zucchini

2 teaspoon Thai curry paste (red or green)

1/3 cup coconut milk

8 oz (225 g) firm tofu

2 cups (225 g) cauliflower

12 asparagus spears

120 ml vegetable broth

Chop the onion. Cut the zucchini into ½ -inch pieces. Chop the cauliflower. Trim and cut asparagus into 1 inch pieces. Cut the tofu into ½ inch cubes.

Heat the coconut oil or clarified butter in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion and a big pinch of salt. Sauté until the onion starts to become translucent. Sir in the zucchini and cook for 1 minute more.

In a small bowl, mash the curry paste with a few tablespoons of coconut milk. Add this to the onion and zucchini. Stir until the vegetables are well coated. Stir in the remaining coconut milk. Bring it to a simmer; add the tofu, cauliflower, and asparagus. Cook for a couple of minutes- the veggies should remain crunchy, but not raw. Pour in the broth. Stir than salt generously (you will need less salt if your broth was already salty).

Printable recipe

Chocolate and Zucchini Bread

Wpis w wersji polskiej

Today's recipe is quite straightforward. The procedure here is exactly the same as in case of muffins - the wet ingredient stirred into the dry ones. The bread is not too sweet, perfect either for breakfast or an afternoon snack. It is healthy too, contains olive oil instead of butter and part of the flour is whole wheat. There are also nuts, cocoa, chocolate and, of course, zucchini. The last one makes the bread dense and moist. It is truly delicious with a cup of coffee. The recipe comes from a wonderful blog Seven Spoons. Check it out here. The only change I've made to the recipe was using demerara sugar in the place of turbinado.

Have a nice evening everyone,

Karo

Chocolate & Zucchini Bread

Makes 2 loaves

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

8 ounces (250 g) semisweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup olive oil

1 cup buttermilk, well-shaken

2 eggs

1 ½ cups turbinado or demerara sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups shredded zucchini

Preheat an oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans with softened butter. Use a length of parchment to line the bottom and long sides of the pan, forming a sling.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in the chopped walnuts and chocolate.

In another bowl, whisk together the olive oil and buttermilk. Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Stir in the zucchini.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, stir until combined, do not over mix. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the loaf comes out almost clean (it has taken 1 hour 20 minutes in my oven). Leave the loaves in their pans to cool down for 20 minutes.

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