Dishing Up Vegetarian Style with Kav Rees

I'm thrilled to once again have our favorite Irish-turn-Canadian friend in the cafe. As most of you know, Kav is a vegetarian and gets a little squeamish when I talk about things like smoking brisket and serving up steak, so I've asked her to share one of her favorite vegetarian recipes with us. Who knows, some of us carnivores might even like it.

Take it away, Kav.

Ahem…can I have a drumroll, please? At the time of writing it’s…wait for it…snowing!!!! But before it started snowing my spring finally looked like this:

Yes, rather boring to all you tree blossoming, green grass growing and petal pushing flower people south of me. Believe me – up here, brown is good. It means the snow has finally melted away and now all those little dormant plants are going to get to bask in the sunlight and pretty soon they’re going to sprout buds and leaves and flowers…just as soon as this most recent snowfall stops.

Okay, now that I have that out of my system – on to the café talk. I’m playing at being brave and sharing another vegetarian recipe. I’m always shy sharing my penchant for vegetarian food. That goes back to my college days when ‘friends’ used to tease me about it and try to sneak meat into my food so they could say they got the vegetarian to eat meat. Not fond memories so I learned to keep my wildly controversial eating habits to myself. But times they are a changing and more and more people have been exposed to some type of vegetarian food and survived to tell the tale!

In fact we have this great magazine in Canada, Chatelaine, and they have fantastic recipes in each issue and always have a few really user friendly vegetarian alternatives in the mix. That’s where I got this recipe from: Chickpea and Sweet Potato Curry.

The ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (3 if they’re smallish)
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp minced ginger (I usually add more)
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 smallish sweet potatoes chopped into ½ inch pieces
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed

Sautee onion and garlic in oil. Add curry powder, ginger and salt. Cook 2 min.

Stir in sweet potatoes and canned tomatoes. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to med-low. Simmer about 15 min. 

Add in chickpeas and continue cooking until sweet potatoes are tender (10 min). 

Serve over basmati rice.

Or, you could probably add chicken to this recipe for a carnivorous one bowl meal. Or use it as a side dish with another type of meat. You can also play around with the seasonings if you’re an adventurous cook. I’m not, but my friend made it once and added some spices and it was fantastic only she can’t remember what she added now so I can’t tell you. I’ve also eaten leftovers cold, like a salad. Pretty versatile dish, eh?

I'd say so. Kav, this actually looks really good. Doubt my boys would go for it, but hubby and I would. 

And no need to be shy around us at the cafe. While we may not be vegetarians, we try to have open minds. Unlike those pesky college friends of yours. ;)

So what do you think, ladies? Does this sound yummy to you?