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April 15, 2021 Meatless

Sweet Potato Dip with Curry and Candied Ginger

Curry sweet potato dip with broccoli

This recipe comes close to being a hummus, if it were not for the absence of chickpeas or any other type of bean. Whether you consider this a sweet potato dip, spread, hummus, or mash … it’s still something that showcases a Jamaican-inspired way to prepare this ever-so-versatile root vegetable. I’m not Jamaican but I love the country’s food. And as Neo-Soul food enthusiast, I’m constantly seeking different ways to prepare sweet potatoes and this time its with a more global perspective using curry, tahini and scotch bonnet peppers.

sweet potato dip finished in the food processor

Of course you could use any blend of curry, but I constantly praise Jamaican curry for its use of allspice (Jamaican pimento), more amounts of turmeric, and it typically has a warmer/lighter flavor than the more popular curry blends from India. Missing from Jamaican curry are some of the harsher spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and cardamom. You can also use it as a sauté base like I do in my sautéed cabbage.

For this recipe, I basically swapped out chickpeas for sweet potatoes and added in a few other things as a result of watching so many episodes of Chopped. At the time I didn’t have any chickpeas, but I had some nearly-empty jars of tahini. I also had way too many unused packages of candied ginger … a spicy/sweet no-brainer ingredient to enhance the sweet potatoes. Also, a carton of scotch bonnet peppers had been lingering in my fridge after only using two while making Rainbow Plant Life’s Vegan Gambian Peanut Stew (Dodoma) recipe. All of this goodness was at my fingertips just waiting for this sweet potato dip to be made.

Pickle the Scotch Bonnet Peppers

When you make this, prepare these pickled peppers at least a day or two ahead of time. When pickled and finely chopped, the scotch bonnet peppers help lift this recipe by bringing a subtle crunch to every bite of this dip. Along with the chopped pickled ginger your palette will enjoy the varying textures.

Sometimes, scotch bonnets are sold as bunches in a plastic carton, but you really only need to use one or two at any given time. When faced with an abundance of any spicy pepper, simply store them in vinegar in a tight-fitting jar, and keep them in the fridge. The intensity of the peppers will mellow over time, and you can also use the infused vinegar in other recipes like I do with tabasco vinegar in my sautéed collard greens.

Scotch bonnet peppers sliced and stored in vinegar in the fridge.

Scotch bonnet peppers sliced and stored in vinegar in the fridge.

Ingredientsfor sweet potato dip

  • 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes (about 2 1/2 cups diced) 
  • 1/3 cup pickled ginger, chopped
  • ¼ cup canola oil
  • 1 medium white onion, diced
  • 3 thyme sprigs
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 heaping tablespoons Jamaican curry powder
  • ¼ cup tahini 
  • 2 tablespoons diced pickled scotch bonnet peppers, plus 2 tablespoons scotch bonnet vinegar (see above)
  • juice of 1 lemon

ingredients for sweet potato dip with Jamaican curry and candied ginger

thyme sprigs

Missing from the above photo is a few springs of thyme. Tie them with string and cook them when you’re sautéing the onions.

 

Instructionsfor sweet potato dip

  1. Peel and dice your sweet potatoes into sizes resembling chickpeas. 
  2. Fill a medium pot half-way with water and a dash of salt, and bring to a boil.  Add the diced sweet potatoes and chopped pickled ginger. Boil until sweet potatoes are soft. Pour the boiled sweet potatoes into a colander over a medium bowl, reserving the liquid. Set aside the liquid and sweet potatoes.
  3. In a skillet, heat the canola oil over medium-high heat until it starts to shimmer. Add the onions and thyme sprigs and cook until onions are translucent, approximately 3 minutes. Add the garlic and continue cooking until fragrant, another minute or two. 
  4. Lower the temperature to medium (so you don’t burn the curry powder). Stir in the curry power to evenly distribute the spices throughout the oil and onions, allowing the spices to bloom for about 2 minutes. If the curry/onion mixture seems too dry, add some splashes of water so the curry doesn’t burn. Pour this curry, oil, onion and garlic mixture into a small bowl to be sure it does not cook any longer. Discard the thyme.
  5. In a food processor, combine the pickled scotch bonnet peppers, sweet potato/ginger mixture, curry/onion mixture, chopped scotch bonnet peppers, scotch bonnet vinegar, and tahini. Pulse until everything is well blended. It will be quite thick and pasty, so gradually add the reserved boiling liquid until a hummus-like texture is achieved … approximately 1/2 cup.

Of course, you can vary all of these amounts to you liking, but you have all the tools you need for some sweet potato dip success! 

Yield: About 6 cups

diced sweet potatoes

chopping candied ginger

Scotch bonnet peppers pickled and sliced

curry powder cooking in onions

curry sweet potato dip ingredients in the food processor

Simply add all ingredients into a blender and pulse away.

curry sweet potato dip completed

What to Eat This With

For a plant-based appetizer spread, try use this sweet potato dip alongside my Blackeyed Pea Dip with Roasted Garlic. Feel free to dip some veggies, chips, pita, or fried green plantains (aka. tostones). Also spread it on sandwiches or incorporate this in with a salad or grain bowl. 

sweet potato dip with broccoli

sweet potato dip in a grain bowl

sweet potato dip on sandwiches

Spread this on sandwiches as you would do with any hummus.

sweet potato dip in a meatless sandwich

The Curry Clean-up 

I can’t just leave you all hanging … I confess that curry is messy. So, the ONE precaution with cooking this recipe is the cleanup. No matter how careful you try to be, yellow-stained fingers, appliances, utensils, and counters are quite common. There is little way around it. However, you can minimize the problem by taping down parchment paper on your counter, laying down newspaper, wearing gloves, using a disposable dollar store rubber spatula.

Definitely have some bleach water with rags on deck ready to clean up right after you use something because the longer curry stain remains on your surfaces, the more stubborn they will be to clean up. Scrape the dip from the food processor ASAP into a glass bowl … just be quick with it. When all is said and done, I always end up bleaching my countertops.    

curry-stained hands

My yellow curry hands after making curry goat, circa May 2017 … I should have used gloves!

 

Categories: Meatless Tags: curry sweet potato, sweet potato curry dip, sweet potato dip, sweet potato hummus, sweet potato mash

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I’m Ben, a home cook with a less-meat approach cross-cultural comfort food, sharing cooking tips and recipes in Astoria, Queens, NYC.

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Try a Spicy Ginger Spinach 🥬 Smoothie with fres Try a Spicy Ginger Spinach 🥬 Smoothie with freshly grated ginger, two oranges 🍊, two bananas 🍌 and 1 cup of oatmilk. You really can't taste the spinach at all.

It's a blood pressure-reducing smoothie from combining the heart-healthy @quaker oats and high potassium banana with the leafy green spinach, according to WebMD. 

👉🏻 Never buy oat milk again, when you can just make it to order. 

👉🏻 For easy oatmilk, puré a ratio of 1 to 2 rolled oats to water. Sweeten it as you wish. But in a smoothie context I like to leave it plain and enjoy the sweetness of fresh fruit.

👉🏻 To avoid slimy oatmilk, gently strain it and don't press it.

#smoothierecipes #spinachsmoothie #smoothietime #oatmilksmoothie #oatmilk #oatrecipes #freshspinach #rawspinach #rawfoods
Soo .. about that Thai chili, Garlic and Ginger pa Soo .. about that Thai chili, Garlic and Ginger paste in my Reels 3 posts ago. It's a fantastic base for some spicy curry lentils. Here I had 1 1/3 cups  of lentils, so 6 cups of veggie stock was used. 

👉🏻 A ratio of 1 to 5 lentils to liquid is just enough to avoid making lentil soup. 

👇🏻Ingredients for my spicy lentil curry…
▪️1 large white onion, diced
▪️About 3 tablespoons Garlic, Ginger & Thai Green Chili paste (Find it in my Reels)
▪️1 tablespoon groubd coriander
▪️2 tablespoons yellow curry powder 
▪️2 teaspoons kosher salt
▪️1 cup lentils
▪️5 cups veggie stock
▪️1 bay leaf

#currylentils #lentilcurry #yellowcurry #lentilrecipe #spicycooking
For an adequately spicy plant based Ghanian-inspir For an adequately spicy plant based Ghanian-inspired 🇬🇭 Red Red … aka. Black-Eyed Peas stewed in spicy tomato sauce … ONE Scotch Bonnet for 4 tomatoes is plenty. I used two and it was a bit too in tense. 

Basically, if you see my Jollof Rice Reel (pinned to my profile), it’s the same process, except you swap the peas for the rice and use different spices.

Thanks to @comfortkitchenldn for the inspiration. Traditionally they’re served with fried yellow plantains. I also chose some quinoa and a combination of collard greens and turnip greens sautéed in lots of garlic.

👇🏻Here’s what to do for my version …

👉🏻Cook your Black-Eyed peas
▪️Soak 1 ½ cups Black-Eyed peas for at least 3 hours, then cook them on medium until they’re tender and not falling apart.

👉🏻For the tomato stew, puré in a blender...
▪️4 large vine tomatoes, diced
▪️½ large red onion, diced
▪️10 to 15 cloves garlic
▪️1 to 2 inches ginger, grated
▪️1 Scotch Bonnet Pepper

👉🏻Spices include...
▪️1 tablespoon ground coriander
▪️6 cloves, ground
▪️1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
▪️1 teaspoon white pepper
▪️1 tablespoon paprika
▪️kosher salt to taste (I like to ad visually ⅓ of the total amount of the spices)

👉🏻What to do...
▪️Fry the other half of diced red onion in some oil (I prefer canola oil, but palm oil is traditionally used)

▪️Stir the spices into the oil and let them bloom until fragrant, about 30 seconds. While doing this, momentarily move the pan off the heat to avoid burning the spices.

▪️Add the tomato puré, peas, bay leaf, and just enough water to meet the level of the peas, then let them stew to completion.

🤔 Sooo … why Ghanian food??? Well my ancestry on my father’s side traces back to the Akan tribe of Ghana who were “imported” directly to Rhode Island in the 1740s, so it’s a part of my heritage cooking research. 

#Ghanianfood #blackeyedpea #africanfoodyummy #friedplantains #plantbasedcooking #africancooking #beanrecipes #spicyrecipe #spicybeans
Air fried sweet potatoes and microwaved salmon wit Air fried sweet potatoes and microwaved salmon with jalapeños and green habañero @elyucateco_hotsauce result in some awesome fish tacos.

Yup, I said it … MICROWAVED! Let's talk about that. It's that frozen salmon from Costco. And when ur hungry and don't have time to thaw it, just sprinkle some seasoning on it and nuke it. 

First use the 50% power "defrost" setting to give  it a gentle cooking for about 4 minutes, then finish it off at full power to cook to completion. 

#fishtacos #sweetpotatolove #airfriedcooking #salmontacos #tacotime #tacolovers #airfryerrecipes
To make this meatless 🇨🇺 Cuban sandwich, sur To make this meatless 🇨🇺 Cuban sandwich, sure you can shallow fry some sweet plantains … or simply brush them in canola oil and grill them for a healthier alternative. It's the best simple vegetarian sandwich, hands down! 

👉🏻 Get even lengthwise with a mandolin slicer, just use a butter knife as a blade guard. Or if your knife skills are stellar and you can freehand it, all power to ya!

👉🏻 The blacker the plantains the sweeter they will be. Get some at @ctown.supermarkets then store them on your shelf until they ripen to your liking.

👉🏻 Each piece of soft bread gets slathered with a mix of mustard and mayonnaise.

👉🏻 The grilled sweet plantains are dressed with a roasted garlic spread using …
▪️roasted garlic
▪️olive oil
▪️salt
▪️pepper
▪️white wine vinegar 

👉🏻 For a some spicy heat, use some @elyucateco_hot sauce between the pickles and plantains
👉🏻Finding Cuban rolls can be difficult, so look for any roll that is soft, not super thick, and doesn't have a tough crust so it can be successfully pressed. It shouldn't be all about the bread, because there is a fantastic medley of flavors being fused together.

👉🏻 Look for a good swiss cheese, such as Jarlsberg.

#cubansandwiches #platanos #sandwichrecipe #plantainlover #grilledsandwich #vegetariansandwich
Make this spicy garlic 🧄 and ginger curry paste Make this spicy garlic 🧄 and ginger curry paste to have an instant burst of flavor for your spicy cooking. Store it in your freezer and break off pieces as needed. 

Sure you could use a mortar and pestle, but the finely chopping and smushing with the flat side of a chef's knife works even better. Use the knife to break things down, then transfer everything to the mortar to mash until it becomes paste-like. Thai green chiles are used here.

👉🏻 Here's one crucial cooking tip...
▪️The order matters when using a mortar and pestle, as you begin with the toughest ingredients first, then work your way to the softest. Pepper skins generally take a while to break down, so begin with that so it will spend more time being mashed. Then ginger is next as far as toughness. Then the garlic is super easy.

It takes a while but it sure is a fun process, allowing you to spend some real quality time with these aromatics, and it’s way better than any store-bought paste. 

#spicycooking #garlicgingerpaste #gingergarlicpaste #mortarandpestle #currypaste #green #greenchiles #greenchilipeppers  #spicypeppers #spicycooking
Air fried artichoke hearts are just one way to sim Air fried artichoke hearts are just one way to simulate a meat-like texture in plant based salads. You get a nice chew, a little crispy on the delicate edges.

Pair this with Brianna's Chipotle Ranch dressing for a hint of mild-but smoky heat, chopped kalamata olives for some briny saltiness, chopped apricots for a little sweetness,.

#roastedartichoke #artichokesalad #artichokehearts #chickpeasalad #vegetariansalad #mediterraneandiet #mediterraneanfood #chickpeas  #eathealthy #airfriedveggies
Sooo … about that Puerto Rican 🇵🇷 sofrito Sooo … about that Puerto Rican 🇵🇷 sofrito in my previous Reel. Here's how to use it to make rice and beans. 

This is a plant based spin on the classic Rice and Pigeon Peas, except I chose chickpeas and swapped long grain rice for basmati rice (and didn't add olives).

👉🏻 For perfect basmati rice every time, the ratio of rice to liquid is 1 to 1.5. Here I had 1 ½ cups of basmati rice, so I used 2 ¼ cups of veggie stock.

👇🏻Here's the large cast of ingredients, in order of appearance …
▪️chopped garlic and red onion, fried in canola oil
▪️achiote oil
▪️Puerto Rican sofrito
▪️kosher salt
▪️capers
▪️hot pickled peppers
▪️black pepper
▪️Dominican oregano
▪️precooked chickpeas
▪️basmati rice
▪️veggie stock
▪️homemade plain tomato sauce
▪️bay leaf
▪️banana leaf
▪️fresh cilantro

Here’s a few more cooking tips for success...

👉🏻 You’ll know when to turn the heat down and simmer with the lid on as soon as the level of liquid meets the level of the rice, and you start to see large bubbles.

👉🏻 Keep the stirring to a minimum Just give the rice a few stirs to distribute the heat. Use an upward lifting motion.

👉🏻 Let the finished rice rest with the lid ajar and don’t get stir happy. Go do something else for about half an hour, then come back to it. 

#riceandbeans #basmatirice #chickpea #chickpearecipes #puertoricanrice #puertoricansofrito  #garbanzobeans  #ricerecipe
Goat feta cheese is fantastic because… ▪️it' Goat feta cheese is fantastic because…
▪️it's less salty
▪️is a softer & creamier texture 
▪️people who are lactose intolerant can usually eat goat feta because the goat milk has different enzymes.

Here's the three chopped salad toppers to pair it with, that I'm obsessed with lately…
▪️raw Jalapeños
▪️Kalamata olives
▪️dried apricots
Spicy, salty and sweet!… a trio that balances well with goat feta and a scoop of hummus on the side, resulting in a spicy & meatless Mediterranean Salad.

Get the stone salad bowl from 

#goatcheesesalad #goatcheese #kalamataolives #mediterraneansalad  #mediterraneanfood #fetacheese #fetasalad
Didn't know about Cilantro Macho until a week ago, Didn't know about Cilantro Macho until a week ago, seeing it at @foodbazaarsupermarket ... time to make a monster batch of Puerto Rican sofrito.

Cilantro Macho is a cilantro lover's dream. Each bunch as big as my arm, they were standard there on display saying " buy me!"

This sofrito is a staple in my kitchen, as a fantastic sauté base for some rice and beans, soups, and stews. It stores in the freezer really well (usually in ice trays) and you chisel off a piece any time you want to use it, like an instant boost of flavor base. I think of it as a plant based bullion. 

👇🏻Here are the ingredients, based on the recipe from @chefdaisymartinez 

▪️1 bunch Cilantro Macho
▪️3 bunches culantro
▪️3 handfuls Aji dulce peppers (20-25)
▪️4 long Italian peppers
▪️1 red bell pepper
▪️2 vine tomatoes
▪️2 handfuls garlic (about 15-20 cloves)
▪️1 spanish onion

👉🏻 When making this, process the larger and tougher ingredients first …  all of the peppers, onions, garlic and half of the tomatoes. In a second batch, process the culantro, culantro, and the rest of the tomatoes. Then combine them in a large bowl and process the two batches together.

👉🏻 Save the extremely aromatic and woody Cilantro Macho stems in the freezedr for a veggie stock. 

#puertoricansofrito #sofriroatino #latincuisine #cilantro #cilantrorecipe #cilantrolover #plantbasedingredients #plantbasedcooking
🇯🇲 Jamaican curry has a warm flavor because 🇯🇲 Jamaican curry has a warm flavor because it doesn't have clove, cinnamon and cardamom in most other yellow curry blends. There IS some allspice however (aka. pimento berries). 

If you’re trying to eat less meat and taking a break from rice, try this curry Quinoa and Kidney Beans instead. 

Here’s what you need…

▪️1 cup quinoa, rinsed
▪️3 tablespoons canola oil
▪️2 tablespoons Jamaican curry powder
▪️3 scallion stalks, chopped 
▪️2 cloves garlic, minced
▪️1 sprig of thyme
▪️1 cup lite coconut milk
▪️1 cup veggie stock

Here’s a few cooking tips for success…

👉🏻 To avoid burning the curry powder, use medium-high heat and add the liquid soon after you stir the curry in the oil. The scallions don’t need high heat anyway because they only need to be softened/translucent. Not browned.

👉🏻 Keep the stirring to a minimum. Just give it a quick fluffing/lifting motion to distribute the heat while it rests.

👉🏻 Different brands of curry powders have different amounts of salt, so to avoid over-salting, check the ingredients list and season to taste because. I prefer @jamaican_choice

#jamaicancurry #quinoarecipes #curryrecipe  #yellowcurry #currylovers #currypowder #superfoods #
Meatless collard greens are great sautéed because Meatless collard greens are great sautéed because it's quicker and you can retain more nutrients. 

👉🏻 Adding them to the pan in batches creates a variety of textures. Just like adding some fresh veggies for freshness at the end of a stir fry, do the same here. Some greens will be more wilted, while stirring more greens in upon completion gives some a more flash cook, and taking advantage of the carryover cooking as they rest. 

👇🏻Here's what I use…
▪️collard greens, cut into squares
▪️canola oil 
▪️red onion 
▪️lots of garlic
▪️smoked salt
▪️black pepper
▪️lemon juice
▪️butter 

👉🏻 Smoked salt replaces the need for smoked meats and larger leafier cuts gives you a meatier chew.

👉🏻 Add a little butter to promote some browning.

#collardgreens #stovetopcooking #greens #meatlesscooking
For a red enchilada sauce 🌶️ that's not insan For a red enchilada sauce 🌶️ that's not insanely spicy … use lots of Guajillo chile peppers for the bright fruit flavor, Pasilla chiles for a subtle smokiness, and Ancho chiles for earthiness. And use less seeds.

👇🏻 When hydrating 🇲🇽 Mexican chile peppers…

▪️Only soak them for about 45 minutes. Otherwise you start losing the flavor in the water.

▪️Fill with just enough water to cover them. 

▪️Save the pepper water to thin out the sauce later on.

👉🏻 Get the  serving platter from @incasa_decor

And if you want it spicy, use more seeds and/or add one or two Arbol chiles. They're tiny but oh so spicy.

#enchiladasauce #redsauce #mexicanxchiles #mexicanfood #guajillosauce #enchiladas #comidamexicana #chilepeppers #guajillo #peppersauce #spicysauce
🇲🇽 The one ingredient absent in my green enc 🇲🇽 The one ingredient absent in my green enchilada sauce recipe is …. garlic! 

Tomatillos are actually more related to a gooseberry than they are tomatoes. Garlic with berries? 🤔 And if you want intense heat, skip the Jalapeños and go right to Serrano peppers.

And for easier enchilada assembly, try making folded street style enchiladas instead of rolling them. I recently learned the folding is authentic to 🇲🇽 Mexican cuisine ... though I kinda cheated by dipping them 😅. But it works! 

👇🏻Here's my soup-making approach to  enchilada sauce... 
▪️Roast tomatillos, poblanos peppers, and onions.
▪️Puree with cilantro and Serrano pepper 
▪️Strain the heck out of it.
▪️ Thin it out with tomatillo stock. 
▪️ Simmer and season to taste with salt, Mexican oregano, vinegar, and a little @krasdale sugar from @ctown.supermarkets to balance out the tartness.

👉🏻 Get this stoneware plate from @incasa_decor

👉🏻 These are cheese enchiladas filled with Cotija cheese and finely diced white onion

#enchiladasverdes #enchiladasauce #tomatillosauce #mexicanfoodlovers #cookingmexicanfood #mexicanfoodathome #salsaverde #greenenchiladas #greenenchiladasauce
It's the @penzey_spices no-salt jerk seasoning on It's the @penzey_spices no-salt jerk seasoning on roasted sweet potatoes 🍠 for me!  Plus the air fried okra.

Oh .. and the raw beets which help lower blood pressure (according to WebMD) as does the potassium-rich sweet potatoes. 

👇🏻For this simple 5-ingredient salad…
▪️air fried sweet potatoes
▪️air fried okra
▪️cucumber
▪️red onion
▪️green leaf lettuce
▪️chipotle ranch dressing

👉🏻 Stone bowl from @incasa_decor 

#sweetpotatosalad #healthyrecipes #healthymeal #vegetariansalad #saladrecipe
#rawbeets #roastedsweetpotatoes #nosaltadded #nosaltseasoning #nosalt #sweetpotatolove #airfriedveggies
Here's the amount of Indian curry spices 🌶️ Here's the amount of Indian curry  spices 🌶️ you need for a homemade Aloo Gobi Matar that will match any restaurant version. The truth is … many published recipes are way too shy with the spices. 

👇🏻For spicy food lovers, try these amounts …

▪️3 heaping teaspoons (htsp) whole coriander, ground
▪️2 htsp whole cumin, ground 
▪️2 htsp Garam Masala powder
▪️2 htsp turmeric powder
▪️2 htsp Kashmiri red chili powder
▪️1/3 amount of spices of kosher salt = 1 heaping tablespoon (3 teaspoons)
 
☝🏻This yields ⅓ cup Indian curry spice blend.

🌶️ The cooking technique in my previous Reel worked well, but it needed more "umph". So I whipped up another batch to REALLY go in on the spice blend. It may seem to dry when you mix them into the oil. So to avoid burning these fantastic Indian spices, add just a tad bit of water.

👇🏻Below is my final recommendation to make a spicy tomato and onion gravy. 

▪️⅓ cup Indian curry spice blend (above)
▪️3 large tomatoes, diced (just over 3 cups)
▪️½ large white onion, diced (half the amount of the tomatoes)
▪️1/4 cup garlic & ginger paste (a little more ginger than garlic)

As a beginner to Indian cooking, I think this is a good recipe to start with. And once the gravy is made you can add whatever you want to it … potato, cauliflower, okra, mushroom, sweet potato, chickpeas, fish, literally whatever you desire!

👉🏻 These amounts yield 4 to 6 servings.

#indianspices #curryspices #spicycooking #spicyrecipes #freshspices #currylovers #indiancurry
#indiancooking
To make Aloo Gobi Matar at home, it's really quiet To make Aloo Gobi Matar at home, it's really quiet easy once the prep work is done. It's basically 🌶️ spicy potato and cauliflower simmered in a tomato and onion gravy, and a great beginner recipe to start learning Indian cooking. 

And the best thing about making it at home is that you can make it as 🌶️ spicy as you want, instead of begging your local Indian restaurant to "please make it spicy".

👇🏻Here’s all you need…
▪️potatoes
▪️cauliflower
▪️green chili
▪️garlic
▪️ginger
▪️red onion
▪️tomatoes
▪️green peas
▪️cilantro
▪️cumin
▪️coriander
▪️Kashmiri red chili powder
▪️turmeric
▪️Garam Masala
▪️salt
▪️canola oil

I loosely follow a combination of recipes and here are some of my cooking notes after my millionth attempt…

👉🏻 You may need more tomatoes than what recipes call for. Here I used 4 large vine tomatoes when the instructions are to use only two. But adding more tomatoes means more seasoning.

👉🏻 If there's not enough gravy when you add the potatoes, add a little water but not too much! Just enough for it to meet the level of the potatoes. And if you add water, also add more spices and salt. Or if you have some canned crushed tomatoes, add those instead of water.

👉🏻 To not burn your spices, briefly reduce the heat to medium and add a little more oil so the flavors can bloom for about 30 seconds. 

#aloogobimatar #potatocurry #potatorecipes #indiancooking #indiancookingathome #spicycooking #spicyrecipe #cauliflowerrecipes #indianfood
Let's talk about the filling for ravioli. Because Let's talk about the filling for ravioli. Because no matter what you fill it with, there's always a fine line between too much and not enough.

For this Spicy Four Cheese 🧀 filling, everything from @ctown.supermarkets...
▪️15 oz Ricotta cheese @krasdale
▪️5 oz Romano cheese @belgioisocheese
▪️5 oz Provolone cheese
▪️5 oz Smoked mozzarella cheese 
▪️1 tablespoon red pepper flakes, ground 
▪️¼ cup chopped parsley
▪️1 egg
▪️1 teaspoon kosher salt 

👉🏻 One teaspoon is a good minimum for 4-inch wide pasta, and one tablespoon is usually the maximum for  5-inch wide pasta. Level it off with your finger so you have exactly the same amount in each one. The ones I'm filling in my first batch this post were a tablespoon for 4-inch pasta and it was too much, so had to make half circle ravioli. So the feature square ravioli is one teaspoon from the second attempt. 

👉🏻 Ravioli filling is a fantastic way to use up any extra scraps of food in your fridge. So it's fun to get creative. Once moisture is removed from something, chop it real fine and incorporate it into a filling.

👉🏻 Make the filling the day before you make your ravioli, and store it in the fridge. It allows you to focus just on the pasta and ravioli construction. 

👉🏻 Slightly over-salt the filling, so it adds flavor to the pasta. Pasta will also get salt from the boiling water, so ne need to salt the pasta.

👉🏻 And if Ravioli is too much work, use the filling to make stuffed shells.

For more about the actual pasta dough, check my feed 5 posts back. 

#homemadepasta #cookingtips #pastamaking #homemaderavioli #freshpasta #cheeseravioli #raviolimaking #italianfood #freshpastamaking
My meatless 🍠 Sweet Potato Chili uses mashed sw My meatless 🍠 Sweet Potato Chili uses mashed sweet potatoes as a thickener instead of tomato paste, and sweet potato skins are used to make a sweet potato infused veggies stock.

And instead of grabbing generic 🌶️ chili powder, grind some Mexican Chile peppers to  create your own unique blend. Here I used ground Ancho, Pulla, and Chipotle Chile peppers. 

👇🏻A few things to keep in mind...
▪️With plant based chili, to retain as many nutrients as possible it's important not to overboil it. Bring everything to a brief boil, then simmer from there. Everything I ad is either precooked or raw, so all your doing is infusing the flavors into the stock.

▪️For more freshness, reserve some fresh peppers and scallions to mix in at the end.

▪️Turn the heat down to medium before you add the spices to the sauté base of veggies, aromatics, and oil so you don't burn them. Otherwise the spices become bitter.

👇🏻Here's everything in this plant based chili…
▪️Sweet potatoes, cubed and air fried
▪️canned whole Roma tomatoes, diced 
▪️pinto beans, cooked
▪️black beans, cooked
▪️Spanish onion, diced
▪️Poblano pepper, flame roasted
▪️red bell pepper, flame roasted
▪️Serrano pepper, diced
▪️scallion
▪️garlic
▪️corn cobs, sliced
▪️Mexican oregano
▪️canola oil 
▪️cumin, ground 
▪️Chile peppers, ground 
▪️kosher salt 
▪️avocado leaf

#sweetpotatochili #meatlesschili #plantbasedchili #vegetarianchili #vegetariancooking #chilirecipe #meatlesscooking
Brie cheese with fig jam was the star of this chee Brie cheese with fig jam was the star of this cheese and  crackers plate. If you never considered that pairing, I urge you to try it.

The exciting thing about shopping for soft ripened cheeses at @foodcellar is that you never know what you’re going to walk out with. The longer the wedges sit after they have been cut, the better they become with time. 

👉🏻 So, the only rule to choosing a good brie is to choose whichever one is ripest. Which means … if it’s really soft and looks like it’s oozing out of the rind as if it’s trying to escape from the plastic wrap. It will be fantastic! If the brie is really firm and has lots of structure, leave it alone. 

And about that rind … sure, you can eat it. But personally I’m not about it.

#cheeselover #briecheese #cheeseandcrackers #softcheese #figjam #fruitandcheese #snackfood
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