Every spring, I get a very strong craving for fresh vegetables (who doesn’t?) and a very strong aversion towards meat products… It hit me really hard this year: my poor husband went out with his colleagues for lunch after more than 2 weeks of no-meat-at-home… 🙂 Of course, we compromised.
For lunch, we prefer something hot and spicy these days, so I turned to Indian spices to create a colorful vegetable dish: the fragrance of this green pea curry with masala paste is going to fill every secret corner of your kitchen! 🙂
Yes, there are a lot of ingredients (especially a lot of exotic spices), but don’t worry: this is not a complicated dish, and is definitely worth the effort.
Ingredients for 5-6 servings:
for the masala paste:
50g or 0.5 cup cashews
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of caraway seeds
½ teaspoon of fenugreek seeds
4 pieces of clove
½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon of chili powder
1 red onion, minced
1 approx. 1 inch sized piece of ginger, minced
1 clove of garlic, pressed
1-2 chillies, minced (I used jalapeňos)
½ can of canned tomatoes, diced (or 2 big fresh tomatoes, dices)
a handful of fresh cilantro leaves
a couple of fresh mint leaves
for the curry:
2 tablespoons of olive- or coconut oil
1 red onion, minced
1-2 fresh chillies
½ can of canned tomatoes, diced (or 2 big fresh tomatoes, dices)
750g or 5 cups green peas
1 teaspoon of turmeric
½ teaspoon of ground coriander seeds
½ teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of garam masala spice blend
salt to taste
a handful of fresh cilantro or parsley
- At first, prepare the masala paste. Roast the cashews in a dry skillet, over medium heat, stirring frequently. Once it starts getting fragrant and turning golden brown, put it in a food processor.
- You may continue in the same skillet. Heat the olive oil, and add the mustard seeds, caraway seeds, fenugreek seeds, and stir frequently for about a minute, until the mustard seeds start popping. Toss in the clove, cinnamon, chilli powder and stir once more.
- Add the minced onions and fry until golden brown. Add the pressed garlic and chillies, as well and mix well.
- Pour in the diced tomatoes and the ginger pieces, boil for 5-10 minutes, until it starts to thicken.
- Now put the fresh cilantro and mint leaves in the sauce, turn off the heat and let it stand for a couple of minutes so the green spices start to wither.
- Pour the tomato sauce to the cashews in the food processor, pulse a couple of times, until a homogenous paste forms. Set aside.
- Now lets get to the curry. Heat some olive oil over medium heat in a thick-walled skillet. Simmer the minced onion until golden. Add the chillies, diced tomatoes and stir for 10-15 minutes, until it starts to thicken.
- Add the green peas and steam covered for 5 to 10 minutes, until they turn soft.
- Now add the masala paste, turmeric, ground coriander, chilli powder, garam masala spices and salt. Pour in ½- 1 cups of water depending on how thick you would like your curry. Turn off the heat and keep it covered for 5 minutes.
- Garnish with fresh parsley or cilantro, and serve with appam. Enjoy!
When cooking Indian, usually there are so many kinds of spices needed, that for once, it is not so easy to guess by tasting the final dish, and secondly, it’s not so easy to put all the spices quickly into the boiling pot at the time needed. So I have a little trick: I measure the spices needed for each step in a small glass, so I can toss them into the cooking dish in a second.
I don’t really know what else to say about this curry: I had for two days, breakfast, lunch and dinner… 🙂 If you enjoy spicy dishes, this is a must try: this portion makes about 5-6 servings, the whole dish contains approx. 150g carbs, which makes 25-30g CH/serving.
Leave a Reply