Vegetable Curry (Prairie Lloydminster Vindaloo)
This recipe is a spin-off of a vegetable Indian curry using some faithful Canadian ingredients - wheat berries. If you’re unfamiliar with Lloydminster, it’s a town on the border of Saskatchewan and Alberta in the heart of the prairies. Every prairie farmer has a good story about Lloydminster.
Spices:
3 Tbsp. garam masala or curry powder
2 small hot chili peppers, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, chopped
1 bunch cilantro
Assembly:
olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 medium rutabaga or turnip, roughly chopped
1½ cups wheat berries, cooked
1 can coconut milk
2 Tbsp. apple syrup
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 zucchini, chopped
½ head cauliflower
To Serve:
lime wedges
cooked rice
plain yogurt
chopped chillies
fresh cilantro
Put your spices in a pan and give them a good toast over medium heat until they start to smell fragrant. This will bump up the flavour. In a mortar or food processor, mash together garam masala or curry powder, chili peppers, garlic, ginger and cilantro.
In a pan on medium heat, drizzle olive oil and add onions. Start to sweat onions for a couple minutes and then add paste.
After coating the onions, add rutabaga, wheat berries, coconut milk, apple syrup and diced tomatoes. You may need to add a bit of water as well depending on how creamy or thin you like the sauce. Bring to a boil and add the last of the veggies. Cover and turn down the heat to a simmer for 30 minutes.
Serve with a wedge of lime on rice with spoonfuls of plain yogurt and some chopped chilies and cilantro.
Makes 2-4 servings.
Cook's Notes:
- Both garam masala and curry powder are spice blends and with different balances depending on brand or market. I like to have the basic spices covered in a blend as well as it should taste good. Look for cumin, cinnamon, bay leaves, turmeric, coriander, cloves and ginger.
- I had apple syrup in my pantry at the time. Please feel free to play with sweeteners like honey, brown sugar or even dare to use maple syrup. Trust me on this one, maple syrup does wonders to savoury dishes.