Meatless Monday: Get out of the box

My family signed up to pick up a box of fresh, local produce from the farmers' market each week. We get whatever comes in the box so it challenges us to get out of our box and try new recipes! (Check out our recipe at the bottom of this post. It might sound too healthy or even too strange to taste good - but it does!)

Here's what we got in our first box:

• 8 assorted citrus
• Head of purple and speckled leaf romaine lettuce
• 2 baby fennel
• 3 bulbs of spring garlic
• Bunch of bright lights swiss chard
• 2 small sweet potatoes 
• Tuscano kale
• Spaghetti squash

Recipe: Winter Veg Korma

This is a vegan Indian dish made with garam masala - a fragrant mixture of up to 12 spices like black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, cardamom, dried chiles, fennel, ginger, mace, or nutmeg. It is a lot easier to buy a mixture than measuring out a bunch of different spices.

Culinary Technique: Keep fresh ginger root in the freezer. Just peel it and store it in an airtight plastic bag in the freezer. Cut off pieces as needed; grate, slice, or finely dice.

Sauce:

1/2 onion, diced
1 small tomato, diced
1 inch of fresh ginger, finely diced
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons of garam masala 
1/2 teaspoon salt

Winter Veg:

1 1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 small sweet potatoes (1 pound)
1/2 small butternut squash (3/4 pound)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 bunch of kale; remove leaves from stem and chop
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained 
1/2 cup of light coconut milk 

Directions

1. Combine first six sauce ingredients (onion, tomato, ginger, water, garam masala, salt) in a small food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Set aside.
2. Heat large sauté pan then add 1 tablespoon of the oil. When oil is hot, add diced sweet potato and butternut squash. Cook until vegetables start to soften then move them to the edge of the pan.
3. Add another tablespoon of oil to the center of the pan, and when hot, add sliced red onion and sauté, combining vegetables when onion is soft. 
4. Remove vegetables to a plate.
5. Add 1/2 tablespoon of oil to pan; add sauce and cook until thickened, approximately 5 to 6 minutes.
6. Return vegetables to the pan and add 1 1/2 cups of water.
7. When mixture is simmering, stir in kale and chickpeas.
8. Cook until sauce is thickened then add cocunut milk and heat through.
9. Serve over brown rice.