I managed to find a few vegetarian recipes when I came up with the list of recipes to make this month. I thought the recipe for Curried Potatoes and Squash sounded simple yet different, so I picked up the ingredients I needed and planned to make it on the weekend when I’d have the time to cut up butternut squash.
I used oil in this in place of butter. I didn’t have fresh ginger to use in this so I used some dried ginger from my pantry. I used 3 cups (unpeeled) potatoes and 3 cups butternut squash, diced tomatoes rather than whole, bouillon in place of broth, and petite green peas. Although I used chicken bouillon, you could easily use veggie instead. The recipe came together pretty easily, as per the instructions. The most difficult thing I had to do was peel and cut up the butternut squash.
As I cut vegetables, I realized that I’d planned on making or buying some flatbread to go with the curry, since it had suggested having some to soak up the sauce. I didn’t have time to make anything too complicated, but after a few fruitless web searches, I remembered that chapatis were a quick and easy Indian flatbread. I found the recipe for Indian Chapati, which took both white and whole wheat flours and would be done in time to eat dinner.
I started the chapati recipe before I started the potatoes and squash, and I halved the recipe for the chapati since we wouldn’t need many for just me and Alex. The dough was very simple to make. I mixed the flours, salt, olive oil, and water together with a fork, and kneaded in the rest of the flour by hand. I continued to knead it until smooth (just a few minutes of folding the dough between my hands while I walked around the house – it wasn’t a ton of dough). I divided it into 5 pieces, rolled them into little balls, and let them rest during the 20 or 30 minutes it took to cook the rest of the food.
I rolled out the chapati as thinly as I could – about as thin as a tortilla would be. This actually wasn’t that hard to do with the dough. About 10 minutes before the curried potatoes would be done, I pulled out a skillet to cook the chapati. I did a few over medium heat, but I didn’t get quite the look I was wanting. I had better luck when I put my skillet up to medium high. The chapati started to puff up properly then, and I got some browned areas on them. It just took a minute for each chapati once I had the skillet at the right temperature.
This was pretty good. The curried potatoes were a little spicy, but overall they were pretty satisfying. It was a pretty hearty vegetarian meal, and we definitely got 4 servings out of it. The chapati were pretty good too, particularly when used for the curry. I really liked the taste of the ones that had puffed up. You couldn’t really get an easier flatbread recipe.
Overall, this was a pretty good meal. The Indian Chapati were very simple to make on the spur of the moment, so I highly recommend trying them. The Curried Potatoes and Squash was also a simple, quick dish (aside from peeling the squash) worth giving a try.
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