warm vegetable curry

     Uuuugh. I just walked home from work and I am so ready to curl up with a hot cocoa and go to bed, because it is raining outside. That's right, raining. In February. In Minnesota. I'd assumed we'd have a lovely snowstorm, but no... so instead I walked home, umbrella-less, until my down jacket had soaked through. Gross. At least it was kind of funny when I let the dog out and she ran around the yard, pausing to shake the rain off, as though she'd forgotten how the whole water-from-the-sky thing works. :)

     Pardon the lack of solid posts here. I feel pretty devoid of fun stories to tell. I feel like I am just in a holding pattern until I can sing "We're moving to _______!!!!" from the rooftops, and by singing, I mean sobbing. I love Minnesota. I always have. In 2006 I did a summer internship here, and I did that thing I always do too much of: research. I looked up every stat on the Cities, browsed it on Google Maps, memorized the entire Wikipedia article on the Twin Cities. I even knew the Foshay Tower had a march written for it by John Phillip Sousa. Just for a 10-week internship. I did such a good job that as my plane descended over the city (the landing pattern at that time circled over downtown Minneapolis, near the U) I could pick out the buildings on campus I'd be visiting. The river was so cool with all the bridges spanning the gorge, and all the little green spaces amongst the city scene. I felt like I was about to go home, and I hadn't even landed yet. 

    Now it's 2012, I've lived here since August 2007 (yep, we moved in the day after the bridge fell). I am invested in this place. I've joked all along that all it's missing is mountains. I'm holding out for the possibility that we'll move somewhere more mountainous, as though that will somehow make it better when all my memories and many of my closest friends will be here. We even made a point of getting married in Saint Paul to show off what a great place it is. I don't want to leave it behind.

     But hey, enough gloom and doom (and free tourist advertisement for the Twin Cities Metro Area, jeez!), let's talk about dinner. I made this vegetable curry a week or so ago and it was amazing. The best part: it has cauliflower in it! I have always, always loved cauliflower. I realize it is probably a carry-over from the first, oh, sixteen years of my life when I only liked beige food. The huzz also really liked the curry (we are a curry-loving family), but he said something that totally stole my heart: "Thank you for getting me to like cauliflower." That's right, he thanked me for getting him to eat his veggies and be more adventurous with his foods. Just last week I fully converted him to the Standard North American Hippie Food diet, which includes copious amounts of homemade granola (don't you feel like granola is the epitome of hippie food?). Swoon! We've both come a long way (Velveeta for dinner, anyone?), but his willingness to try any crazy thing I make with an open mind really makes me a proud wifey.

     And from here I promise more normal, silly posts... I think there's some potential hilarity in the future soon. Two words: Jury Duty. Either that or Dog Antics. There will always be Dog Antics. :)

southwestern-style potato salad

I wonder how many times the thought "Aha! A way to use purple potatoes and freshly picked cherry tomatoes at the same time!" will cross my mind in my lifetime. But it did, and am I ever happy to report that this is probably the best potato salad I've ever had.

So I really wanted to make this a little while ago, but the purple potatoes that I bought liquified in the pantry in three days (I blame the July heat). The coolest thing about this creamy potato salad is that it doesn't include mayo. The solution to mayo-free potato salad? Silken tofu! You know, the kind in a box on a shelf? That's the stuff. Now potato salad is safe for vegans and mayo-phobes, and it tastes super delicious!

I also dig anything with chipotle in it. Much to my husband's relief, I have learned that just because it comes in tiny cans with adobo sauce doesn't mean one can equals a reasonable addition to a recipe (whoopsie!). Here's a tip: I blended a whole can's worth of chilis and adobo sauce in the Magic Bullet, and then froze 1 T. blobs of it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet, then stuck them in a freezer bag for storage. Now you don't have to feel obligated to use a whole can :). This trick is also great for homemade pesto (minus the cheese) and tomato paste.

So here you go:
Southwestern-Style Potato Salad
(slightly adapted from Southern Style Three-Potato Salad in Passionate Vegetarian)

1 large sweet potato
3 lbs. small purple potatoes
1 T. ground cumin
2  Hungarian wax peppers; stem, seeds, and ribs removed, finely diced
1 poblano pepper; charred, peeled, seeds removed, diced
1 small white onion, finely diced
1 box silken tofu
2 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. lime juice
1 T. chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 t. salt
handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
3 T. fresh parsley
3 T. fresh cilantro

1. Prick the sweet potato with a fork and cook in the microwave, about 5 minutes. Let cool and peel.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and then boil the purple potatoes, skin on, for 15 minutes.
3. Put peppers, onion, and cumin in a bowl. Stir to combine and coat with cumin.
4. Combine the tofu, garlic, olive oil, lime juice, adobo chili paste, salt, cilantro, and parsley in a food processor until smooth. Stir the mixture into the peppers. Slice the purple potatoes into 1/2 inch thick discs (the skins will fall off, that's fine) and dice the sweet potato. Add the potatoes to the pepper and tofu mixture and toss to combine. Add the tomatoes and toss gently to combine.

southwest veggie burgers

So the plan is to start cooking new things. I picked out five new recipes and hit the grocery store. Project Try New Things! started off on a high note for sure! I picked out some delicious multigrain rolls from Breadsmith (also apparently following my trend of lavender-flavored baked goods! I was cool before they were cool! Harrumph. Also, why must they share a space with Jamba Juice? C'mon! Too irresistible! Double harrumph.) specifically to motivate myself to make this. 

No doubt, homemade veggie burgers aren't new around our place. We make a mean curry tofu burger. Alas, not terribly photogenic, so not yet incorporated into this here blog. This one, however, was unbelievable. And so very easy too! Another win for new recipes in our usual rotation, and another win for food52 stealing my heart.

I did tweak this recipe a bit, so here's the rundown:

Southwestern Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers 

(mildly adapted after MadisonMayberry's recipe on food52.com)

**makes 6 meal-sized burgers**

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 1 (15-oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (8.5-oz) whole kernel corn, rinsed and drained (frozen is okay too, thaw first)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 tsp. packed fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp. chipotle Tabasco 
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

• 1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
  2. Microwave the sweet potato for 5 minutes. Remove from microwave, split in half and scoop out the flesh. Discard the skin. Place the flesh in the bowl of your food processor along with half the black beans, half the corn, and then all of the flour, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, coriander, paprika, chili powder, and cilantro.
  3. Process until almost completely smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Transfer blended mixture to a bowl and add in the remaining beans, corn, and the crumbled feta cheese.
  4. Form mixture into six patties (mixture will be soft) on the prepared baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, flipping gently half way through baking and adding grated Parmesan cheese on top if desired. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes. 

We served our burgers with baby spinach on top. I liked mine with lebni on the bun. If you are lucky enough to own a toaster oven, do toast the buns before serving. A good chipotle salsa would also be tasty. And, as it is a burger, a good beer goes well with this. I really like dark beer, so Abita's Turbodog was just perfect to me.