The Love Curry

April 28, 2020April 30, 2020 / yogalovefood / 1 Comment

Our whole family loves curry. Which is interesting because I never had it growing up. My mom and grandmother were pretty traditional “Southern” cooks. So everything had lots of butter and was very protein and carb focused. I ate this way or my own variation of it until I found the yoga path. Then I began to focus more on the vegetables and less on the meat and carbs. Chelsea and I have been making curry since we first met 10 years ago. She had just moved here from Hawaii and had this cookbook from a Vegan chef named Todd and we have used his recipe as a base all these years. It is the one thing we have consistently eaten every week or two since we’ve been together. Now both our boys, Matteo (4) and Owen (1) eat and love it too.

Many cultures and traditions have a variation of curry, but not really America. So when I introduced my parents to it, they hadn’t had anything like it before. We traveled a lot as a family growing up, so we sampled a lot of different delicacies from our travels. However, most of our trips were within the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe. Fun fact, I have been to every state except Alaska and Montana. Although there are many options for curry in North America, when we would travel we usually ate at the places known for having a good steak or maybe ribs and I didn’t see curry on too many of those menus. Even though I’ve been to nearly every country in Europe, I haven’t really heard of a German curry or an English curry or even an Italian curry. I’ve found that most people (myself included) don’t travel outside of their culinary comfort zones.

Nowadays I sample different curries whenever I have the chance. I love curries from Thailand, India, Africa and Japan, but the one I make at home is almost always the same, because it is so consistently delicious and everyone I have served it to seems to love it. So I call it the Love Curry. According to Chef Todd’s recipe it’s an Indian vegetable curry.

The reason I call it the Love Curry, is that whenever we have a friend or a family that we know that is going through a challenging time, we make a big batch and eat some our selves and give some to the family in need. A lot of times its a family who just had a baby, but this last time it was a family who had someone in the hospital for a few weeks and he was just coming home. So Chelsea offered to make them dinner. As soon as she told me I said, let’s make curry!

It’s easy to make, it just takes a lot of prep, which I love. When I’m chopping the vegetables, I think about who I’m making it for, even if it’s just Chelsea and the boys and I put love into it. Now that may sound strange to some of you and it would have to me back in the day, but as I’ve found a love for cooking and talked to some of the most amazing chefs and watched chefs on cooking shows, I hear it all the time. The best chefs in the world talk about putting love into their food. I truly believe you can taste the difference between food that was made with love, versus food that wasn’t.

I wanted to share the recipe here so anyone who knows someone or a family in need or maybe a nurse or single mom, could make them some Love curry and enjoy some themselves. Or maybe you just want to show some love to your self or your own family. Either way, here is the recipe.

I usually make a lot of it, so I would cook it in a Dutch oven or the biggest pot you have. I prep all the vegetables first, because I think it makes it easier when putting it all together.

You will need Coconut oil, coconut milk, salt, curry powder, turmeric, ginger, onion, carrots, sweet potato, potato, butternut squash, cauliflower, green beans, peas and cashews.

First, heat the coconut oil in the pot and add the onions, then the carrots.

Then add the potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and grate the ginger.

Next, add the coconut milk and spices including salt. Cover and cook these vegetables for about 20 minutes until soft.

Finally add the cauliflower, peas and green beans and let it all simmer together. 45 minutes is ideal, but it can be done in 30. The longer the better in our opinion, so all the flavors can meld together. At the very end, right before I serve it I add cashews. This gives it a perfect little crunch.

So you’re getting 7 or 8 vegetables and it’s healthy, filling and delicious. We have it over either quinoa or basmati rice. It’s also great the next day as leftovers.

From our family to yours. Enjoy!

Incredibly Satisfied

August 26, 2014August 29, 2014 / yogalovefood / 2 Comments

That’s what Chelsea said after tonight’s dinner… Homemade Veggie Chili…A healthy dish we have been trying to perfect over the last year. We make it every week or two. There are always leftovers and it’s great to take them to work the next day. It’s super easy to make and so now I’m going to share the recipe with you. Don’t you want to feel incredibly satisfied?! I know I do!

Part of the recipe is always the love and intention you put into the food you make. I love to cook and so that really helps…When I’m chopping vegetables, listening to music, I love it, it makes me so happy…making food for myself and someone I love. Somehow the love goes into the food. I don’t know how, I’m not a scientist, I just know it works. If you don’t believe me try it for yourself and you’ll see.

So here it is. I always try to buy organic for many reasons, one of which is its tastes better. I even used Kale from our garden. Here is everything I put in…

I first chopped up the onion, garlic, carrots and peppers and put them in a pot on medium to low heat with olive oil. After they all softened up I added a little salt and cumin and chili powder. Then I added the zucchini, squash, kale and all the beans plus one cup of veggie broth. Then another dash of the three spices. I let this go on with the heat on low for about 10 minutes and then Chelsea called. She was on her way home from teaching her prenatal yoga class. She said to add the corn and diced tomatoes cover it and let it simmer until she got home to give it the final flavoring… That’s her specialty. She has the palate of a sommelier… I’m just the sous chef. She always gives our dishes the final touch. It’s about a 20 drive home and it simmered the whole time. I went up to the roof, watched the sunset and finished my Moscow Mule…

Chelsea arrived home and added a little more cumin, chili powder and salt and said we could have used another can of the diced tomatoes. So add that to your recipe if you want to make it more like a true chili. She said ours looked liked a goulash. Well, however it looked…

It tasted delicious and left us both incredibly satisfied…

Cheers…to homemade BBQ sauce

April 7, 2014April 7, 2014 / yogalovefood / 1 Comment

Let me start by saying, I LOVE Barbecue Sauce! Maybe it comes from my roots in Arkansas, or my upbringing in North Carolina, where the Southern folks love them some BBQ. But, I have always loved the sauce. There are so many different kinds too. Even different regions of the state have different flavor profiles. Some are sweeter, some more tangy , but all just a little bit different. Have you ever noticed, there is basically just one ketchup, but there are a wide variety of sauces with the title BBQ attached to them. Over the years, I would always order a side of it whenever I was at a new restaurant. As a result, I have tried hundreds over the years and my love of cooking inspired me to make my own. I have modified this recipe over the years, so sometimes it is sweeter and sometimes more tangy, but I love it and rarely do I find one out on the town or even in stores that I like better.

The great thing is, it’s easy to make and can be made from organic ingredients , which is important to me. I look at the ingredients of many of the popular versions in stores and they have high fructose corn syrup as one of the first ingredients. None of that here, so you can slather it on whatever you want. One time Chelsea came home to her roommate eating it with rice. She said “I just wanted to eat this sauce”!

So, at the request of my friend Val, I’m sharing this recipe on here for anyone to try. Have fun with it and feel free to make modifications depending on your own preferences. This one is a little sweet, a little tangy, a little spicy and full of umami. (Which is that pleasant savory taste that helps make ketchup so satisfying) http://www.umamiinfo.com/2011/02/What-exactly-is-umami.php

For Matt’s homemade BBQ sauce 2014 edition, mix together
1 cup organic ketchup
1 cup organic brown sugar
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

The key is then to cook it down, meaning adding mixed ingredients to a skillet and cooking it on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring it occasionally, especially as it begins to bubble. This will give it that stickiness that takes it to the next level for my taste buds, it’s where the umami comes out. Then after it cools a little, I put it in a glass jar and either give it away to someone I love (I’m bringing some to yoga tomorrow for you Val) or enjoy it on everything from salmon to grilled eggplant. I even use it on our home made pizzas.
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Oh yeah, the beverage… It’s a mock tail. Non alcoholic cocktail. Fun to drink and easy to make. Chelsea and our friend Laurel made some ginger syrup. I used a little of that, along with soda water. I then muddled up fresh basil from a basil plant we have next to the sink along with lemon from a tree outside, mixed it all together while the sauce cooked down. Delish!
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This is the yoga pose for today’s post. It’s called Malasana, basically a squat. Great to do when your muddling. This pose helps my low back feel better the way it stretches and builds strength. I have had two yoga teachers say that “Cultures that spend time in this position have fewer back issues” I can believe that. Since I’ve been doing it, my back feels great. Try to do it for one minute per day, followed by a forward fold, muddler not needed to perform this pose;)
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Veggie Burgers

September 21, 2012 / yogalovefood / 2 Comments

Veggie Burgers. That sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it. When I hear the word Veggie, I think of things like, healthy, vegetables, Vegetarians, etc. When I hear the word Burgers, I think of things like back yard BBQ’s, cows, In & Out Burger, and also in the back of my mind…fat, cholesterol, unhealthy for the heart, etc.

I grew up eating hamburgers. Growing up in the South and Midwest portion of the United States, there were lots of cows and we ate a lot of hamburgers. Everything from Fast food hamburgers like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s to the gourmet burgers found in little known hole in the wall places. Every year for our birthday’s, whether it was my Mom, Dad, brother, or me, we would go to this little place called the Parkway in Holland, Michigan. In Hickory, North Carolina, it was the Windy City Grill where everyone went after school and on weekends. We all called it Homer’s. Long before Homer Simpson ever came around. They had the best one’s in town. It was one of those places that had been around for years and everyone came there for their burgers. Then, during the Summer, every backyard BBQ was stocked full of juicy, mouth watering, homemade hamburgers. I never really thought about the perils of eating this classic American culinary delight.

I never had a veggie burger as a kid, what was the point. No restaurant carried them, my Mom never bought them at the store and I guess I hadn’t really heard of them before or really even saw a reason to eat one. Then through life and experience and all of the articles and documentaries and stories that I heard over the years, I began to get this feeling that maybe a hamburger isn’t such a good thing to be eating all the time. Stories of heart attacks and obesity rates and lethargy, all somehow related to the consumption of red meat caused me to cut back on my indulgence of this great American pastime.

Then, I moved to California, started practicing yoga, and dating a vegetarian. Now I rarely eat a good old fashioned hamburger. Remember Samuel L. Jackson’s character from Pulp Fiction, when he said, “my girlfriend’s a vegetarian, so that pretty much makes me a vegetarian” Well, that’s pretty much me right now.

I still have the craving for them though. I guess it’s years of mental and physical programming. Also the fact that they taste good. I will usually indulge in a quality one every few months. I believe it’s my body telling me I need the iron and protein and other nutrients that it provides. At least that’s what I tell myself. Someday, I may go completely vegetarian, but I’m not there yet. I am now very conscious of the burgers that I choose to eat though. I also make sure I bless my food and thank the cow for sacrificing it’s life. Currently my top choice for a burger is from Simmzy’s in downtown Manhattan Beach (Delicious burgers that come from grass fed cows in the Midwest).

So, how do I satisfy this craving for a good hearty burger without actually eating one? That may be a question many of you are asking yourselves. Especially if you’ve tried to order a veggie burger from a restaurant or gotten one from the frozen food section of the grocery store.

: Veggie Burger selection from Trader Joe’s

Let’s be honest, there isn’t much out there that is very satisfying in my opinion. They all seem thin and not very flavorful. Plus, if you read the nutritional information on the back of the box, there isn’t even much protein, which is what you get from the red meat of a hamburger.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own. I have been experimenting over the last couple of years with different styles and varieties. I wanted to maximize the flavor and nutrition, as well as give that Umami satisfaction that comes from eating a burger. Without any of the guilt or fat or cholesterol that also comes from consuming the animal product.

I recently enjoyed my favorite version so far and would like to share with you how delicious they were and how easy they were to make. I got the basis for this recipe from the back of a bag of Organic Tri Color Quinoa, then added a bunch of things and took a few out. I have found this is a great way to cook. Use a recipe for the foundation and then modify it to your liking and preferences. I made these gluten free. So the recipe called for bread crumbs and an egg (beaten). Without the bread crumbs, the egg is not necessary. If you decide to use them. Add them in at then end, just before forming the patties.

The following is the Gluten free and vegan version.

First, here is what you need…Note, I used all Organic ingredients

3 cups Quinoa (rinsed and cooked)

1 can black beans (drained)

3 garlic cloves (minced)

1 onion (diced)

red, green, yellow, or orange pepper (diced)

1 carrot, zuchinni, yellow squash (quartered into 1/2″ slices)

Olive Oil

I find it easiest to get the quinoa going first. I rinse it and then get it cooking.

: Cook Quinoa 2 parts water or broth to 1 part Quinoa

While the quinoa is cooking, I chop up the onion, garlic, and peppers. I add some olive oil to the skillet and then…Saute’ the onions, garlic and peppers.

: sautee in olive oil

While that is going I blanche the carrots and squash. You could also add celery or different colored peppers. I prefer the orange, yellow, and red, but this day I only had the green, so that’s what I used.

Chelsea, tasting the veggies, to make sure they are done. Note, the recipe in the background that I used as my base. I prep all my ingredients first, so the beans have been drained and are awaiting their turn. I didn’t end up using the egg. If I were going to use the bread crumbs I probably would have, but since I didn’t, it wasn’t needed to bind everything together.

I then took the veggies, black beans, and onion, garlic, pepper sauté and put them in the immersion blender that my sister in law gave me last year. If you don’t have one of these in your kitchen, I highly recommend it. It has so many great uses. Making soups, veggie burgers, etc. It’s just as effective as a food processor, but much easier to clean.

In the past, I have added cooked beets at this time and it gives the veggie burger the look of red meat when its done and also adds some great nutrients.

After that has all been blended up, I add it to the quinoa and mix it all together. Adding salt and pepper and any other spices at this time. Feel free to get creative with your spices.

Next, I form the mix into patties and put into the refrigerator for 10 minutes. This is also where you would add the egg and the bread crumbs if you’re using them. However, it’s really not necessary.

After taking them out of the refrigerator, add some olive oil to the skillet and fry them up. An iron skillet would be ideal if you have one.

Then be sure to load them up just like you would a normal hamburger and voila’

Gluten Free bread, Heirloom tomatoes from our garden, cheese (guess this one’s not quite vegan) avocado and my homemade BBQ sauce. Yes, those are brussel sprouts in the background.

Now that’s a tasty burger. It has more than twice the protein of any of the veggie burgers you can buy at the store. Not to mention, Healthy, Organic, and Delicious.

Bon Appétit