Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Curry

I gained about eight pounds during my summer of clerking at two law firms and having extravagant lunches, big dinners, and too many cocktails for 12 weeks. When the summer ended, I lost 3 pounds of my summer weight by just getting back to my normal eating and drinking habits, but in mid-November I decided I needed to work harder at getting rid of my summer baggage and the 6 pounds I had already gained in law school.

During the past two months, I've lost 7 pounds. That's not a huge number, but it's a healthy number. And I think it's pretty damn good considering that during that time period, I celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve without really holding back on those days. A HUGE factor in my weight loss has been exercise, but diet has also been an important part of it. I've been trying to use less oil in my cooking and have paid much more attention to my portion sizes. I'm also always looking for new, healthy, dishes that will fill me up without all the calories. This curry is one of those dishes.

A 1-cup serving of this curry has about 174 calories, 6.9 g fat, 3.6 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 458 mg sodium, 26.3 g carbohydrates, and 5.9 g protein (but this may vary somewhat depending on what coconut milk you use and how much salt you add). And, it's loaded with vitamins and minerals. Some people may be put off by the coconut milk because of the saturated fat- but come on people, everything in moderation!

This is a mildly spiced curry, but you could definitely make it spicier by adding peppers. It has a creamy texture from the coconut milk and sweet potatoes, but a little crunch to it from the cauliflower. I ate a serving of this curry for lunch today with a serving of brown basmati rice. A 314-calories meal and I'm stuffed and happy!

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Curry
Makes 6 1-cup servings

• One 14-ounce can light coconut milk
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 large sweet potato, cut into about 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
• One 14-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• salt to taste (I added 1/2 tsp- it didn't need much)

In a large pot (I didn't have a pan big enough), add the coconut milk, cardamom, cinnamon, curry powder, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes and heat over medium-high heat. When the coconut milk is simmering, add the sweet potato and toss to cover with the sauce. Cover the pot and let simmer for about 10 minutes. When the sweet potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork, but before they've turned to mush, add the cauliflower and chickpeas. Toss the mixture with the sauce, and cover, continuing to simmer. Stir occasionally. The curry is ready when the cauliflower is cooked. The sweet potatoes should have broken up into the sauce, with some small pieces here and there. Salt to taste, and serve.

Mint Cucumber Raita

This is not a very original recipe (nor is it a very good pic- sorry). I was dreaming up a swiss chard wrap and was trying to think of a sauce I wanted to go with it. "Chard tastes like beets... what's good with beets? Mint and goat cheese... but maybe yogurt instead of the goat cheese. Mint and yogurt... and cucumber. Cucumber would be good with that. It would be like a mint cucumber raita! Oh wait, that exists already." Even though this is not a creative sauce, I want to give you the recipe anyway because it is a sauce worth making. 3 ingredients and very little prep time yield a cool, refreshing sauce that can compliment a spicy dish or enhance a milder one.

Mint Cucumber Raita
Makes about 5.5 ounces

• 1/2 cucumber, peeled, grated, and squeezed of excess liquid
• 1/2 cup soy (or regular) yogurt
• 1/4 cup finely chopped mint

Once you mix the ingredients, this sauce is ready to go. This will yield a fairly thick sauce, but keep in mind that if you put it in the fridge and use it the next day, the cucumber will have released more water into the yogurt and will be runnier. I used some two days after I made it and the sauce was thinner, but still went very well with my lunch of rice, pigeon peas, and red pepper seitan.

Red Pepper Seitan

The picture above is what I took for lunch today for my internship: red pepper seitan, brown basmati rice, and sweet-and-sour toovar dal. The toovar dal is from Madhur Jaffrey's "World Vegetarian". I think I did something wrong (maybe I wasn't supposed to drain the pigeon peas, but there was just way too much liquid!) but they were still pretty good.

This Indian-inspired red pepper seitan dish was really easy to prepare and only uses 5 ingredients. It's high in protein and doesn't contain any oil other than that already in the seitan. On top of that, it's so yummy!

Red Pepper Seitan
Makes 4 small servings

• 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and roughly chopped
• 1 serrano chili, stem end cut off and roughly chopped (don't remove the seeds)
• 1 pound seitan (I used West Soy traditional seitan because I didn't feel like making any)
• 1/4 cup plain soy yogurt (or regular plain yogurt if you don't care whether it's vegan)
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Put the red pepper and serrano chili into a blender and blend into a smooth sauce. (If you taste it at this point, it will be REALLY spicy, but it will cool down!) Pour the sauce into a pan, add the seitan, and heat over medium-high heat until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in the yogurt and cilantro, and remove from heat. If you plan to serve this with rice, you might want to make extra sauce, especially if reheating it as a leftover.

Seitan Tikka Masala

"India's 500 Best Recipes" by Shehzad Husain, Rafi Fernandez, Mridula Baljekar, and Manisha Kanani is one of my favorite cookbooks. The cookbook has a section devoted to vegetarian main dishes, but my favorite way to use the cookbook is to vegetarianize the meat dishes. It's incredibly easy and usually just requires that I substitute seitan for chicken. I've had plenty of vegetarian Indian food in restaurants, but have never found a restaurant with vegetarianized versions of Indian meat dishes. Now I don't have to miss out on "chicken" tikka masala.

Seitan Tikka Masala

Makes 4 servings

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 1 green chili, seeded and diced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 6 tbsp tikka paste
• 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Three 8-ounce packages seitan
• fresh cilantro to garnish

Instructions

1. Cook the onion, garlic, ginger, and chili in the olive oil in a large pan for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, tikka paste, and water to the pan and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and blend the mixture in a blender or food processor until it's smooth. Return the sauce to the pan and mix in the lemon juice, yogurt, and seitan.

3. Let the seitan simmer in the sauce for 10 minutes, then serve over rice or with naan. Add cilantro as garnish.