Vegetarian Vindaloo Curry (Gluten Free)- Using a Crockpot!

Lots of people love the ease and convenience of the crockpot to get healthy low fuss meals on the table especially when you know you are going to have a long day.  I love using my crockpot when I have big projects planned, we have a day full of doctor appointments- or late appointments, or when we are planning a fun day out and I want to have a good dinner waiting for me instead of hitting a fast food place before coming home.

I am picky.  Very picky.  You won't see any "add cream of blah blah blah" recipes or anything that ends up muck at the end.  A few days ago I knew I would not be home from a doctor appointment until close to five and I have been trying to have dinner served before six every night.  It has been a while and my husband and I have been craving curry so I decided on chicken.  Looking at it sitting on the counter I changed my mind and decided to add some veggies.  Then I changed my mind again and decided to do only veggies.  It is the first vegetarian curry I've made so this was an experiment of sorts.

This is a "15 minute meal" Curry Sauce packet that I am using.  I doubled the water it called for because I planned on it cooking for so long.  You can use 2 packets of sauce and no additional curry powder or corn starch and water.  Depending on the amount of sauce you want and how strong you like it you can adjust it to your taste.  Like a little more heat?  Add a little more curry powder to your serving or the entire pot.

Time for the recipe:

Vegetarian Gluten Free Vindaloo Curry 

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time:  Crockpot- High for 6 Hours

Ingredients:
1 or 2 Pkg Sukhi's Vindaloo Curry Sauce (Available in some stores or here on Amazon)
2 Cups water
1 Tbs Curry powder
1 Head of cauliflower
7 Medium carrots
3 Medium potatoes
1/2 Onion chopped
2 Tbs corn starch
1/4 C cool water

• Prep your Crockpot- I use a Reynolds Crockpot liner.

• Mix together curry sauce, powder and water in a bowl or right in your Crockpot.

• Chop cauliflower, carrots and cube potatoes keeping fairly uniform sized pieces.

• Add vegetables and sauce to the Crockpot and turn on high for 6 hours.  Stir occasionally to incorporate the sauce in to the veggies well.

• At the end of the cooking cycle mix the corn starch and water.  Stir it in to the sauce well avoiding any lumps.

• Serve over rice, quinoa etc. and pair with chutney or naan bread.

We have naan bread with our curry.  I buy multiple packs at a time and freeze them and pull them out as needed and toss them in the oven to warm.  I should start baking my own and will likely include a recipe in the near future.  

Tortilla Pie?

Tonight's dinner was supposed to be no frills.  We were trying to relax and prepare for the week ahead and I had just cleaned the kitchen.  I picked a pin from my husband's Pinterest account and decided that is what we were having for dinner.  You can probably see a pattern here with these last minute dinner choices.  Rest assured this is not always the case.  I actually have a cute menu board to plan out our meals for the week (another Pinterest idea) but I just unpacked it yesterday and the new pens are in the garage so it has not been put to use.  I will however write a blog about preparing a weekly menu and I will include a photo of it.  Maybe that will encourage me to upgrade too!

So here is dinner straight out of the oven.  Tortilla pie.  Pinterest failed to actually send me to the direct link to the recipe but after a little digging I found it- and found some issues with it.  It is a Martha Stewart recipe from her website and you can find the original here.  I will post my version down the page a little.  The first issue I had was it calls for beer and well, we don't keep alcohol in our house so it is never something I have on hand.  Come on, Martha!  The second issue I ran in to was my lack of black beans which was a total shock!  I forgot to restock!  I do however have dried black beans so that means this week I need to start preparing my own beans for the freezer so they are easily on hand for times like this.  I substituted with Reduced Sodium Pintos.  

Now this looks a lot more appetizing than the original photo.  I know the photography could use some work but with two little ones around my feet and growling bellies all around getting food to the table was a little more important than setting up a good shot.  Sorry.  Plus- no frills dinner tonight remember?

On with the recipe.

Tortilla Pie

Prep Time:  Less than 30 mins
Cook Time: 10 Mins for filling; 20 Mins in the oven
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

4 Flour tortillas 

2 Tbs Oil

1/2 Lg Onion

1 Sm can Diced Chiles or 1 jalapeno pepper diced (optional)

2 Cloves Garlic minced

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle Seasoning (Optional)

2 (15 oz) cans beans rinsed and drained (I used pinto original recipe calls for black)
1/2 c Water

1 can reduced sodium corn

8 oz Shredded cheese

Salt & Pepper
Your choice of garnishes.  I used Pace Picante sauce, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and avocado and cilantro cream sauce which I will include the recipe for.

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Trim tortillas to fit inside of a springform pan.  If you grab the tortillas from the fridge and they are smaller than your pan no biggie.  Just continue on.  If they are 6" sized you may want to make 2 pies.
• Heat oil in a medium skillet and add onion, garlic, cumin, Southwest Chipotle Seasoning and salt and pepper over medium heat.  Cook until soft, stirring often.
• Add beans, corn, and water to the skillet.  Simmer the mixture until most of the liquid has evaporated. (About 10  mins.)  Remove it from heat and taste it and adjust the seasoning as needed.
• Lay a tortilla in the bottom of the springform pan and put a layer of the bean mixture on top.  If your tortillas are not as big as the pan keep your filing about 1/2 an inch away from the edge of the tortilla so it doesn't all scatter out.  Add a layer of cheese.  Repeat these steps until you have 1 tortilla left.  Lay the last tortilla on the top of the stack and cover liberally with cheese. (You can include beans in your top layer as well.  I chose not to.)
• Bake in the oven for 15-25 minutes until the cheese has fully melted.  

To serve cut pie in to slices.  Top with your choice of garnishes.

Avocado Cream Sauce1/2 Avocado
1/4 c Plain Greek Yogurt
1/4 bunch cilantro
1 pkg True Lemon or 1 tsp lemon juice

• Combine ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

• Adjust the amount of avocado or yogurt to suit your taste. 

• Add more lemon for more tang.