Back At It

I was aching to cook an actual meal after not doing so in days, but I had to whip out something pretty quickly tonight after not getting home until dinner time. I dabbled with the idea of just heating up some canned soup, but then decided I needed to cook. I searched around and settled on Indian food because a) it's healthy, b) it's easy and c) I'm in love with it. I was a little apprehensive about cooking dinner because we haven't exactly been seeing eye to eye lately (re: my dinner fails) but thankfully this came out wonderfully. I guess that means I'm back on my game again.


Bhindi Masala (Okra)
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb okra, sliced into rounds
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp ginger, grated
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- 3 tbsp soy yogurt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 tsp curry powder
- 2 bay leaves
- 5-6 torn mint leaves, for garnish
- Sea salt (save for the end)

Instructions
- Wash and dry okra. Make sure it's completely dried before cooking.
- In a large skillet, cook onions, garlic, jalapeno, bay leaves and ginger in olive oil until translucent on medium to medium-high heat. Add green pepper and cook until soft. Once soft, add okra and stir.
- After about 10 minutes, remove bay leaves and add soy yogurt, curry powder and lemon. Stir to combine and turn the heat down to low. Cook for an additional 5-10 minutes or until everything is softened and the mixture takes on a slightly creamy consistency.
- Add salt before serving and garnish with mint. Make sure not to add salt until just before serving.



From start to finish, this dish took less than 30 minutes. In fact, most of the time was spent chopping vegetables. It's time efficient, incredibly flavorful and warming for both the heart and stomach (and nasal passages). Every time I eat an Indian dish I become more and more enamoured. Despite its ability to look completely disgusting in photographs, I find it beautiful. Good thing I have a lot of my curry powder left and the fixin's to make more!


The sweet potato is there because it looked like it needed to be eaten.

It's nice to be back in my cooking groove.