I love vegetarian curry dishes! The warm spices wake up your mouth, it fills you up, and – best of all – they’re low in calories! Without the rice, TOFU VEGETABLE CURRY is about 200 calories per cup. Yay!

TOFU VEGETABLE CURRY also has the benefit of being easy and fairly quick to prepare – about 40 minutes total (and the last 15 minutes are hands off simmering).

If you’ve already glanced at the recipe below, you may be leery of making it due to the long list of ingredients. Fear not! Notice that most of them are spices. If you’ve been cooking for awhile then you may already have many, if not all – they’re very common in cooking.

Note:  If you prefer, you can substitute 2 T garam masala spice blend for the first 10 ingredients.  Then start with the chili powder.

Additional Note: Don’t skip the cream – it truly makes all the difference in the world. (There’s only 1/4 cup in the whole batch anyway.)

TOFU VEGETABLE CURRY – makes about 8 cups

• 1 T coriander
• 1¼ tsp cumin
• 3/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
• 1/2 tsp dried mustard
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp cardamom
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 4 T vegetable oil, divided
• 2 cups  onions, chopped
• 1 cup red potatoes (or Yukon gold), unpeeled and cubed into 1/2″ pieces
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 serrano chili, minced
• 1 T tomato paste
• 1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 14 oz canned whole tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup water
• 15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
• 6 oz extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2″ cubes
• 1½ tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1½ cup green peas
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Have all ingredients prepped, in order to speed things up.

Place a small bowl near the stove. Into a dry Dutch oven add the coriander, cumin, turmeric, ginger, mustard, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, cayenne, and chili powder. Turn flame on to medium/high. Stir constantly for 1 minute – you’re toasting the spices. You’ll notice a puff of smoke at about the 1 minute mark. Immediately empty the spices into the bowl and set aside.

Into the now empty Dutch oven add 3 T oil, onions, and potatoes. Sauté over medium/high until browned – about 10 minutes. Turn off heat.

Shove the onions and potatoes to the edge of the pot. Into the center place the remaining 1 T oil, garlic, serrano, and tomato paste. Over medium flame stir just the tomato paste mixture for 1 minute to bloom them. Then stir the onions/potatoes and tomato paste mixture together, cooking an additional 2 minutes.

Add in the cauliflower and spices (from bowl),  and cook 2 more minutes, stirring often.

Pour in the canned tomatoes, water, chickpeas, sugar, tofu, and salt. Bring to boil, cover, then turn down heat to keep a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes.

Stir in the peas and cream. Serve as is, or over rice with NAAN BREAD (which I prefer!).