Googling Up Easy Delish Dinner

I’ve been a little busier than usual lately – I got some real live PAID work, for which I am extremely grateful, but which throws a pretty big wrench in my normal task accomplishment rhythm.  My fabulous bathroom renovation has been, shall we say, stalled (har, har), the garden’s behind, I’ve stopped planning about 15 home improvements and I’ve had a harder time than usual planning food.  Still spinning a bit I guess.  I’ll get the hang of it again, but in the meantime, we still have to eat.

So the other night, when I didn’t get to the market as planned, I made a quick survey of the ingredients I had available, and decided to just google them.  I typed in potatoes, green beans, and coconut milk… and up came dinner.  Isn’t technology wonderful?  And I really mean it this time (unlike so many of the times I say that).

There were several posts that featured the same basic idea (a gentle curry), so I settled on the one that looked like it would make the amount of food I wanted, put some rice in the rice cooker, and got to work changing the recipe to suit myself, as I do.  So I give you:

Coconut Curry with Green Beans, Potatoes and Kale – inspired by this version

• 2 T coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
  

  a slightly blurry, but lovely dish

• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1 t turmeric
• 1 T brown mustard seeds
• 1/2 t garam masala
• 1 t cayenne (optional – I opted no, but will opt yes next time since my daughter didn’t like it anyway 😉 )
• large can or box diced tomatoes
• 1 c water
• about 5 medium russet potatoes, washed and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 3 large handfuls green beans trimmed (cut if you like, I didn’t)
• 1 1/2 c coconut milk (the full fat canned kind)
• 3 VERY large handfuls baby or cut kale

big pot of yum

In deep pan or large pot, melt coconut oil.  Add spices and stir a bit.  Allow to saute until mustard seeds begin to pop and your kitchen smells AH-MAZING.  Add your tomatoes and stir.  Allow to warm, stirring a few times.  Add 1 c water and potatoes.  Stir.  Allow to come to a gentle boil, cover and turn down to simmer for about 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally ensuring potatoes aren’t sticking to the bottom.

Add the green beans and continue to cook for about 4 more minutes or until the beans and potatoes are tender to your liking, stirring occasionally.  Add the coconut milk and warm.

chunky coconut milk

Now when I opened my coconut milk, it had separated and fat on top wasn’t creamy, it was sort of pasty.  Nothing was wrong with it and so I ignored the online suggestion to throw it in a blender.  When I added it to the acidic tomatoes, it didn’t stand a chance of blending.  In the end, it didn’t really matter, but it would have been a prettier dish if I’d gone ahead and blended the coconut milk.  Back to our regularly scheduled dinner…

Add the kale (oh yes, Dad, kale) and stir.  Cook just until the kale wilts (gets softer, but not mushy).

Serve on top of rice – or your preferred grain.  So googling dinner worked out pretty darned nice.  Delish!

Looking for more ways to use kale? Try these.

Looking for other takes on curries? Try this

Harboring a childhood aversion to green beans? Food for thought here.

Thinking something other than grain would be nice?  How about barley or amaranth?

Trying to clean up your eating habits? Join us in our Baby Steps to Better Health. C’Mon… you know you want to.