Roasted Vegetable Curry

We like to eat vegetarian from time to time. Its not really something we plan but I think its healthy to not have meat from time to time. We still have quite a few vegetables from the last two CSA boxes (luckily root vegetables last awhile) so, I decided to add a vegetable curry to our menu this week.

We're experimenting more & more with making curries from scratch, using a variety of spices rather than curry powder. For this dish, I started with Alton Brown's Vegetable Curry recipe. I changed a few things such as using fresh vegetables that I roasted instead of frozen & adding Sriracha instead of chilies. I'm using brussel sprouts in this which I'm sure is not traditional at all but I really liked the flavor of them in this. You can add whatever mix of vegetables you like.

Roasted Vegetable Curry

2 medium potatoes, peeled & cut into 1/2 cubes
2 medium carrots, sliced
1 medium red onion, peeled & quartered
1 c small brussel sprouts
1 T olive oil
salt & pepper
2/3 c plain non-fat yogurt
1 t cornstarch
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 t fennel seeds
1/2 t mustard seeds
1/2 t ground cumin
1 t ground turmeric
1 t onion powder
1/2 t ground coriander
1/8 t ground cinnamon
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 c frozen peas
1/4 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t Sriracha (or as much heat as you want)

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Place the vegetables in a small roasting pan. Coat with the olive oil & season with salt & pepper. Roast for 30 - 40 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Stir the yogurt with the cornstarch & set it aside.

Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large sauté pan. Add the fennel & mustard seeds. Cook until, stirring from time to time, until they begin to pop. Turn the heat down to medium & add the cumin, turmeric, onion powder, coriander, cinnamon, red pepper flakes & garlic. Sauté until the garlic starts turning (its hard to tell because of the color of the sauce so I just did 4 minutes).

Add the roasted vegetables, peas, sugar salt & Sriracha. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until everything is warm (especially the frozen peas).
(look at all those colors!)
Turn off the heat & add the yogurt mixture. Stir to combine everything.
Serve with rice if you wish.

Makes 2 main dish servings

This turned out pretty good though I still think it needs a little tweaking. We didn't care for biting into the fennel seeds so next time I'll crush them a bit before toasting them. I also think it needs something bumped up or something added but I'm not sure what. We thought it needed heat which is why we added the Sriracha which was good but not the thing I was missing. We'll have to play with it more next time we make it.