Changing of the Guard

It’s officially November, I know this because I started writing my NaNoWriMo novel. For those of you who don’t know what that is - it’s National Novel Writing Month. It occurs every November and the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, which translates to about 1700 words each day. This is my 5th attempt and I’ve finished 4 times; so far so good. Of the novels I’ve written there are 2 I’d like to go back and edit - who knows maybe publish but that is for another blog post. 

It’s also time to start prepping for winter, raking the leaves, cleaning out gutters, putting on storm windows (yes I know its an old house) and putting the gardens and flowers to bed. If you’ve been following this blog you know that 2016 will go down as one of our best harvests ever - actually I picked the last of the tomatoes off the vines last night and I noticed that I am still swimming in collard greens and kale, gotta do something about that this weekend. 

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, not too crisp, clear blue sky and some of the trees are still sporting beautiful color. After work Dan and I took a walk around the park and then hurried home so we could start mulching the leaves - OK Dan got out the mower and mulched the leaves, which put me on kitchen detail. 

I had a block of tofu, which I bought a bit ago and I was going to use it to make sofritos but I never got around to it. I found a recipe while browsing through Pinterest and I realized I had all of the ingredients - plus some additional ones, which I wanted to add. Luckily for Dan it was a curry, which is his favorite. 

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 large yellow onion, finely chopped

2 fairly large garlic cloves, center germ removed and crushed with a garlic crusher

2 tbsp ( or more! ) fresh ginger, grated

8 - 10 dried apricots, diced

4 tbsp curry powder

1 - 2 tsp numeric

2 cans coconut milk

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed - for those of you who are purists - and you know who you are - you can cook your own from scratch.

1 package of tofu, patted dry and cut into cubes

3 cups packed baby spinach

2 tsp coarse sea salt

Heat the coconut oil in a wide pot on medium heat.

Add onion, garlic, ginger and apricots and sauté for a few minutes, until the onion is translucent and soft.

Add curry powder and mix it in well with the rest of the ingredients. Allow the spices to toast for a minute without letting them stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the coconut milk and season with sea salt, mixing well.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except for the spinach), let it come to a boil and reduce heat to a low simmer. Heat for 5 to 8 minutes to absorb the flavors and the coconut milk has become a creamy sauce. Turn off the heat and add the spinach one cup at a time until wilted. 

Serve with basmati rice and fruit. 

Thanks for stopping by