Dinner Bowl #97

 

This was a surprising raid-the-fridge-and-freezer special, that turned out to be utterly amazing. I cooked some jasmine rice to have with an improvisational cabbage and butternut squash curry I'll explain more below and some creamy lentils and spinach I had in my freezer from this summer. I added a generous amount of fresh spinach to the lentils to perk them up a bit, too.

The curry has onion, half a red bell pepper, part of a butternut squash (the end of what my neighbor had given me from her garden), the end of a head of cabbage, a red jalapeno from my neighbor's garden, a small amount of cooked lentils I had in my freezer, half a can of coconut milk I had in my freezer, half a can of diced tomatoes, and the usual seasonings (cumin, curry powder, salt, and (frozen) cilantro). If I'd been more sensible, I would have realized I had some roma tomatoes that needed using and could have used those instead of opening a can, but I am messy and imperfect and somehow or other it will work out.

Often, I make raid-the-fridge soup, but I haven't been brave enough before now to make raid-the-fridge curry. I'm so glad I did! It feels like an important skill to have. It was delicious, of course--unimaginably so.

All in all, this meal was a huge success! It's taken me absolute ages, but I am so much better at using the things I have on hand and letting myself run out of things. I even finished off a bottle of canola oil sautéing the veggies, and I'm not in a panic because I know I have coconut oil and olive oil still and it will be fine.