Viva la Vindaloo

I have more or less been living on this recipe lately; there is usually a batch in the crockpot at least twice a week. The ingredients are inexpensive, the preparation takes very little time, and the cooking itself, of course, takes no effort on anyone's part but the crockpot. This version of vindaloo is quite a complete meal all on its own, chock-full of protein, fiber and healthy fats. I've enjoyed it alone, over steamed haricots verts (thin french green string beans) or broccoli, and alongside Punjabi Bhurtha (North Indian spiced eggplant, my recipe coming soon or see the one that inspired it in the meantime).

Pre-made vinadloo sauces are increasingly available at mainstream grocers', but are usually quite pricey and, for me, lacking in a fullness of flavor (with one very notable exception, which I budget for whenever I am home to San Francisco). They also tend to be very high in fat, which rounds out a goodly number of reasons why making your own is a great idea. The recipe below is for a vindaloo vegetable and legume stew, but the tangy-sweet and spicy sauce alone makes a wonderful marinade for tofu, tempeh, and raw veggies, a stirfry sauce for any of the same, a dipping sauce for crostini, veggies or fruits (no, I'm not nuts: try it on apple or pineapple spears!), dressing for salads of veggies or pasta or grains... Endless possibilities.

Traditional vindaloo is made with tamarind, which imparts the distinctive tart sweetness. But tamarind can be hard to find outside of larger (or more enlightened) cities. Lime juice (or cider vinegar) and a touch of the sweetener of your choice make an excellent, and authentic-tasting, substitute. The optional extra virgin olive oil is added to the stew after cooking to preserve the valuable nutrients and heat-sensitive essential fats in the oil. If you are making the sauce for use on its own or in some other recipe, judge when best to add the oil based on whatever cooking technique you are using. Olive oil's saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat content is indeed a stable fat for medium- to high-heat cooking, but it is the more delicate nutrition in the oil, such as omega fatty acids and polyphenols, that is lost when it is used in this way.

Crockpot Vindaloo Veggies
Yields 12 1-cup servings

180 g dried chickpeas
90 g dried brown lentils
90 g dried baluga lentils
575 g sweet potatoes (sold in the U.S. as garnet or jewel yams; garnet works best here), unpeeled, 1/4-inch dice
285 g cauliflower, florets and stems, small dice
135 g carrots, sliced lengthwise into quarters, 1/4-inch dice
360 g yellow onions (or half yellow, half red), sliced in half and finely sliced into thin "ribbons"
4 cups water

sauce:
2 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp dried ground mustard
1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne (1 tsp is quite firey)
1/4 c fresh lime juice, or unfiltered apple cider vinegar
40 drops SteviaClear, or 1-2 tbsp molasses (dark muscovado) sugar or ordinary brown sugar
1 1/2- (that's one & one-half) inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
6 large cloves garlic, peeled
2 6-oz cans tomato paste
1-2 Tbsp sea salt

1 tsp coarse-ground black pepper (or mixed coarse-ground pepper -- green, white, pink and black -- which helps build a fuller flavor)

optional:
2 Tbsp cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil

1. Add the stew ingredients, in the order given, to the crockpot. Turn on Low heat. The crockpot will be very full.

2. Add all sauce ingredients to a blender bowl, and puree until completely smooth. If you do not have a high-powered blender, slice the peeled ginger into smaller pieces before adding to the blender.

3. Stir the vindaloo sauce into the crockpot, along with the coarse-ground pepper.

4. Alow to cook 12-15 hours (overnight; I started at 10 pm and "harvested" at 12 pm the next day). Adjust seasonings, salt and pepper to taste, stir in the olive oil if using, and serve.

Nutrition per serving: 220 calories, 4 g fat, 39 g carbohydrate, 11 g fiber, 10 g protein