India comes to Rio but forgets to bring its food! Easy Indian Vegetarian Curry Recipe

3 Dec

Today myself and the kids went to see the India exhibition currently showing at the Centro Cultural do Banco de Brasil – a gorgeous exhibition space sponsored by the Bank of Brazil hosted in its first headquarter building with a changing display of art and culture – all for free.

The India exhibition is showing a mix of historic indian artefacts, traditional objects, photos and modern art with showpieces having been brought together from museum collections in Berlin, Zürich, Leiden, Rio, Recife as well as from private collections in India.

Afterwards we went for some Indian food, prepared at a French restaurant La Coccinelle Bistro – we should have known. Maybe good for French food but the Indian fare, besides taking ages to arrive, tasted just like “Airplane food” as my daughter commented. Surely she knows as she has had her fair share of airplane food by now.

And we had so much looked forward for killing our Malaysian culinary losses with good Indian food! So it is back to the stove – for a very easy Indian vegetarian curry:

Red Lentil and Roasted Butternut Curry (for 4)

  • 500-700 butternut or other pumpkin diced
  • 4 shallots chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic pressed
  • 1tbs garam masala
  • 4 curry leaves
  • 1 red chili deseeded and finely chopped
  • 300ml coconut milk
  • 200ml vegetable stock
  • 300g red lentils
  • butter, olive oil, salt and pepper
  • 150ml of fresh natural yogurt (optional)
  • fresh coriander for garnish
Roast butternut mixed with some olive oil and garlic in 200C oven for about 40 minutes or until soft. In the meantime soften shallots in mixture of 1tbs butter and olive oil. Add the chili, garam masala and curry leaves and cook some more releasing the flavors. Add the coconut milk, vegetable stock and red lentils and simmer for about 10 minutes until lentils are soft. Season with salt and pepper, top with the caramelized butternut, dollop of natural yogurt and fresh coriander. Serve with nan bread or white rice.

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