Vegetarian goulash!

I entered into a chili cook-off here at my apartment complex!  I decided that I wanted to make something a little different from the normal beans-and-beef chili... so I thought about making it vegetarian-friendly.

Rather than just leaving that protein portion out, I made my own vegetarian version of Italian sausage.  I used LightLife vegetarian ground sausage for the base.  I ground up my own fresh whole fennel seeds using a real mortar & pestle... I got both the fennel and the mortar & pestle from Artisano's Oils & Spices here in Indianapolis (highly recommended!).



I added that to the sausage with some green pepper and a touch of oil, and browned it in a skillet just like real ground sausage!  The texture and flavor were spot-on!

For the goulash, I started it by sautéing onions and garlic in a garlic-flavored coconut oil.  Then I added crushed tomatoes, salt, oregano, basil, rosemary, white pepper, and the rest of my ground fennel.  After mixing that in, I added a generous amount of grated Romano cheese and the browned "sausage".  While all of that was simmering, I boiled some pasta water, to add ditalini to the goulash.  I also did a quick sauté of some baby sweet peppers and kidney beans.

Once the pasta was done, I stirred everything together and it was complete.  It came out amazing!  The people that tasted it couldn't even tell there was not meat in it... the freshly hand-ground fennel make a world of difference.  All of the flavors and textures came through nicely, and it was definitely comfort food.  Also, since it had a high proportion of vegetables and no meat, it was not too heavy.

... not to mention, I won the cook-off! :)

Homemade mutter paneer!

I finally tried making my own masala sauce... and it turned out to be almost identical to the flavor of the same thing at India Garden, my favorite Indian restaurant in Indianapolis!

I started it the same way I start my Italian pasta sauces, by sautéing onions and garlic in oil... except instead of olive oil I used a garlic-flavored coconut oil I got on clearance at Kroger.  I'm glad I did, because it worked out well... it did not splatter quite as much as olive oil usually does, and the coconut flavor and aroma went well in the dish.  Then I added crushed tomatoes, a little bit of sugar, some dried cilantro, and a generous amount of Madras curry powder.

 Once the powder dissolved in I added peas, paneer cheese, and enough heavy cream to get it to just the right orange color.

After letting that simmer for about 20 minutes on low heat, I served it with some fragrant basmati rice and garlic naan... and it was absolutely perfect!  I don't typically like much heat, but if you want it spicy, just add crushed red pepper and there you go!  This is pretty easy to make and it's just as good as what you get in a restaurant.