Coconut Kurma with Vegetables

Coconut has gotten a bad rap over the years, but that is quickly changing, as you'll discover in many health food stores. There is coconut everything it seems: oil, "ice cream", canned drinks, canned or cartoned "milk", mixes for quick dinners that use coconut based sauces, and more. I grew up thinking I didn't really like coconut, based on shredded coconut flakes in baked goods and the like. That still isn't my favorite way to consume coconut, but I have since learned that I really like most everything that contains it. The oil alone has too many benefits to list. Coconuts are amazing!

Here's a recipe for an Indian dish that usually involves chicken, but I have substituted vegetables instead. I mean, after all, veggies really do rock the house!

Coconut Kurma with Vegetables

2 yellow onions cut in long shreds (like very thin orange segments)
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 6 ox. can tomato sauce or 1 c. cooked tomatoes
2 - 13 oz. cans coconut milk
1/2  can (13 oz) water
1 T. curry powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. cardamom
1 t. fennel seeds
2 T. shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/8 t. basil leaves

Saute' onion and garlic in 2 T. olive oil until onion begins to soften. Add tomato sauce and simmer 5 minutes. Remove 1 cup of this mixture and place in blender. Add the rest of the ingredients to the blender and puree. Pour blended mixture into pan with remaining onion mixture and simmer for 60 minutes to blend flavors. I added thick slices of carrots with the pureed mixture and simmered them for 10 minutes, then added broccoli florets, and frozen peas and simmered about 50 minutes more and served it over quinoa.