Green Vegetable Curry

Thank you everyone for responding to the survey. Unsurprisingly, meals in under 30 minutes won (edging out under 45 minutes by three votes).

The dinner I pulled together last night is a great speedy dinner. To make it, you rely on several pantry staples and it's very easily adapted to whatever meat and vegetables you have on hand.

The basic method is one I outlined in this post: Curry in a Hurry. The curry I made was a green curry with sweet potatoes, red peppers, cabbage and watercress. I served it over a bed of brown basmati rice. It was perfect for a cold winter night.

These are the steps I followed to prepare dinner:

• Started the rice. While it was cooking I made the curry.
• In a saucepan, I sauteed a few teaspoons of curry paste (Thai Kitchen Green Curry). When it was fragrant (about 30 seconds), I stirred in a half can of coconut milk, 2 cups of water and one light boullion cube (I was out of chicken broth).
• I added a cubed sweet potato to the pot and brought it to a simmer.
  
• When the potato was just cooked through (10 minutes), I added some sliced red peppers, a handful of chopped scallions, 2 handfuls of sliced savoy cabbage, a few shakes of fish sauce and a squeeze of lime.
  
• When the rice was cooked (about 20 minutes), I spooned some rice into serving bowls. I topped it with some chopped watercress and sliced shallots.
• I ladled the curry over the rice. Done!

The whole meal took 25 minutes to make and used what I had on hand. I could easily substituted other vegetables for what I used last night. I also could have included meat, seafood or tofu too.