Sunday, March 22, 2009

Vegan Chip Shop Curry Gravy

1 medium tomato, chopped
1/2 a medium yellow onion, chopped
1 medium apple, quartered and cored
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon miso
1 tablespoon wet tamarind (optional)
1 cup water
1 generous teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Cook onion and tomato on the stove-top til soft. Place all other ingredients in Blendtec, onion and tomato last. Run Whole Juice cycle once.

I took this sauce to a St. Patrick's Day themed potluck, along with some homemade seitan sausages. I was inspired by the curry sauce often served with fries at Irish pubs. It's actually based off of a sauce I created for the Spring Onion Pancakes I am trying to perfect (I think try number four is coming up---the recipe itself is ridiculously simple but the cooking method is the tricky part), the tomato, onion and spices are what made it a British 'gravy.' The tamarind adds a great tang but is admittedly a little obscure. Asian or Indian markets sometimes sell it. It's a dense block of tamarind pulp. Typically you would add water and mush out the stray seed pods and fiber to create a tamarind juice to add to recipes, but the Blendtec obviates this step.

This made a tasty, healthy dip for fake sausages, but could be great on steamed vegetables, crepes, as a salad dressing. There are numerous possibilities.