Sunday Night Dinner - Creamy Vegetable Curry

I recently purchased the Oh She Glows cookbook on a recommendation of a friend. It's a vegan cookbook, and I've tried a few recipes and so far they have all been great. I'll admit I'm a little intimidated by some of the recipes, especially with any new ingredients or elements I haven't done before. One of the things many recipes call for is this 'cashew cream', and I finally decided to try it out. When using raw cashews in this way, you need to make sure to soak them overnight or at least 3-4 hours, so you do have to plan ahead a little. This recipe also had quite a bit of chopping so it was a great Sunday night meal. I used hot curry powder, but mild would work if you didn't want it as hot. I will definitely make this again.

Creamy Vegetable Curry
- 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
- 1 medium yam, diced (about 2 cups)
- 2 medium carrots, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
- 2 tbsp hot madras curry powder
- dash of salt
- 1 cup frozen peas
- fresh cilantro and roasted cashews for serving

In a blender, combine cashews with 3/4 cup of water. Blend until smooth and creamy and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and ginger, sauté for about 5 minutes. Stir in jalapeno, yam, carrots, red pepper, tomatoes and curry powder and salt. Sauté for 5 minutes. Stir in cashew cream and peas. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Stir every 5 minutes, if it starts to dry out add a splash of water and stir to combine.

Serve over basmati rice, sprinkled with cilantro leaves and roasted cashews.