Root Vegetable Curry

It is early November and the local farmer's market is winding down for the season, but before the snow comes we decided to make a run down and grab what we could, which happens to be root vegetables and peppers. It's the time of year for soup and on a budget soup is a beautiful thing. We compiled three seperate recipes that we will be making throughout the week, but tonight we cooked a delicious root vegetable curry recipe from The Spice Lover's Guide to Herbs and Spices.  In the recipe below I used fresh cayenne peppers from the farmers market for my pepper of choice, which worked well.  Although this recipe has good flavor, I found that it is missing some notes that I look for in a good curry. So at the bottom of the list of ingredients I posted my additions as optional.  I encourage you to try your own variations of root vegetables, peppers and additions to this terrific fall curry stew.

Root Vegetable Curry
3 tablespoons peanut oil
2 teaspoons ground indian coriander
1 cup peeled, diced turnips
1 cup peeled, diced carrots
1 cup peeled, diced parsnips
1 cup diced yellow onions
2 tablespoons freshly ground Madras-style
curry powder
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup diced potato
1 tablespoon finely diced fresh hot red chiles
salt to taste (optional)
2 tablespoons lime juice or apple cider vinegar (optional)
1-2 teaspoons brown sugar (optional)

hot cooked rice, for serving
minced scallions, for garnish
minced cilantro, for garnish
yogurt, for serving


Heat the oil and coriander in a medium sauce pan over medium high heat.  Add the turnips, carrots, parsnips, and onions, and cook, stirring until slightly camelized, 6 to 8 minutes. (At this point you can transfer the ingredients to a crock pot if desired for the rest of the cooking time, or if your sauce pan is sufficiently big enough you can just keep on following along.) Stir in the curry powder.  Add enough water to completely cover all the vegetables.  Lower heat to a simmer, and cook covered for 2 hours.  Add more water as needed to keep vegetables covered. 

Add the stock, potato, and chile peppers.  Simmer for 1 hour more, until the liquid reduces, and the potatoes break apart.  Salt to taste.  Serve over rice with cilantro, and scallions.