Thai Green Curry in a Hurry

This past Sunday, I set out to do all of my meal prep for the week. Usually, I’ll make one dish that might hold me over a few dinners, but it has been few and far between for me to prep all five days’ worth of food. But this weekend, I was feeling ambitious. I just had that kitchen itch.

For dinners, I made a batch of Angela’s basil cashew cheeze, to be sloppily slathered on leftover homemade bread, and crowned with juicy slices of tomatoes. Zucchini was sauteed with a bit of olive oil and red pepper flakes as a veggie side, and tempeh was marinated and crisped in the oven for some protein heft. After all of those dishes were cleaned, and counters were wiped from this Phase I of meal prep extraordinaire, I sighed and peered into the fridge. What to make for lunches? A bag of rainbow carrots, a few wilting stalks of celery, and some beets stared back at me.

I heaved them out onto the counter, and pulled together a carrot ribbon salad, tossing in a few spring onion rounds, a tangy vinaigrette, and some lovely heirloom scarlet runner beans because why the hell not. Beet juice staining my counters, my hands saturated in neon pink, and my counters full of clutter once again (!), I realized that I only prepared 3 lunch salads. Oy, what would I eat the other two days?

Yes, friends, even I get tired of cooking at times. I was planning on just roasting up some sweet potatoes, throwing some beans and tahini on top and calling it quits, when I realized I had all of the ingredients for a Thai curry dish of sorts…

I took out a can of light coconut milk that was collecting dust in my pantry, some cooked chickpeas, baby spinach from last week, and a gnarly knob of ginger that had been rolling around in the back of my fridge. I added a lime to the party, and some garlic and spicy chili. I gazed admirably at my counter filled with the goods. Houston, I think we have curry.

I ended up roasting the sweet taters anyway, to add some slow-digesting carbs to the meal. Plus, I had never had Thai curry over sweet potatoes, but it sounded like a marvelous idea.

Ahh, just look at these bright orange jewels, all plush and sugary.

Long story short, I just made up this “Thai” curry on the fly. I put Thai in quotation marks because is this authentic Thai curry? Most definitely not. It is, however, lip smackin’ good, ready in the blink of an eye, and made with easy-to-find ingredients. And besides, it will perfume your home with the most delightful ginger-coconuty scent (I’m a big scent person. Burying my nose in the steam wisps of cooking food makes my heart soar. And on the other hand, unpleasant smells make me very annoyed, wishing I could bolt away – cue fish being cooked in the microwave).

I doused my taters in the green curry, plopped a lid on the containers, and called it a wrap!

I hope that you will give this recipe a try. Real food done quickly, simply, and deliciously (and it’s pretty cheap, too!).