Vegetable Samosa Filling

Buy some puff pastry, wrap this as a filling, deep fry or bake with an egg wash, and you’ve got samosas.  One can imagine making the wrapping from scratch, but that proved to be beyond me, despite trying.  I’ll say nothing about the shame of using prepackaged “curry powder”.

Calorie Estimate: 650

Ingredients

• 1 baking potato, peeled and 1/2 cm dice
• 1 onion, 1/2 cm dice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1.75 C frozen peas and carrot mix
• 1 T olive/vegetable oil
• 2 T off-the-shelf curry powder
• 1/2 C vegetable broth
• salt to taste (1/4-1/3 t kosher)
• adjust with cumin (1-2 t) and coriander (1/2-1 t)
• 1/2 t ground hot pepper of your choosing

Preparation

1. Prep the vegetables.  In a nonstick pan/pot with a lid, cook the onions and garlic over medium-high heat until they brown a little and soften.
2. Add in the peas, carrots, and potatoes.  Pour in the broth, add the curry powder, and simmer covered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Depending on your curry expertise (or lack thereof), you’ll need to adjust the seasoning during the cooking.  After about 15 minutes, my old Trader Joes curry mix needed some help, so I added salt, cumin, coriander, and ground hot pepper to perk it up.

Piselli al Prosciutto

Peas and prosciutto

Calorie Estimate: 750

Ingredients

• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1-2 oz diced prosciutto (ends work and are cheaper)
• 2 cloves garlic
• twice as much chopped shallot as garlic
• 1 T butter
• 1 label servings pasta (bowtie/spaghetti)
• salt and pepper to taste
• possible extras: dollop of ricotta, grape tomatoes, parmigiano

Prep

1. Boil pasta water and place pasta in.
2. When you start the pasta, start a hot pan.  Melt 1/2 T of butter.  Add in garlic and shallot for a minute or two.
3. Add in prosciutto (small dice) for a minute or two.
4. Add in peas, turn down heat to medium.  Cook for a few minutes.
5. Drain pasta.
6. Toss everything together and add 1/2 T more of butter.  Salt (maybe) and pepper to taste.

I like this type of dish with a dollop of ricotta in the center of the bowl.  The savory dish goes great with the cool cheese.