Asparagus Coconut Curry

I hope I am not too late with this asparagus curry. The season is almost over but I hope there will still be time for this one if you feel like eating a last dish featuring asparagus this spring. I made this quite a few weeks ago as part of an Indian dinner evening with friends alongside these other dishes:

Balti Chicken Curry

Red Lentil Curry (from Pinch of Yum)

Chocolate and Pear Casserole

and, of course, rice.

Ok, I admit, the dessert was not Indian at all, but I thought about making dessert too late, there was no time to go shopping anymore, so I used what I had in the house. But everything went well together, the guests polished everything off, there was not a trace of leftovers for the next day (I rather hoped there would be).

I don’t know about you, but I find it quite difficult to set up a menu for guests. I mean, there are lots and lots of recipes suitable for guests, which I can’t wait to cook, but what I find difficult is to really fit a starter, main dish and dessert that go well together. I change my mind about what to cook at least 10 times before I actually decide, sometimes I change my mind again in the middle of shopping (that happens mostly when there is a main ingredient there that I cannot find) and that really irritates me a lot, it makes things a bit hectic in the end.

What kind of food do you prepare for guests? What helps you decide what to cook? It would be great to hear about it.

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Asparagus Coconut Curry

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  35 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• a large piece of ginger, as big as a thumb
• 2 tablespoons garam masala
• 2 teaspoons paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 cans (400 ml/ 13.5 oz each) coconut milk
• 250 ml/ 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 large sweet potato
• 2 medium carrots
• 500 g/ 18 oz green asparagus
• 150 g/ 5.3 oz frozen peas, defrosted
• 1 lime
• salt

Instructions

1. Chop the onion and slice the garlic cloves thinly. Grate the ginger.
2. Heat the coconut oil in a large pot. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the garlic, ginger, garam masala, paprika powder, turmeric and sugar and stir for about half a minute. Pour in the coconut milk, bring everything to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.
3. In the meantime peel and chop the sweet potato and carrots into cubes. Remove the woody ends of the asparagus (freeze to use for a vegetable broth on another occasion) and cut the asparagus into mouth-sized pieces.
4. Add the sweet potato and carrots to the pot, bring to a boil again and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the asparagus and cook for another 7 to 10 minutes until the potatoes are soft and the asparagus is cooked but still has a little bite. Add the peas during the last 2-3 minutes of the cooking time.
5. Add the juice of about half a lime and salt to taste. Taste again and adjust the taste with either more lime juice or some sugar according to your taste. I liked this to be a bit tangy so I added a bit more lime juice.
6. Serve with rice.

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