Peanut Coconut Curry

Tonight I decided to play around with some Thai flavors and came up with a delicious peanut coconut curry. It tasted so rich and creamy, but is actually a very healthy meal! I am not very familiar with cooking Thai food so this was definitely an experiment for me. I read a few recipes for similar meals and then (as I always do) I made it my way based on my preferences and what I had available in my kitchen.

Peanut Coconut Curry
- small clove garlic minced
- 1 inch piece ginger, minced
- tbsp olive oil
- 1/3 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
- 12 oz can lite coconut milk
- a large red bell pepper, chopped
- white button mushrooms, quartered
- carrots (you could cut them, but I had shredded in my fridge and they worked really well!)
- curry powder
- chili garlic sauce (to taste)
- chopped scallions
- Cooked quinoa (you can use rice too, I used quinoa for the extra protein)

Start by heating the oil, garlic and ginger in a large skillet. Next add the red pepper and carrots and cook just a couple of minutes until they soften. Add the mushrooms and cook for another minute or two. Add curry powder to vegetable mixture. Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan wisk the coconut milk, peanut butter and chili garlic sauce until heated and well blended. Pour the peanut coconut mixture over the vegetables and allow the mixture to simmer for a minute or two. Serve over quinoa and top with chopped scallions.

When I made this, it could have used a little more heat and next time I might add basil to the mix. Other than that it was easy, healthy and very delicious! The cool thing about this is that you can really adjust the recipe to meet your tastes and the ingredients you have on hand.

Happy Eating!