Tikka Masala with Tons of Vegetables and Optional Chicken

My friend, Stephanie Blok, asked me for this recipe, so I figured I'd throw it up here. I actually stole and modified the ingredients from the recipe from here: http://mongoliankitchen.com/vegetable-tikka-masala/ and...totally didn't follow the directions.

If you are trying to limit meat in your diet, the beans and other ingredients still give you plenty of protein, but you can add chicken for taste if you so desire.

The main idea for this recipe was to clear out some space in my freezer, so...some of these ingredients aren't really in Indian recipes, but...anyways, it tastes just like it's from an Indian restaurant, so there!

Ingredients:

    Spices: (If you don't have all these, play around.)
1. 1 tsp ginger powder
2. 2 tsp curry powder
3. 2 tsp cardamom
4. 1/2 a dried chili
5. 1/2 tsp cinnamon
6. 1 tsp garam masala
7. 1/2 tsp turmeric
8. 2 tsp tandoori spice
9. 1 tsp chili powder
10. 1 tsp coriander

    Vegetables and Meat (optional)
1. 2 handfuls of frozen onion
2. 2 medium sweet potatoes (chopped to 1")
3. 1 bag of dried beans (I used split peas, but I bet lentils would be awesome)
4. 1 handful of frozen colored peppers
5. coconut shavings (add to your taste)
6. asparagus (clearing the freezer)
7. chicken cut into 1" pieces (Optional. I just had to get rid of some chicken in my freezer)

     Sauce
1. 2 cups frozen pumpkin (or a can of pumpkin, but not pumpkin pie filling)
2. 1 can of chopped tomatoes (look for low sodium)
3. 2 cups of frozen butternut squash (you don't have to have this, I just needed to...you guessed it!...clear out the freezer)
3. 4 cloves of garlic


Directions:

(If you don't have a pressure cooker, soak the beans over night.)

Put the sauce ingredients in a blender and puree them. Either in the bottom of a pressure cooker or in a sauce pan, saute the vegetable ingredients (except the dried beans). Put both the sauteed ingredients, the beans, and the sauce into a pressure cooker or a slow cooker. Bring to a boil and add the spices. If you are doing a pressure cooker, you will have to take some of the mixture out so the cooker has room to come to pressure. In a pressure cooker, let it all cook under pressure for five minutes and let the pressure come off naturally. This will assure the beans are nicely cooked. If you are cooking in a slow cooker, let it all cook for a few hours--turn the heat down to medium after the first hour or so. Serve it over rice. (I made saffron rice, but you don't have to if you don't want.) It serves about a million people. I had to, ironically, freeze half of it.

It tastes sooooo good! I wish I'd made naan.

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