Indian Beef & Vegetable Curry

YouTube has so many great videos and I'm so appreciative for people sharing of themselves and what they are good at freely.  Thank you!  Anyway, I subscribe to Manjula's Kitchen, as I love Indian cooking (well, I love many types of foods) and figure I can make some of the stuff that I like eating.  This is my first Indian Curry dish and it wasn't as strong as the curry dishes I've had at restaurants, which has upset my stomach.

This recipe is modified to my liking and based off of Manjula's Vegetable Curry dish.  It's not a quick dish, as there is some level of chopping to do, and cooking time, but overall, it was easy.  For me, I needed it to be a heartier dish, so I added ground beef to it to make it an Indian Beef & Vegetable Curry dish.  Here is what I did:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cauliflower florets, cut up
• 3-4 carrots, peeled & sliced into 1/4" rounds
• 1 lb of mushrooms, sliced
• 2 zucchinis, cut into 1" lengths
• 2 Tablespoons coconut flour (if you're okay with cornstarch, you can use that or arrowroot)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1" chunk of fresh ginger, cut into a few different smaller pieces
• 6-7 medium sized tomatoes, cut into large slices
• 1 jalapeno pepper, top cut off (if you don't like it spicy, deseed it)
• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/8 teaspoon asafetida (I did not add this as I didn't know what it was, but I later found out this is called Hing in an Indian language.  This is used to help with digestion and to reduce digestive bloating, but it is okay to not have this in the dish.  Where I went to get this, they were out of.)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 Tablespoon coriander powder
• sea salt
• 1 Tablespoon xylitol (or other sweetener of your choice)
• 2 lbs of ground beef (or lamb)
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Directions:

• Get your vegetables prepped by cutting it as per the ingredient list and set aside.

• Combine coconut flour and the water and mix well.  I use either a fork or a small whisk.  Mix well so there is no clumping, as coconut flour can be clumpy.  You can add or decrease the water if this appears to liquidy.  It's should not be super runny, nor should this be a paste.  This will be what thickens your curry.  Set this aside.
• Put tomatoes, ginger, and jalapeno in a blender.  Blend until a smooth puree.  Set aside.
• Heat coconut oil in a large skillet on high heat. 

• Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and asafetida (I did not have the asfetida).  The cumin seeds were popping and smelled so aromatic and yummy.

Smelled so delicious, once the heat opened up the cumin seeds

• Add the tomato puree.  Stir.
• Add the turmeric, cayenne pepper, coriander powder, sea salt, and xylitol.

Accidentally forgot to get the picture when I added before mixing the spices

• Cover and cook for about 5 min. on medium high heat.
• Heat up on high heat another skillet on a different burner.  Add the ground beef to that pan.  Since I used a non-stick skillet, I did not add oil, but you may need to add oil.
• Add all the vegetables to the pan with the spices.  Since I had more tomatoes, I did not add additional water.  Cover and cook on medium high heat for 10 min.  Periodically stir.  Vegetables should be tender, but not mushy.

• Add the coconut water mixture to the dish.  Stir well.  If mixture is too thick, add a little hot water to it.  If mixture is not thick enough, then you will need to make mixture more of the coconut flour & water mixture until you get the desire thickness you want.  Cook for an additional 5 min.

• Once beef is cooked, add to vegetables & spices.  Combine well.  Cook for another 5-10 min.

This skillet was barely big enough to hold everything

• Turn off heat. 
• Add garam masala and cilantro.  Mix well.

Doesn't that look yummy?  It smelled wonderful.

• Serve over Cauli-Rice.

Cauli-Rice