Shopping the Kitchen: Paleo Thai Yellow Curry

I haven't been at my apartment much for the past week--Stephen and I have done most of the eating at his parents' house because they went to the beach and we had to watch this little cutie.

Talk about hard work... Right. 

Saturday was the first day I was really at home, but of course I hadn't gone grocery shopping and had nothing to eat... Seriously. Bare pantry. Bare fridge. Bare freezer. There was a rather large clean-out when we started our Paleo journey, so there just aren't a lot of extras floating around my kitchen anymore.

Which is a good thing. Because I totally would have taken down some Ramen noodles or pasta with sauteed mushrooms and Tony Chachere's yesterday... let's not talk about it. 

I also did not feel like going to the grocery story. That would have required, you know, showering. makeup. the whole nine. I was.not.feeling.it. 

So, what's this Paleo girl to do? I raided the pantry, fridge, and freezer to find things that I had/needed to be used. I found frozen shrimp, a bell pepper, a sweet potato, one individual serving of frozen broccoli, frozen chopped onions (yay for not throwing other halves away!)... then I knew I had garlic, coconut milk, and a well-stocked spice cabinet. Sounds like a curry to me--holla! 

I went to one of my favorite blogs, The Picky Eater. She always has fabulous Indian-inspired dishes, so I knew she would have a basic curry recipe. I was right. 

I stuck loosely to this recipe, but I obviously changed the ingredients to fit what I had--and substituted the Paleo no-no tofu for the frozen shrimp.

Here's my revised, Paleo-friendly version. Sorry I don't have exact measurements for the spices--we Southern girls don't measure these things. 

Ingredients

• 2-3 cups light coconut milk
• 3-4 tablespoons yellow curry powder
• Salt (to taste)
• Tony Chachere's (or something spicy... any brand Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper... you get the picture. to taste)
• Cumin and coriander (to taste... maybe a teaspoon of each?)
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 3-5 garlic cloves, chopped
• Frozen shrimp... I put in probably 25 small shrimp
• 1 cup chopped broccoli (as I said, I had frozen)
• 1 chopped bell pepper
• 1 diced sweet potato
• Cauliflower "rice" for serving (I followed this recipe)
• Chopped cashews for topping

Directions
In a saute pan, saute onion and garlic in EVOO until translucent--7 minutes or so. Then add salt and 2 tbsp curry powder. Stir to combine, then add coconut milk and let simmer for a few minutes. For the last 2 minutes or so, add shrimp so they can being to soak up coconut curry goodness.

Meanwhile, saute broccoli, bell pepper, and sweet potato (or other veggies of your choice) in EVOO until slightly tender-crisp. Add remaining curry powder and other spices. Pour in onion/garlic/coconut milk mixture and simmer until shrimp and potatoes are completely cooked through--adjust salt and spices to your liking.

Serve over cauliflower rice and top with chopped cashews. Admittedly, when I ate this for lunch on Saturday, I didn't have any cauliflower to make "rice" and I completely forgot to put the cashews. Still delish.

This, though, was better.