Pineapple and vegetables curry

I guess thinking of weird and different combinations of ingredients to go in a recipe is one of the side effects of being a food blogger 🙂 This weekend as I set out to make my usual vegetable and paneer curry for lunch, a can of juicy pineapple caught my eye! And weirdly I couldn’t remember what recipe I was meant to use them. I wanted to use those pineapples in a savory dish and took the risk of adding them in my vegetable gravy! And Oh my! It was time for me to be surprised and excited for it was a delightful combination and RB loved it too 🙂 I made the gravy extra spicy which complimented the slightly sweet and tangy pineapple! So here’s one experiment that worked well!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup pineapple cubed
• 1/2 cup  chopped veggies (bell peppers, beans, carrots, cauliflower)
• 1/2 cup paneer (optional)
• 1 big onion finely chopped
• 3 medium sized tomatoes
• 2 tbsp cashews
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2-3 dried red chillies
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp chilli powder (optional)
• 1/2 tsp amchur powder
• 2 cardamom pods
• 2 cloves
• a small piece of cinnamon
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp shah jeera
• 1 tsp kasuri methi crushed
• 11/2 tbsp butter/oil
• salt to taste
• a pinch of sugar

Method:

Soak the cashews, red chillies, coriander seeds and cumin seeds in hot water for 20 minutes. Grind them into a smooth paste in a blender and set aside.

Par boil/steam the veggies and set aside.( I used beans and bell peppers)

In a pan add the butter/oil. When hot add the cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf, cardamom and shah jeera. Let it sizzle.

Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smell is gone.

Add finely chopped onions and saute until they are translucent and soft. Puree the tomatoes and add it to the pan. Saute them until the oil starts leaving the sides of the pan.

Add the ground cashew paste to the onion tomato mixture and saute for 3-4 minutes. Make sure you saute them continuously. If the gravy starts sticking to the bottom, add some water and let it cook.

Now add cooked veggies,chilli powder, amchur powder, 1/2 cup water and cook for 2 minutes.

Then add the cubed pineapples, paneer, garam masala, salt, kasuri methi and mix well.

Adjust the consistency of the gravy by adding more water as necessary. Let it cook for 2 minutes in a low flame.

Serve hot with any Indian bread or rice.