Curry Quinoa with Spicy Roasted Carrots and a Lime Mint Yogurt Sauce

Curry Quinoa with Spicy Roasted Carrots and a Lime Mint Yogurt Sauce - The perfect Indian-inspired side dish that is fresh, flavorful, and family-friendly! 

Apparently, an Indian-inspired side dish is a perfect addition to an outdoor barbeque because the “barbeque” I went to, as well in fact an outdoor pizza party with hotdogs to cook on the fire. Haha, there was no theme but it did not matter because this side dish ended up being the theme of the night!  

And just like the barbeque, there is no rhyme or reason to this recipe other than the fact that it tastes amazing! Who would have ever thought that a yogurt sauce that tastes like a coconut lime margarita could cut through the spicy roasted carrots and a flavor bomb of fluffy quinoa? Topped with the crunchy spicy granola-like mixture and you will find yourself going to flavor town! (I can’t believe I just said that!)

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with!

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Curry Quinoa with Spicy Roasted Carrots and a Lime Mint Yogurt Sauce - The perfect Indian-inspired side dish that is fresh, flavorful, and family-friendly! 

Ingredients 

Curry Quinoa

• 1 cup quinoa

• 2 cups water

• 1 Tbsp grass-fed butter, coconut oil, or ghee

• 1 Tbsp hot madras curry powder (or regular curry powder)

• 1 tsp salt

Spicy Roasted Carrots

• 1 large bag of carrots (or tri-color carrots)

• 1 Tbsp salt-free spicy seasoning

• 1 Tbsp avocado oil

• 1 tsp salt 

Lime Mint Yogurt Sauce

• ½ cup organic plain yogurt (lactose-free or dairy)

• ½ juice of lime + zest

• ½ tsp organic sugar

• 1-2 Tbsp fresh mint leaves

• ½ tsp salt

Topping blend 

• 2 Tbsp coconut flakes

• 2 Tbsp chopped almonds

• 1 tsp no-salt spicy seasoning

• ¼ tsp salt

Garnish: cilantro and lime wedges

Directions

1. Add all ingredients (from curry quinoa) to a medium pot and prepare quinoa as instructed on the package. 

**What I like to do to save time - add all ingredients (from curry quinoa) to a rice cooker and cook on the white rice setting. 

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Peel and cut carrots longways. In a large mixing bowl, combine carrots, seasonings, and oil. Toss to combine. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and place carrots on the tray. Try not to overcrowd the carrots for even cooking! Cook for 20 min until cooked through and crispy. If you have thicker carrots, you may need to flip carrots over and cook for an additional 15-20 min. 

2. To make the yogurt sauce, simply add all ingredients to a processor or nutri-bullet and blend until fully corporated. Taste test first before setting aside. You may need to add 1 Tbsp increments of water for desired sauce consistency. 

3. In a small bowl, combine the topping blend until fully incorporated. 

4. To assemble your side dish, layer the following components on a serving platter: Curry quinoa, spicy roasted carrots, yogurt sauce, chopped cilantro, and sprinkle topping blend! Enjoy! 

Notes

• Products used in this recipe: salt-free spicy seasoning, hot madras curry powder, curry powder, organic plain lactose-free yogurt

Curry Chicken Nachos

Curry Chicken Nachos - A fun and healthy crowd-pleasing dish that is bursting with flavor and texture!

So earlier this week, I posted my red curry sauce on the blog. And as I discussed in that post, you can put red curry sauce on just about anything and everything! But today, I wanted to share a fun and crowd-pleasing recipe that will get your weekend starting strong - Curry Chicken Nachos!

These are so much fun to make and will take you less than 30 minutes to prepare. If I am cooking over a lb of chicken - Instant Pot is my friend! So if you are crunched for time and would like to make this recipe on the fly, I would highly recommend cooking the madras curry yogurt chicken in the Instant Pot. 

For the curry sauce, you simply blend all ingredients into a blender, Nutri bullet, processor, or simply sub fresh ginger for ginger powder and heat in a small saucepan to thicken the sauce. That’s it! 

Last but not least, salsa! Other than the sauce, it’s my favorite part! We are following the same base as most salsas except we are using Indian influenced produce like mango, cilantro, fresh ginger, and pomegranate seeds. You can also use leftover salsa to put over grilled chicken, eggs, and fish. 

Every element in this dish is Indian inspired so welcome to FlavorTown! Did I just write that? :|

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with! 

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Curry Chicken Nachos - A fun and healthy crowd-pleasing dish that is bursting with flavor and texture!

Ingredients

Madras Curry Yogurt Chicken

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast

• ¼ cup unsweetened greek yogurt (or DF)

• 1 tsp madras curry (or regular curry powder)

• ¼ tsp pink Himalayan sea salt

• ¼ tsp turmeric

• ¼ tsp cayenne

• Pinch of organic cane sugar

Red Curry Sauce

• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk 

• 2 Tbsp red curry paste

• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

• 2 Tbsp curry powder

• 2 scoops collagen peptides (optional but helps to thicken the sauce)

• 2 tsp (heaping) organic white miso paste

• 1 Tbsp liquid aminos

• 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

• 1 tsp pure maple syrup

• Juice of ½ lime

Mango Pomegranate Salsa

• ½ mango (diced)

• ½ tomato (diced)

• ¼ red onion (diced)

• 2 Tbsp pomegranate seeds

• 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro (chopped)

• 1tsp - 1tbsp* fresh ginger (minced) Depending on preference

• ¼ tsp pink Himalayan sea salt

Toppings

Lime wedges, fresh cilantro, a dollop of Greek yogurt, tortilla chips 

Directions

1. Start by cooking the chicken: Add seasonings to yogurt until combined and coat chicken with the yogurt sauce until completely covered. Either cook in Instant Pot (meat setting; 20 min with less pressure or preferred setting), grill, or bake until chicken is cooked through. *If cooking in Instant Pot, I love adding about ¼ cup chicken bone broth and using the rack so it can keep the chicken extra juicy!  

   1. Allow the chicken to cool and then shred using two forks. 

2. Curry Sauce: While your chicken is cooking, prepare the curry sauce by adding all ingredients to a blender or nutribullet and blend until the mixture is in a sauce form. *If you do not have a blender, you can sub fresh ginger for ginger powder so that the sauce is smooth and consistent in texture. 

   1. At this point, taste sauce and see if it needs more umami (miso paste/liquid aminos), cheesy (nutritional yeast), bitter (lime juice), spice (curry paste/powder), or salt.

   2.  Pour sauce into a small saucepan and heat on medium heat. Stir sauce until the sauce is about to boil and turn the heat off. Make sure you are constantly stirring so as to not burn the sauce. 

   3. As the sauce cools down, it will thicken. Collagen helps to thicken the sauce so if you are adding more collagen, make sure the sauce is hot enough for the collagen to blend well so that you don’t get clumps! 

3. Salsa: While the sauce is cooling, prepare the salsa by adding all the ingredients into a small serving bowl. 

   1. You can easily double this recipe so as not to waste produce! 

   2. If you have leftover salsa - it’s great to have over grilled chicken, fish, or eggs!

4. Prepare the rest of the toppings, and start building your nachos!

   1. Tortilla chips < shredded chicken < dollop of yogurt/sour cream < salsa < curry sauce < cilantro < lime juice < devour! 

Notes

Products that were used in the curry sauce: coconut milk, curry paste, collagen peptides, nutritional yeast, white miso paste, curry powder, maple syrup, liquid aminos. 

Red Curry Sauce

Red Curry Sauce - A tried and true healthier version of the traditional red curry sauce. Less than 10-ingredients, gluten-free, dairy-free, keto, and paleo-friendly.

Y'all. This sauce is what dreams are made of! As an obsessive curry lover, I’m always on the prowl for a good curry recipe; whether it be from a restaurant or from a blog. Well, low behold, I found the perfect red curry sauce at this local Asian restaurant that used to be but only a block away from me! Needless to say, curry ran through my veins in those four years of living in that area!

So now that I am many...many blocks away from that restaurant, it was only a matter of time that I started to recreate the sauce. Long story short, we have arrived! 

Luckily for you, this is a much healthier version but tastes just as creamy, full-bodied curry sauce that you ever laid your taste buds on! For this recipe, I used many condiments that I already had in my pantry, as I am sure you have them in yours as well. 

And don’t fret if you don’t have them, I listed all the products I used for this sauce in the recipe notes below.

One condiment that transforms this umami flavor bomb sauce is using miso paste. Now, I understand that soybeans are not considered “paleo”, but most paleo eaters will choose to add this into their dishes because of the way it’s prepared. 

Miso is the product of fermented soybeans, water, fermented grains (called koji), and salt. Koji, the final product of fermented rice, barley, or soy, requires the use of a fungus called Aspergillus oryzae, which activates the fermentation process. Asian cooking often requires a number of fermented products like miso, which are all fermented with koji. So that umami flavor you get when eating at an Asian restaurant will most likely have miso in it! If you would like more health facts on miso paste from a paleo perspective, here’s the link.  

One thing I will note is that I created this recipe for a sponsored post for Vital Proteins. I used them for two reasons. One is that it’s a fun and creative way to incorporate collagen peptides into your meals and two, it is used as a thickening agent. 

If you don’t mind having a more liquid sauce then it’s fine without using collagen peptides. But if you are a pro in the kitchen, feel free to experiment using other thickening agents like flour or arrowroot starch. I will report back if this work but for now, collagen powder is the way to go!

Feel free to use this sauce on just about anything and everything! Next week, I will be posting a chicken curry nacho recipe but in the meantime, here are some ways you can use red curry sauce: on eggs, chicken, rice, veggies, dipping sauce, condiment, pasta, marinade/sauce for a protein source, or just straight out of the bowl - possibilities are endless!

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A post shared by Candace Dorsey| From the Roots (@fromtherootsblog)

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with! 

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Red Curry Sauce - A tried and true healthier version of the traditional red curry sauce. Less than 10-ingredients, gluten-free, dairy-free, keto, and paleo-friendly.

Ingredients

• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk 

• 2 Tbsp red curry paste

• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

• 2 Tbsp curry powder

• 2 scoops collagen peptides (optional but helps to thicken sauce)

• 2 tsp (heaping) organic white miso paste

• 1 Tbsp liquid aminos

• 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

• 1 tsp pure maple syrup

• Juice of ½ lime

Directions

1. Prepare the curry sauce by adding all ingredients into a blender or nutribullet and blend until the mixture is in a sauce form. *If you do not have a blender, you can sub fresh ginger for ginger powder so that the sauce is smooth and consistent in texture. 

2. At this point, taste the sauce and see if it needs more umami (miso paste/liquid aminos), cheesy (nutritional yeast), bitter (lime juice), spice (curry paste/powder), or salt.

3. Pour sauce into a small saucepan and heat on medium heat. Stir sauce until the sauce is about to boil and turn the heat off. Make sure you are constantly stirring so as to not burn the sauce. 

4. As the sauce cools down, it will thicken. Collagen helps to thicken the sauce so if you are adding more collagen, make sure the sauce is hot enough for the collagen to blend well so that you don’t get clumps! 

5. If you are making a meal like chicken curry with rice and vegetables, heat the sauce into the cooking veggies if using a skillet to do this. If not, serve over anything and everything!

6. Store in an airtight container for at least two weeks in the refrigerator. 

Notes: 

Products that were used in the curry sauce: coconut milk, curry paste, collagen peptides, nutritional yeast, white miso paste, curry powder, maple syrup, liquid aminos.