Vegan Tuesday and The Daring Cooks -- Dosas with Curried Chickpea Filling

I love when there's the possibility of a double post. The Daring Cooks had a vegan challenge this month! And it was Indian food, one of my favorites. The challenge consisted of making dosas--savory pancakes made with spelt flour, a chickpea filling flavored with curry powder, and a coconut milk-tomato sauce. This recipe is a great introduction to Indian cuisine as it's easy to make and the ingredient list is not intimidating.

Of all the Indian breads naan is my favorite, but I do like dosas, especially for scooping up some type of yummy curry. The chickpea filling we made was just delicious. I love chickpeas and the combination of the beans with the other veggies and the curry powder was really nice. The sauce was good, but I am not a gigantic fan of coconut based sauces. Plus, I didn't have any ripe fresh tomatoes so I used a bit of tomato paste. instead and that may have changed the flavor of the sauce somewhat. On the other hand, Dave fell absolutely madly in love with it, and I think I'll use the leftover sauce over rice with a simple vegetable stir-fry for another meal.

If you think you don't like Indian food, I really encourage you to try this recipe. You can be as light handed as you like with the spices, and it will still turn out to be tasty.

We have Debyi from The Healthy Vegan Kitchen to thank for this month's yummy challenge. All of us vegetarians and vegans are especially grateful for her selection. Please see her post which includes the recipe here: http://www.healthyvegankitchen.com/?p=1015

You can find the rest of the very talented Daring Cooks and their creations here: http://thedaringkitchen.com/

As an aside: If you're not familiar with spelt flour I think you should be! It's a grain similar to wheat but I think it has a little bit of a nuttier taste. You can use it in recipes as a substitute for whole wheat flour. Here's the wikipedia blurb on spelt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt

And if you fall in love with spelt, there is even a cookbook with only spelt recipes: http://www.amazon.com/Spelt-Cookbook-Helga-Hughes/dp/0895296969/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253145110&sr=8-4


Please check out the other two lovely Vegan Tuesday bloggers:

Wendy, from Pink Stripes, made yummy vegan pancakes. http://pinkstripes.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/vegan-pancakes/

And mangocheeks, from Allotment to Kitchen, did her first Vegan Tuesday post which included some delicious roasted veggies from her own garden. http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/09/roasted-root-vegetables.html