Overcoming My Carb Counting Fears With A Veggie Curry Recipe

One of the biggest challenges I face as a T1D is tackling foreign foods. Don’t get me wrong, I rarely shy away from an unfamiliar dish, but guessitmating the carbs can be difficult. One dish in particular I’m drawn to is curry so what better way to update my carb calculating skills than by preparing this heavenly dish myself. I rallied my culinary partners in crime and whipped up a recipe with a few diabetes friendlier options.

This recipe might seem intimidating, but don’t let the number of ingredients freak you out. I’m breaking it down into three easy steps.

1. Wash, dry and roughly cut all of the veggies. You can seriously add anything you want to this recipe, but we focused on shrooms.
2. Sauté veggies in EVOO until they’re tinder.
3. Add curry concoction (either made from scratch or the canned version) and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Oyster
• Enoki
• Crimini
• Portabello
• Shiitake

Additional Ingredients:

Here are a few other ingredients to pick up while on the veggie aisle.

• 1 Large Japanese Eggplant, chopped
• 1 Lime
• 1 Medium Sweet (Vidalia) Onion, chopped
• 3 Large Cloves of Garlic, diced
• 12 Inches of Lemongrass
• A Handful of Chinese Spinach (Roughly 2 cups, chopped). Regular spinach will suffice, but the Chinese varietal is meatier.
• Thai Basil or Cilantro for garnish
• Zucchini Spirals

For the adventurous folks, here’s a “make it from scratch” curry.

Make It From Scratch Curry Ingredients:

• 3 cans Coconut Milk
• 2 TBSP Honey (optional)
• 3 TBSP Fish Sauce (or to taste, but be careful because it’s super salty)
• Juice of half a lime
• 12 inches lemongrass (Cut into 3 pieces. Remove before serving)
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp coriander
• 2 ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ white pepper
• ¾ tsp cayenne

Add all of the ingredients together in a medium sized pot and simmer for 10-12 minutes before adding sautéed veggies.

Curry From A Can (no judgement)

For those of you who don’t have time to mess with the sauce, here’s a back up plan. We dig Maesri because they offer red, green & yellow variations.

Diabetes Friendly Tip:

Carb Breakdowns:

• Curry Paste: yellow = 8g, green = 3g and red = 3g
• Coconut Milk: 3g for per can (13.66 FL oz)
• Veggies: It totally depends on what you choose.
• Zucchini Noodles: 4g per medium zucchini

No more guessing! Having to make this dish from scratch helped me better understand the number of carbs. I now have a new sense of confidence when I roll into a new restaurant that features similar dishes. Yay Me.