Vegan Curry and a Hot Chocolate Hack-Who Knew

Other than DH, my family loves Indian food. I am not great cook, nor do I know much about Indian Cuisine, but I can fling curry powder into a dish like it's nobodies business. For DD2's birthday dinner on Monday, I wanted to make her curry and I had limited time as I was scheduled for a yoga class, now postponed. I invited DD1 for dinner, which presented a little bit of a challenge to my "recipe" since she is eating vegan and I use yogurt. I googled a variety of began recipes to come up with ideas for switching out my options, and ended up making the following chickpea and mixed Vegetable curry.

2 cups Vegetable broth
2 cups Coconut milk 
5 tsps of curry powder
2 tsps black pepper
(I really should have had a chopped onion cooked before adding the liquids, but I forgot to buy one and we didn't have any in the bin)

heat all together to a simmer
add 1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes
1 bag mixed vegetables (mine was carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower)
1 can potatoes, sliced

I let all this simmer, and had the girls taste test. It definitely needed more curry powder, pepper, and a pinch of salt. The flavor of the curry seemed to be absorbed by the coconut mil, so I feel like I might have almost  doubled the amount used! I also couldn't find coconut milk in the can, not stocked at Aldi and I didn't want to make another stop so used the carton kind. It made it too thin, so I used a bit more broth with some corn starch to thicken a bit. The verdict? DD1 like it a lot. DD2 said it was good, though prefers my usual, but it might have been that there was no zucchini (not in stock) and she loves zucchini. She happily ate the leftovers while studying for finals on Tuesday night. I splurged and bought basmati rice instead of just the long grain I had on hand and bought a two pack of naan. Total cost for four hefty portions, with rice and naan? $6.79 or $1.70 a serving. I don't know if it would have been less had I not cheated with a bag of frozen veg and canned potatoes-probably about the same. The naan bread was the splurge.

Now for my hack. Since I had to buy a 1/2 gallon carton of the coconut milk, I'm left with six cups. I'll make another pot of the curry over the weekend, but remembered a tip on a YouTube video. A British ex-pat vegan, living in Paris, shared that she buys a certain cocoa and uses it with coconut milk to create an indulgent hot chocolate. I just had regular old Swiss Miss, 6 packets for $1 and thought why not try it. Yes, the Swiss Miss has some milk already in it, so not vegan, but neither am I. I heated the coconut milk and added the packet, then heated it some more after whisking with a fork. Oh my! This was absolutely decadent! It has a hint of the flavor of a Mounds bar, so if you do not like coconut at all, this might not work for you, but I found it incredibly delicious. I'm guessing this hack works equally well for almond milk. 

I love finding extra ways to use up ingredients I buy for recipes, but don't need the full amount. I like that I have one more recipe to pull out, basically with pantry and freezer supplies I have on hand (and will now have coconut milk) without needing to run to the store. I think I could make a non-curry version for DH-perhaps with regular milk, cream, or yogurt and use garlic and Italian seasonings, sort of an Alfredo type dish? I might give that a try. Have you had an success lately with new or made up recipes/ Have you found any hacks to use up extra ingredients?