Quick Cashew Milk Curry with Watermelon Rind and Savory Lentil Pancakes

If you made my recent Savory Lentil Crepe post and have some pancakes or crepes left over, here's a wonderful curry that goes well together. I used the rinds of my watermelon fruit, cubbed, for the main veggie in this curry. If you've never eaten watermelon rind, it's perfectly edible when cooked and resembles the texture and flavor of zucchini squash, firm eggplant and cucumber, with a very subtle sweetness. Watermelon rind holds many benefits such as boosts libido from amino acids, can give you a workout boost with it's citrulline and can reduce blood pressure. 

When using the watermelon rind, you want to first peel the thin layer of green skin off with a peeler, before cubing the rind. I wouldn't suggest cooking the red/pink fruit parts and instead just enjoy those parts more traditionally. I usually keep a bin of peeled/chopped watermelon rind in the freezer and collect/prep the rind when cutting my watermelon fruit. It's just a nifty way to repurpose your watermelon scraps. You can use zucchini or any other veggie you love in curry if you don't have watermelon rind collected in your freezer like me :) 

Quick Cashew Milk Curry with Watermelon Rind and Savory Lentil Pancakes

by Sarah Farsh, January 2nd 2022

Curry:

• 1 handful of raw cashews, soaked in water for 30 min
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups peeled watermelon rind, cubbed (frozen is fine, just the thin layer of green skin peeled off the rind with a peeler)
• or 2 zucchinis, any color 
• 1/2 purple onion, chopped
• 1/2 bell pepper, sliced
• 1/2 jalapeño or green pepper, sliced
• handful or more of fingerling potatoes, sliced
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste
• 1 tbsp dried curry leaves
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 tsp maple syrup, optional
• 2 cups baby spinach

Lentil pancakes: 

• 1 cup red lentils
• 2 1/2 cup water

Sauté onions, garlic, spices, curry paste and small splash of water to help ingredients not stick to pan. Add watermelon rind, remainder veggies, lime juice and optional maple syrup. After cashews have been soaking, drain water. Add soaked cashews and 1 1/2 cup water to VitaMix or high powered blender, blend on high speed for 1 minute until very smooth-should look like milk. Poor cashew milk into sautéd veggies and let stew for a few minutes before serving on warm lentil pancakes.