Sometimes ignorance breeds creativity. Hear me out: back in my mid-20s, I tried to go vegan. It inspired me to cook more meals from scratch due to the difficulty in finding vegan options in restaurants or frozen meals. (This vegan phase didn’t last very long, however — there are only so many times you can go to lunch with coworkers only to hear that the vegetarian option is “Order the $15 chicken without the chicken!” before you either exclude yourself from office culture or just say fukkit and order the chicken with the chicken.)

But for a while, I was playing around with soy imitation meats. And, not knowing much of anything about which seasonings to combine for which flavor profiles, I got into the habit of sniffing spices and throwing them into the pot with reckless abandon. Recipes? I didn’t need no stinkin’ recipes. This was all about combining random ingredients and hopefully getting something edible through the process.

This dish is something that I made at least once or twice before deeming it good enough to take to a potluck. It received the approval of my vegetarian co-workers at a potluck, so I decided to write down the recipe even though I couldn’t come up with a more creative name for it. (It’s entirely possible that this won the approval of vegetarians because it was the only vegetarian protein at the potluck.)

I haven’t made it in about 20 years, so I thought it would be a fun experiment to revisit this recipe to see if it still holds up. It’s funny to look back on how my culinary skills have changed over the years. This recipe goes against some basic culinary principles that I’ve learned since then, like not browning the vegetables before adding liquid to the pan, or not bothering with any type of broth or cream.

And I have to laugh at the way I didn’t write down any measurements, just a list of ingredients and a mix of herbs and spices that I would never dream of combining today — it’s a hodgepodge of seasonings that I associate now with Italian, Indian, French, and Mexican. My instructions were to smell and add the spices, including any not on the list if you think they “will blend in well.” As I made this again, I thought about how other cooks say they listen to their ancestors when they season dishes, and I could only imagine my ancestors laughing back at me and wondering what I was smoking.

But you know what? It actually works. Not only is it edible, but actually tasty. My spouse went back for seconds, which is the metric in our house to determine whether a dish is worth remaking. Maybe those vegetarians at the potluck in the mid-2000s weren’t eating it just because they were starving after all.

So, here you go! My advice is to go heavier on the curry powder and cumin than the green herbs for a more curry-rific dish, but of course, this is very much a “to taste” recipe. Be creative!

Couscous, millet, or other grain of choice
1 package soy imitation ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 peppers, minced (optional)
1 zucchini, chopped
1-2 cups chopped eggplant
1-2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp. olive oil
1-2 c. water
curry powder
coriander
tarragon
parsley
basil
sage
thyme
cumin
salt
pepper

Cook the grain separately.

In a large frying pan, sauté the onion and garlic (and optional peppers) in olive oil on medium-high heat. Lower the heat to medium and add the soy meat, breaking it up quickly as it browns.

Add the vegetables and one cup of the water to the skillet and let it simmer, uncovered. Add the spices, starting with a little at a time and adding more as you taste it and decide what it’s missing. You can oscillate between smelling the mixture on the stove and smelling a spice to determine if the aromas go together.

Keep stirring and cook until the water boils down and the veggies soften. You can add more water if it’s drying out too quickly, or cover. Keep tasting and add whatever you think might be missing from the flavor.

When the mixture has the consistency of a thick sauce, remove it from heat and pour over the grain. For a potluck, you can layer the grain in the bottom of a glass baking dish and smooth the curry on top.