Vegan Butter Chicken

Ingredients:

• One 24-ounce can of crushed tomatoes.
• One 12-ounce can of coconut milk.
• 2 tablespoons of vegan butter (Miyoko's or Earth Balance are good options).
• Olive oil.
• Spice mixture:
  • 3 teaspoons of garam masala.
  • 1 teaspoon of onion powder.
  • 1 teaspoon of garlic powder.
  • 1 teaspoon of powdered ginger.
  • 1½ teaspoons of cumin.
  • 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (or more or less to taste).
• Vegan chicken substitute or tofu (Daring chicken seems pretty good, for Daring chicken use two bags).

Procedure:

1. Add olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Cook spice mixture for a minute until fragrant.
2. Add crushed tomatoes and mix.
3. Add vegan butter and coconut milk.
4. Simmer on low for a few minutes, probably around 10 minutes, until thick and bubbly and no canned tomato flavor remains.
5. Salt to taste. Serve with rice.
6. Add vegan chicken or tofu and simmer until heated through.

I adapted this recipe from this Ethan Chlebowski's video on canned tomatoes substituting vegan options for cream, butter, and chicken and only doing the bare minimum of work. This came out a lot better than I had expected it to, given it's entirely made with pantry ingredients except for the vegan butter and chicken. The Daring chicken is a pretty good option for this dish, though it's on the chewier side. Extra firm tofu works well, too, as does Sweet Earth Mindful Chick'n (the latter is much softer than Daring) This was easy enough and good enough that I'm going to add it to my weekly rotation of recipes I make throughout the week.