tomato-based curry

Sometimes I just get excited about vegetables, y'know?  That avocado I can't wait to use like a delicious, rich butter, that eggplant to roast and scoop out it's soft, juicy inside.  There are some very standard ways of approaching our veggies and I admit, I get stuck in those ways.  When I saw that summer squash and zucchini were in season (this is the south, after all), I couldn't wait to munch on an epitome of warm weather.  I couldn't just toss these babies in with a tofu scramble, or the standard veggie mix for fajitas.  No, these guys were special and in this case, special meant: treat them different.  At first I thought, "fritters!", but I didn't want to fry anything.  Then I thought, "frittata!", and after I remarked on how phonetically similar my two ideas were, I realized I had no tofu.  I had to reach outside the box.  I needed something different.

Believing one of my many cookbooks could hold the key, I proceeded to scour the index for hints for how to use these two squashes.  Instead, I saw the usual:
Summer squash--
in stir fry, p.97
in summer salad, p.18
Zucchini--
stuffed, p.42
I mean, really?  Those things again?  My veggies were already spoken for, I just had to find out for what.  (Maybe I'm the vegetable whisperer.)

How about curry?  Foolishly, I glanced through my books for some curry inspiration.  It's too hot for that coconut-based stuff + I have a giant tomato sitting on my shelf.  I thought, "There will be tomato curry and no one will tell me how to do it!"

So folks, here we are.  A tomato based curry that-- hopefully-- will be friendly to whatever veggies you decide to throw in.

Curry! serves 2 hungry people, serve over rice or other whole grain

1 tbs coconut oil, for the pan

1 small onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 or 5 leaves fresh basil, chopped (I keep mine in the freezer)

1tsp ginger, grated (freezer too)

1tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp tumeric

1/8 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp corriander

1/8 tsp cinnamon

juice of 1/2 lime

1/2 really big tomato, peeled and chopped

1 tbs tomato paste

1/2 large summer squash (or 1 regular-sized), sliced

1/2 zucchini, sliced

1/2 cup mushroom, sliced

a little water for when the pan gets dry

You know how to do this.  It should be friendly to a lot of substitution.  The tomato can me added right after the squashes-- it'll still have time to cook down and get real saucy.  I don't think you have to throw in tomato paste; I just had some that needed using.