You’re shocked, right? No chocolate, and no sprinkles today!
You might not know it from my recent posts, but I promise I don’t sit around all day eating chocolatey desserts… Today I’ve decided to break the “desserts-only” streak, on which I’ve been for the past month or so, with a savory recipe featuring one of my fave legumes: the lentil!
When I do make a lentil dish, I always say to myself, “I should cook with lentils more often!” Such was the case with last night’s dinner.
Yumlicious Lentil Curry
(Lentils… perfect for Lent!)
- 2-4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 large onions, diced
- 4 carrots, chopped
- Optional: 2 zucchini, sliced
- 3 minced garlic cloves (about 1 tbsp)
- 1 (28 ounce) can plum tomatoes
- 1 cup (7 ounces) lentils (See the note below this recipe, in regards to whether to use 1 cup uncooked or cooked)
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 teaspoons mild curry powder
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped (I use 1/2 tsp dried)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
- optional: pepper (I only use a small dash)
- 1 tablespoon good-quality red wine vinegar
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and carrots and cook over medium low heat for 8-10 minutes, until the onions start to brown. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Add the garlic and cook 1 more minute. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
- Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes with a knife until they are coarsely chopped. Add the tomatoes (and the juice in the can), lentils, broth, curry powder, thyme, salt, and pepper to the pan. Raise the heat to bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer covered for about 40 minutes, until the lentils are tender. Check occasionally to be sure the liquid is still simmering.
- Remove from the heat and allow to sit covered for another 10 minutes. Add the vinegar. Season to taste and serve hot. Enjoy!
Cooking Mishap!
The original recipe, based off one from The Barefoot Contessa, is supposed to be for lentil curry. So I could not figure out why mine looked more like soup. Finally I realized: when it called for 1 cup lentils, it meant un-cooked. I’d used 1 cup canned! Oops!
All was not lost, however. I simply drained the liquid and poured it into a separate container. This gave me the curry for which I’d hoped… and now I had the most delicious, broth-y soup, besides. Two dishes from one recipe!
And just because it wouldn’t be a CCK post without chocolate…
Hi Katie!
My name is Tessa, and I have been reading your blog for a few weeks now, but this is my first time posting! I wanted to write a quick note just saying how much I enjoy your blog, full of fantastic recipes, fun entries, and good issues as well.
One of my favorite ingredients to cook with/eat is LENTILS so I will surely be trying this recipe 🙂
Aww wow, thank you so so much, Tessa! Your comment put a huge smile on my face :).
Aww I’m glad 🙂
And I just started a blog a few weeks ago, so I don’t photograph everything I eat. I think I will take more pictures as I get used to blogging though!
I love lentils, too, and always find myself asking why I don’t eat them more when they’re so easy to make. Your curry looks yummy, love all the veggies!
I photograph most of what I eat, but not everything. I’ve found that some things just aren’t blog-worthy, LOL.
Have a great weekend, Katie!! 😀
You’re so cute Katie: “lentils are perfect for Lent”
I really like lentils too but don’t have them that often. They’re just something you don’t think about much
I have had cooking mishaps but usually I suprise myself when I just put tons of stuff together and it ends up tasting good!
I don’t usually photograph my food….I’m always too hungry! 😀
That curry looks and sounds amazing though!!! hahaha
Taking food pictures is a pain in the butt! I agree, taking dessert pictures is way easier b/c you’re usually not starving while you’re doing it, and desserts are so much prettier. But I do photograph most things I eat. It’s my least favorite part of food blogging, but I couldn’t post recipes without them. Just couldn’t. They’re just not as appealing without a picture! Most of my cooking mistakes are disasters, but I did once make some yummy truffles out of a failed white chocolate buttercream experiment, and once made a yummy butter rum caramel cake when I added too many eggs to the base of a dough meant for bars. Your curry looks yumtastic, BTW! I love curries.
Why Katie, I’m shocked! Lentils?! LOL my last thought on here was, “I’m going to have to get my hands on some cocoa powder before her recipes drive me crazy!!”
This looks yumlicious 🙂 I’ll have to ask my dad to make it for me (I’m so anal about the environment, I can’t bear to buy my own cans……I hope this is a good thing. I am just going to cover my eyes and ask him to make it for me, knowing full well he’ll use one! >.< )! I also love how you instead of wasting the liquid, opted to save it for a soup 🙂 Economical and eco friendly 🙂
Hey, Lyza! If you don’t want to use cans, you can always buy your lentils (dried) in bulk from any healthy store. They’re really easy to cook (unlike dried beans, no soaking required!) , environmentally friendly, and so cheap they’re practically free 🙂
Oh, I know 🙂 I have probably 2-3 pounds from Whole Food’s bulk section that’s been in my pantry for ages. It was actually the canned tomatoes I was referring to. Whoops! 🙂
You can definitely, definitely use dried lentils! 🙂 (If you still want a soup, not a stew, just make sure to use less than 1 cup dry so it makes 1 cup after cooking… that’d be like 1/4 cup dry? I’m not good with bean conversions, but I think it’s something like that.)
That sounds right!! 🙂
I love lentils! and curry! yumm.
I never photograph everything I eat. not even close! A lot of it is not very pretty looking 😛
Lentils are my favorite source of vegetarian protein! They are versatile and not to mention delicious! Can’t wait to try this recipe…..I love anything with lentils!
I always have the SAME thinking with lentils – I need to use them more often!! 🙂 I don’t photograph everything I eat – far from it actually!
Yummy! As much as I love reading about your desserts, reading about what you eat is just as interesting! 🙂
Whitney