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…
By green, I take it you mean the ones used for green split pea soup. That’s cool. I do prefer the yellow when I’m using curry … I just like it better color-wise. Well, I just got back from supermarket and got me a bag of brown lentils. But for now I’ll use the red lentils and see how it comes out. This will be my first try at one of your non-dessert recipes. Will report verdict 🙂
Oh maybe I mean brown. LOL I don’t know… I just know it wasn’t red. But I’ve since used red lentils for other things and I love them :).
I have only used red lentils in the “Fat Free Vegan” version of Isa’s chickpea cutlets called Quinoa & Red Lentil cutlets. It seems a bit too mild … it’s good … but I think I like the chickpea one better.
P.S. Anything happening from your appearance on tv?
Verdict: Mmmmm mmmmmm good! Spunky, especially with the dash of red wine vinegar at the end. I used a can of crushed tomatoes instead of plum tomatoes, but there’s no real difference in the end, is there? I cut down on the salt, and was careful with the curry, using only 1 tsp at first, but found it wouldn’t be overkill to add the other at the end.
This a real nutritious winner Katie! So grateful you do what you do with these easy delicious VEGAN (no animal harmed!) recipes.
I’ve made this twice now, first with the crushed tomatoes and second with the plum tomatoes. I think I like the crushed tomatoes better … it comes out thicker and makes the house smell like there’s spaghetti sauce cooking. Still a great recipe, and delicious cold. My boyfriend thought it could use a little something else. Maybe I’ll put some cubed potatoes in it next time.
Just made this tonight. Very good! Thank you for the recipe!
I made this recipe tonight for our dinner with some cheesy cornbread. Mmmm! I did substitute sweet potato for the carrots and celery for the zucchini since we didn’t have either. Turned out well too. Thank you for your many tasty recipes!
I feel a bit strange commenting on a post made over a year ago, but I just wanted to say I made this tonight for the first time and it was incredible! 😀 I was a little skeptical at first because it didn’t LOOK all that great… but mmmm 🙂
Haha thanks for commenting on the old post… I’d forgotten about this recipe :).
My husband and I are SO VERY THANKFUL we found your blog. As new vegans we were struggling with what to make for everyday lunches and dinners. Plus, we have two children and this makes it a little more challenging to find things that they will find yummy too. I can’t tell you how much ti means to find easy to make everyday dishes using ingredients that I can find at our local market. THANK YOU CCK!!!
Please make lentil based desserts :] Haha. I’m vegan and gluten-free, and like you I always need my cocoa fix. And often put cocoa into ‘odd’ foods like beans, rice, and avocados. Just now I mixed cocoa powder in some plain lentils and it wasn’t great but I feel like you could master something out of it! Absolutely love your blog, have for safe to say over a year. Thank you for it.