Brown Lentil Curry
Loaded with warming spices and hearty lentils, this brown lentil curry is full of flavor, comforting and super easy to make and meal prep for the week. Perfect for helping to vary up your plant protein options.
Lentils were one of the first legumes I got comfortable with cooking very quickly. They cook fast and can absorb so much delicious flavor. As a result, they are perfect for flavor infused curries. And depending on the type of lentils you use, you can get a variety of different textures to match your desires. To get the most out of your curries, you also need to make sure you are adding in spices. As you know, spices will elevate the flavor in your meal. Indian dishes like curries combine the perfect balance of spices with the perfect cooking techniques needed to enhance the flavors of those spices. I highly encourage you guys to learn more about all of the spices used in Indian dishes as they can be a great gateway to making meals super exciting for you.
Why you need to make this brown lentil curry
- This lentil curry is simple and quick to put together thanks to the lentils being a quick legume to cook.
- The lentils make this a dish with good protein and iron.
- This dish is a naturally vegan, gluten free and nut free dish.
Key Ingredients
- Oil: Needed for blooming and getting more flavor out of your spices
- Cumin Seeds: Whole seeds
- Aromatics: Onion, ginger and garlic are a must
- Spices: Chili Powder, garam masala, turmeric, bay leaves
- Roma Tomatoes: You can also use cherry tomatoes
- Brown Lentils: Our main protein source and also cooks quick
- Potato: Makes this super comforting and filling
- Sugar: Good to use to help cut any sharpness or acidity from the tomatoes
- Lemon: Such a good addition to the lentils at the end, and a perfect compliment to help absorb more iron from this dish
How to make this lentil curry
- Heat oil in pot and add in cumin seeds and sauté until fragrant.
- To the pot, add in onion with a pinch of salt, ginger, garlic and sauté until onions soften.
- Add in remaining spices and tomatoes and cook them down to release their juices.
- Stir in lentils, potatoes, vegetable broth, sugar and bay leaf and bring to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 30-40 minutes, cooking lentils until cooked through.
- Uncover and add in collard greens, allowing greens to soften from the natural heat of the curry for a few minutes before serving.
Tips for making this curry
- For this recipe, to really allow the flavors to truly pop, it is important to use some oil in the beginning to help bloom your spices. Blooming spices is a South Asian cooking technique that brings the complex aromas in spices to their fullest expression. To bloom spices in the way, you need fat as the aromatic compounds in spices are fat soluble. If you are against using oil, another way around this would be to use a little bit of coconut milk to help bloom your spices or opting to in the very least, dry roast your spices to help enhance some of the flavors.
- When cooking lentils, you want to make sure that you cook them until they are tender and soft, which most often does not take much time at all to do. Most packages will say lentils will cook within a 20-30 minute time range. If you feel you have a difficult time cooking lentils well or that they come out too hard, try soaking your lentils for a few hours before using them in a dish. This will allow them to soften and also cook faster. Not only this, but soaking them often times also helps to allow your lentils to be more digestible and their nutrients to be absorbed better in our guts.
- The greens in this dish are optional, but I find that adding greens to dishes is such an easy way to get some additional vegetables in your day. The best part, is that most greens will shrink in size as they cook. So you can get in quite a bit of nutrition in every bite without having to compromise your dish too much.
More Lentil Dishes
- Coconut Spiced Red Lentils
- Jamaican Inspired Jerk Lentils
- Lentil and Tomato Macaroni Soup
- Lentil Vegetable Wellington
- Eggplant and Tomato Stew
Brown Lentil Curry
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Loaded with warming spices and hearty lentils, this brown lentil curry is full of flavor, comforting and super easy to make.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp oil
- 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 inch ginger, minced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 2 roma tomatos, diced
- 1 cup dry brown lentils
- 1 small potato, cubed
- 2 tsp sugar (optional)
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup minced collards, kale or spinach
- Salt to taste
- Lemon Wedges
Instructions
- Heat oil in pot and add in cumin seeds and sauté until fragrant.
- To the pot, add in onion with a pinch of salt, ginger, garlic and sauté until onions soften.
- Add in remaining spices and tomatoes and cook them down to release their juices.
- Stir in lentils, potatoes, vegetable broth, sugar and bay leaf and bring to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 30-40 minutes, cooking lentils until cooked through.
- Uncover curry and add in collard greens, allowing greens to soften from the natural heat of the curry for a few minutes before serving with some lemon wedges.
Notes
Why Include Lemon?
Totally optional, but having a little citrus with something like lentils that are high in iron can help us absorb the iron even more. Lemon wedges are included to squeeze overtop your
Lentils
Feel free to use the lentils of your choice. You can make this using green lentils, yellow lentils or even red lentils. Just note that smaller lentils like yellow lentils and red lentils tend to get mushy while they cook. If you want lentils with more of a chew, feel free to use French Lentils, brown lentils or beluga lentils. Just make sure to adjust liquids and cook time depending on the lentils you use.
Doneness of Lentils
If lentils are still firm, add an extra 1/3 cup of water and cover with a lid and simmer on low for an additional 10 minutes. Some beans/lentils can remain harder in the event that they are older. It’s hard to tell the age of beans that are packaged, but this often times impacts the cooking time.
Did You Try This Recipe?
Then let me know what you thought in the comments below! And if you loved it, don’t forget to rate it too. I love to see your recreations, so feel free to share your creations by tagging me on Instagram so I can share them with my community of friends.
★ Catherine
