These Coconut Curry Lentils are cozy, comforting, and perfectly spiced. Consider this ridiculously easy recipe your new favorite go-to for Meatless Monday!
If you’re an active participant on the internet, you’ve undoubtedly seen the latest trend. Everyone wants to complain about food bloggers taking the time to write anything other than literally just the recipe. (You could, in fact, just scroll for five seconds and get to the recipe, but apparently that’s a hot take.)
But I understand that some people are just here for the recipe, and some people are interested in my written content. So, in an effort to appease everyone, I’m changing my post format from here on out. From now on, you’ll find a short entry before the recipe, followed by a longer, more free-form post after.
Without further ado, then, here’s a bit about this recipe: It’s so simple and almost entirely hands-off. I modified it from a recipe on Budget Bytes, one of my favorite blogs for cheap and easy recipes. All you’ll need are a few basic ingredients, and you’re less than an hour away from a warming, filling plant-based meal!
More warming curry recipes:
Thai Curry Noodle Soup
Cauliflower and Chickpea Coconut Curry
Curried Chickpea Salad
IF YOU MAKE THESE COCONUT CURRY LENTILS, DON’T FORGET TO SNAP A PHOTO AND TAG ME IN IT ON INSTAGRAM @FEELINWHISKY! I LOVE SEEING WHAT YOU DO WITH MY RECIPES!
PrintCoconut Curry Lentils
These Coconut Curry Lentils are cozy, comforting, and perfectly spiced. Consider this ridiculously easy recipe your new favorite go-to for Meatless Monday! Adapted from Budget Bytes.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon mild curry powder
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup green lentils, rinsed and picked through
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 (15-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
- Several large handfuls of baby spinach
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- Rice and/or naan, for serving
Instructions
- Melt coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 5-7 minutes, or until soft and translucent. Add garlic and spices, stir to coat, and cook for an additional minute or until fragrant.
- Add lentils, vegetable stock, and coconut milk, and stir to combine. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low. Cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and simmer for another 10 minutes, or until lentils are cooked through and the mixture resembles a thick stew.
- Stir in the baby spinach until wilted, then remove from heat and stir in the cilantro. Serve over plenty of rice.
Hello. Did you make it down here? I’m happy to see you. Thanks for reading. This is the part of the blog where I wax poetic about the way food makes me feel, or my mental health journey, or any other damn thing I feel like writing about. If you’re interested in connection beyond basic recipe sharing, I hope to see you down here more often.
This recipe has given me incredible comfort and joy more than once over the past month or so.
I modified Beth’s recipe to include a few more spices, but her recipe is delicious all on its own as well if your spice cabinet is more pared down. I, for one, am a spice hoarder, and have a tendency to throw everything but the kitchen sink into any curry I make.
Regardless of the spice combo you use, I hope this simple, warming dish makes you feel as cozy and whole as it’s made me feel. We just emerged from a blurred week of salt, dairy, and alcohol, and while it filled my cup in its own way, it did leave me feeling more than a little drained. The holidays tend to do that, don’t they? You stumble into January feeling grateful, fulfilled, and desperately in need of some goddamn vegetables. It’s kind of a beautiful feeling.
So when I find myself in need of some comfort in the shape of leaves and lentils, I come back to these coconut curry lentils every time. Because this recipe truly is comforting, too, not just healthy. And let me tell you, I’ve been craving comfort at every turn lately. I haven’t blogged in two months—actually, I feel like I’ve hardly done anything for two months—because I’ve been seeking a deeper part of myself that is still, as yet, undiscovered.
I’ve had several moments of existential nausea this year. 2019 has been filled with difficult moments of growth, and I’ve yet to reap the full benefits.
In those moments, I gravitate toward the only constant I know: food.
No matter what, at the end of an impossibly long day or week or month or year, I can return to food. I can shut out the rest of my worries for an hour, and I can focus on the methodical chop-chop-chop, stir-stir-stir. These meditative movements get me through every time.
So, while I have come back to blogging, I haven’t figured it out yet. I’m beginning to feel as though I’ll never truly have it figured out, but I’m also coming to terms with the fact that that’s just fine. No one ever really does. But in the moments when that uncertainty feels overwhelming, this is the least we can do for ourselves. We can cook and share meals with those we care about, and many times, that’s the only thing we truly need.
