When the temperature drops, I love to eat lentils. They are wholesome and filling and just a tad beany. I usually make lentil soup, but my friend Annie steered me to a passel of lentil recipes in the Christian Science Monitor, which contained this recipe for curried lentil stew.
This fabulous, cold-weather stew is adapted from a recipe by Eve Fox of The Garden of Eating. It’s a one-dish vegetarian meal packed with French green lentils, sweet potatoes, carrots and kale, plus fresh cilantro, ginger and curry powder. It’s easy to make a day ahead of time too.
Curried Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Kale
A hearty vegan stew for a cold winter night.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large red onion, chopped
- 4-5 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered ginger (or 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger)
- 4 cups cubed sweet potatoes
- 1 cup sliced carrots (about 2-3 carrots)
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 2 tablespoons cumin
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- 2 cups small green lentils, rinsed
- 1 16-ounce can coconut milk
- 1 quart vegetable broth
- 4 cups kale, stems removed and chopped
- 1 tablespoon dried cilantro (or 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped)
- 1 teaspoon pink salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons lime juice (about 1 lime)
Instructions
In a large stew pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat until it shimmers.
Add the onions, dust with 1/8 teaspoon pink salt, and sauté until translucent.
Stir in the garlic and ginger, and sauté for 1 minute.
Add the sweet potatoes, carrots, curry powder, cumin, and cayenne pepper, and sauté for another minute.
Stir in the coconut milk and vegetable broth.
Add the kale, cilantro, salt and pepper.
Bring to high simmer, cover, and turn down the heat to a low simmer.
Cover and cook for 45 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
Stir in the lime juice, and serve over rice.
Wash the French green lentils.
Chop the garlic.
Slice the carrots
Cube the sweet potatoes.
Chop the onions.
Sauté the onions in the olive oil.
Stir in the garlic and ginger.
Add the carrots and sweet potatoes.
Stir in the seasonings.
Add the vegetable broth and coconut milk.
Stir in the kale and cilantro.
Cover, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a low simmer, and cook for 45 minutes.
Serve immediately in bowls. This stew keeps well overnight in a sealed container in the fridge.
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