Vegan Red Lentil Coconut Curry Recipe

Vegan Red Lentil Coconut Curry Recipe

This week is the 22nd National Curry Week! An event founded by the late Peter Grove who was a prominent journalist who’s fallen in love with curry and wanted to raise awareness and appreciation of the Indian restaurant industry, while also raising funds for charity.

Here in the U.K., we love a curry — it’s even our national dish and millions of curries are consumed here every week.

This week is the perfect time to celebrate all things curry and maybe try some new dishes too. In this blog post, you’ll find a recipe for a healthy vegan red lentil coconut curry from the cookbook GoVegan by Marlene Watson-Tara. Vegan curries are often a healthy option and still as full of flavour as non-vegan alternatives.

Marlene says: “Many people are turning to a vegan diet in the desire to live a healthier life, with a focus on wholegrain, beans, vegetables from land and sea, fruits, nuts and seeds, and these ingredients work particularly well in spicy curries.”

Marlene’s curry below is a South Indian style with lots of aromatic flavours from fresh ginger, cumin and coriander and so delicious and creamy thanks to the coconut milk.

Red Lentil Coconut Curry Recipe

Makes 4–6 servings.

Ingredients:

• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp mild curry powder
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp turmeric
• Pinch of sea salt
• 2 cups filtered water
• 1½ cups red lentils
• 1 cup organic coconut milk
• 2 medium-sized courgettes, diced into ½ inch (1 cm) pieces
• 1 or 2 tbsp tamari
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh coriander leaves, chopped
• Lime slices

Method:

1. In a heavy-based pan, cook the shallots, ginger and garlic in a splash of filtered water for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the spices and salt and stir well.
3. Stir in the water, lentils and coconut milk.
4. Allow the mixture to simmer over a low flame, covered, whilst stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.
5. Stir in the courgette and tamari, cover and cook until courgette and lentils are tender.
6. Add more water to reach the desired consistency. Taste-test then stir in the coriander.
7. Serve the curry with white or brown basmati rice to round out this comforting meal.

Find my full review of Go Vegan here. Thank you to Marlene for letting me share this recipe on my blog!