Calling all lentil lovers! Brimming with comforting flavors, this easy to make Creamy Lentil Curry is packed full of delicious Indian spices, and the whole family will fall in love this hearty filling dish! Serve it plain, over rice, or over a baked potato; it’s perfect for a weeknight dinner and makes plenty for freezer friendly meal planning.
Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients, and gluten free.
Hi there, Ameera here!
Sign me up for Indian dishes every night of the week! We absolutely love a great Indian dish. The Indian cuisine is full of aromatic spices and delicious flavors. We could eat it every day, all day! It’s just that good!
Makes A lot!
Yes, this recipe makes a lot! We did so intentionally because we had some readers ask us to make some freezer friendly meals.
In other words, we were asked to create recipes that makes more than the traditional 4 servings so they can freeze leftovers for another day.
And . . . that’s exactly what we did with this recipe. It makes approximately 8 to 10 servings, but it freezes really well. So there ya go! *fist bump*
Curry Powder
We love Penzeys Sweet Curry Powder in this dish. Please feel free to use your favorite curry powder blend or mix your own to suit your own personal preferences.
This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.
Garam Masala
We love Penzeys Garam Masala Powder for this dish. You can certainly use your favorite Garam Masala blend or you can even mix your own to suit your own personal preferences. Penzeys Garam Marsala is a blend of beautiful spices, but still gentle enough for kids to enjoy.
If you want to kick up the flavor even more, feel free to increase the cumin, Garam Masala powder, chili powder, and/or add a pinch (or more) of cayenne pepper.
The beautiful of this dish is that it is totally customizable.
Jalapeños VS Cayenne Pepper
When purchasing jalapenos from the store, you just never know the heat level of what you are buying until you get it home and cut it open. Have you noticed, some jalapenos really pack some heat, while others are ultra-mild?
We generally provide instructions to add cayenne pepper at the end of the dish because most of the time, you don’t know if the jalapeno pepper is really going to kick up the heat or be practically nonexistent relative to heat.
I’ll let Mom tell you more!
Hi! Robin here.
As most of you know, in my previous life (prior to becoming WFPB) I was never an Indian food fan until Monkey started cooking Indian dishes for me. Curry spices just didn’t appeal to me for some reason. But that all changed, now I absolutely LOVE Indian food!
Funny how that happens, has it happened to you too? Once you flush out all those chemicals out of your body, you start craving different foods, food that is good for you.
We ate this dish right up. It is delicious! We really hope you give this deliciousness a try! We just know you are going to love it!
More Delicious Indian Dishes
Check out some of our other Indian Dishes:
- Easy Kidney Bean Curry
- Potato Vindaloo
- Easy Vegetable Korma
- Vegan Samosa Rolls
- Cauliflower Potato Curry
- Curry Broccoli and Pasta
Products Used:
- Large ceramic/enamel lined Dutch oven, skillet, or similar large stock pot
Creamy Lentil Curry
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 22 Minutes
- Total Time: 32 Minutes (+5 Minutes)
- Yield: 8-10 Servings 1x
- Category: Stew
- Method: Stovetop, Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Indian
Description
Brimming with comforting flavors, this easy Creamy Lentil Curry is packed full of delicious Indian spices; the whole family will love this hearty dish! Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.
Ingredients
Sauté Ingredients:
- 1 medium yellow onion, quartered
- 1 carrot, chunked
- ½ red bell pepper, chunked
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded *
- 2 Tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 Tablespoon minced ginger
Base Ingredients:
- 1 – [ 28 oz. can ] crushed tomatoes
- 2 cups vegetable broth *
- 1 ½ cup water (or broth)
- 1 ¼ cup dry brown lentils, picked through and rinsed
Spice/Herb Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 Tablespoons dried minced onions
- 1 Tablespoon + 2 ¼ teaspoons curry powder (+/-) *
- 1 teaspoon garam masala (+/-) *
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 ¼ teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
- Pinch to ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) *
Other Ingredients:
- 1 cup light coconut milk (from can) *
Other Optional Ingredients:
- Steamed rice
- Baked potato
- Chopped cilantro
- Flatbread
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions
- Place the Spice/Herb Ingredients (except the cayenne pepper) in a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
- Place all the Sauté Ingredients into a food processor and blend until finely minced.
- Set the Instant Pot to Sauté (high) mode, then add minced Sauté Ingredients into the Instant Pot, sauté for 7 to 8 minutes until the water from the minced ingredients lose most of their water, then add the Spice/Herb Mix and stir to allow the spices to release their fragrance, about 1 minute.
- Then add all the Base Ingredients, stir well to combine. Press Cancel, then set the Instant Pot to Manual Pressure High for 14 minutes. When finished, press Cancel and allow to sit for 5 minutes, then do a Quick Release. Unplug the Instant Pot.
- Once all the pressure is released, carefully remove the lid, add in the lite coconut milk. Stir well to combine. Taste test the flavors and add any additional seasonings at this time, including the cayenne pepper (if desired), stir to combine, allow a few minutes for the flavors to marry. Serve with your favorite rice, chopped cilantro, and flatbread.
Stove Top Instructions
- Place the Spice/Herb Ingredients (except the cayenne pepper) in a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
- Place all the Sauté Ingredients into a food processor and blend until finely minced.
- In a ceramic/enamel lined Dutch oven or similarly large stock pot, add the finely minced Sauté Ingredients, sauté for 7 to 8 minutes until the water from the minced ingredients lose most of their water, then add the Spice/Herb Mixand stir to allow the spices to release their fragrance, about 1 minute.
- Then add all the Base Ingredients, stir well to combine, heat to boiling, then immediately lower to a simmer. Cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid, and cook for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and continue cooking until the lentils are tender, approximately an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
- Once the lentils are tender, add in the lite coconut milk. Stir well to combine. Taste test the flavors and add any additional seasonings, including the cayenne pepper (if desired), and cook for a few minutes to allow the flavors to marry. Serve with your favorite rice, chopped cilantro, and flatbread.
Notes
*Tips for Success: We like to prep all the ingredients as after you add the Spice/Herb Mix to the Instant Pot, you need to stir well to keep the spices from burning or sticking to the bottom of the Instant Pot. By prepping ahead, once the spices have released their fragrance, you can immediately get the liquids into the pot before the spices stick too much to the bottom as they can burn easily with an Instant Pot if you are not careful. Make sure you stir the pot really well making sure you are getting any spices that could potentially stick to the bottom of the Instant Pot up and into the liquids.
*Vegetable Stock: We use Pacific Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Stock. We love this brand because it is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, as it does not contain MSG, has no oil, and does not contain any highly-processed ingredients.
*Curry Powder: We really enjoy Penzeys Sweet Curry Powder, please feel free to use your favorite curry powder. We had family members enjoying various amounts of curry powder, feel free to ramp up the curry powder at the end if you feel it needs more.
*Garam Masala: Garam Marsala spice blends vary greatly with some accenting different spices over others. We really enjoy Penzeys Garam Masala-Punjabi Style. Feel free to use your favorite spice blend of Garam Masala. We had family members enjoying various amounts of garam masala, feel free to ramp up the curry powder at the end if you feel it needs more.
*Cayenne Pepper: If you just want a hint of heat, use a pinch. If you want a lot of heat use ¼ teaspoon or more. Or you can leave it out completely. Add it at the end and add a tiny bit at a time until the desire heat is achieved.
*Light Unsweetened Coconut Milk: You can also use unsweetened plain plant milk (with or without a splash of coconut extract), but you will need to adjust the spices (in other words, not use as much) as the lite coconut milk is thicker and has more flavor than plain unsweetened plant milk. We tried the recipe both ways and definitely preferred using lite unsweetened coconut milk from the can over the plain plant milk. Lite Unsweetened Coconut Milk is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, full fat coconut milk is not. Additionally, feel free to add more than 1 cup of lite unsweetened coconut milk if you like. You may need to ramp up some spices if you add more than 1 cup.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: 8 to 10
*Storage: Refrigerate and use within 5 days, freezes well.
This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.
Well I am now one of those people who change a recipe but still comment – sorry!
I am too lazy to dirty the food processor so I just chopped the vegetables finely and then sautéed in the instantpot.
We skipped the jalapeno but otherwise followed the recipe.
It was delicious and so easy to make. Great for meal prep!
Hi there Colleen 🙂
Yaaaay!!! We are so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed this recipe. We appreciate you sharing your adjustments, awesome feedback, and for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
We made this tonight and this was delicious. We had a bag of spinach to use up so minced it with the sauté vegetables, spice mix really nice.
Hi there Michelle 🙂
Awesome!!! We are so glad you enjoyed this dish. Love the addition of spinach – YUM! We appreciate you sharing your awesome feedback and for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I made this 3 days ago and it makes a lot, and I am having no problem eating it daily! Its delicious! I add chopped spinach over brown rice and top with lentils…so so addictive! I have also added chopped avocado when I have it….YUM!!
Hi there Sarah 🙂
Yaaaay!!! We are so thrilled that you enjoyed this recipe. Yes, this recipe does make a lot, and we are happy you’ve been enjoying it daily too. We appreciate you sharing your awesome feedback and for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
You took care of us for lunch and dinner today. ? This was really good. But I think it is going to be really, really good tomorrow when the flavours meld more! It seems like I’m always looking forward to leftovers after cooking your recipes! ?
Oh and I added some spinach as per a previous comment.
Hi there Sandra 🙂
Woo hoo!!! We are SUPER glad that you gave this recipe a try and enjoyed it. We are total leftover lovers here and this is one of those dishes that just keeps getting better. We appreciate you sharing your awesome feedback and for taking the time to write. *hugs*
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
love your recipes, but the advertisements- holy cow. You can’t hardly read without pushing your way through a billion zillion advertisements. Could you add a “Jump to the recipe” button?
Hi there Elizabeth 🙂 We are so thrilled that you are loving our recipes. We completely understand wanting a “jump to recipe” option, and we would love to add this feature in the future. However, the few pennies we make from readers scrolling helps us keep our little free recipe blog running for our readers. With all the expenses of running the blog and purchasing groceries for multiple recipe testing and photography, we are running in the red, but at least the little money we make from scrolling helps to keep our blog going. We hope that you understand, and… Read more »
Made this during the week and it was so good, and easy to make! Going to try some more of your recipes as they all look so good.
Hi there Vedette 🙂
Yippee!!! We are so EXCITED that you enjoyed this recipe and plan to try more of our recipes. Thank you so much for your kind words and awesome feedback. We appreciate you taking the time to write!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I love this recipe – it’s delicious and would like to make this for my daughter who cannot eat nightshades (tomatoes and peppers). I can leave out the peppers but do you have a solution for the tomatoes?
Made this recipe…followed exactly as it is except I used millet for my own diet preference…Absolutely DELICIOUS! Thank you!!! I love your ALL your recipes!
Hi there Courtney,
YAYYYYY!!!! We are so happy that you gave this recipe a try and enjoyed it! Thank you so much for taking time to write an awesome review!
-Ameera and Robin
I accidentally added the entire can of coconut milk instead of just one cup. It was delicious! Served it over brown jasmine rice. This is definitely a keeper 😊
Hi there Diana,
We are happy to learn that your accident turned delicious, always a good thing!! Thank you so much for taking time to leave us a fantastic review.
-Ameera and Robin
I make this stew for the last few years. Everyone who try it, ask me what did I put in it so it’s so tasty. I follow the recipe, however, I think it’s quite versatile and still amazing result.
Hi there Anna,
YAYYY!!! We are so happy that you have been enjoying this recipe. Thank you so much for the awesome review. We appreciate it.
-Ameera and Robin
Can this be made in a crockpot?
Hi there Jo,
We apologize for the late response, somehow this one got away from us. Regarding your crockpot question, you could potentially try using a crockpot. We have not tested it ourselves so we are unsure. If you give it a try, let us know. Thank you.
-Ameera and Robin