Posted on March 19, 2020 by Kate Halsall

Yes yes, we have definitely blogged about lentil curry before – but that was when we could get fresh spinach from the shop or we had nice ingredients such as coconut milk at home! There’s going to be a large amount of making-it-up-as-we-go as it’s a little difficult to get all your desired ingredients at the moment. For now, I’m trying to find things to make with what’s left in my cupboards at home. BUT that doesn’t mean you can’t make tasty food! This lentil curry is what I had for tea last night.

Ingredients

So here’s what I’ve got in my cupboards to use:

  • Tinned and bagged/dry lentils (I’m vegan, this is a no brainer!) – you can use either for this recipe. If you use the dry lentils, it will just need to cook for longer.
  • Ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, cumin seeds, cardamon pods (oooo get me)……I’ve got other random herbs too, but these feel like curry ingredients!
  • I don’t have stock cubes so I’ll just be using water.
  • I have frozen garlic, ginger and chilli, but lazy garlic and ginger and chilli flakes would do the job just fine! If you don’t have any of these, hey – go without!
  • Oil. I’m going to use olive oil but honestly use what you’ve got! It should even work without oil at all!

Method

  1. Add a little oil to your pan and add your curry spices. I’ve gone for 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, coriander, turmeric and cumin seeds. I’ve split and added 2 cardamon pods. I’ve added a block of frozen garlic, ginger and a pinch of chilli. Add what ever you have!
  2. Saute this (as that sounds nicer than “fry”) for a couple of minutes to let the spices cook, then add your lentils (if using tinned, make sure you’ve drained them first). NB if you don’t have any oil, you can dry fry your spices!
  3. Mix everything together and cook for a further minute.
  4. Add enough water to cover the lentils. Then bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer. Once all the water has nearly gone, add a little more and repeat until the lentils are tender and cooked (this takes about 20-25 minutes when using dried lentils).
  5. Hey presto! A makeshift lentil curry!

Cooking it in a risotto-stylie helps to make it thick and creamy(ish). It also means you don’t add too much water as we want to keep the flavour here! You’ll also find that if you do have bagged lentils, they often have recipes on the side of them – mine has one for a lentil shepherds pie for example! You just have to adapt. I don’t have any potatoes, but I could definitely make some kind of stew with the lentils I have and the frozen veg I’ve got…..humm that may be tomorrows recipe!

Stay healthy everyone. x