A hearty, nourishing, vegetable-packed curry, that is rich in spices and flavour, and so quick and easy to make for a weeknight dinner!
This dish is the perfect meat-free, weeknight wonder of a dish. A combination of spices like paprika, cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric and garlic creates such a fragrant and flavoursome curry base, while the pumpkin adds a lovely sweetness to the dish. The protein in the recipe is dried split red lentils, which cooks quickly and is so cost efficient as you can usually get a 1kg bag for less than $5.00 and it stretches far!
Though the ingredients list looks a bit long, don’t be put off as it comes together very easily and quickly, and is in your bowl ready to eat in just over 30 minutes. Simply sauté your onion and garlic in some coconut oil (if you don’t have any, check out the hints below), then add in your homemade curry spice mix, some diced pumpkin, the dried lentils, stock and a tin of diced tomatoes. Simmer for 15mins, and add your spinach, mushrooms, coconut milk and salt and pepper.
I like to serve mine with steamed rice, and topped with yoghurt and fresh coriander or spring onion, and some chilli (because you know I love chilli on everything!).
This recipe also makes so much! It’s the perfect thing to make if you want to prep lunches for the week, or you can also freeze some as an emergency dinner option in the future.
Recipe Hints
- Coconut Oil: I like to use coconut oil in this recipe is the subtle coconut flavour mixes in well with the dish. However, you can sub 1:1 ratio with your preferred oil, butter or ghee!
- Make it vegan: This recipe can easily be made vegan by subbing the chicken stock for a vegetable stock, and swapping the yoghurt topping for a coconut or dairy free yoghurt, or omitting it altogether.
Pumpkin and Red Lentil Curry
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1.5 cups dried split red lentils
- 500 grams butternut pumpkin
- 3.5 cups stock*
- 400 ml tin of diced tomatoes
- 200 grams button mushrooms
- 80 grams baby spinach leaves
- 270 ml tin of coconut milk
- salt and pepper to taste
Optional (to serve)
- steamed rice
- yoghurt
- fresh chilli
- fresh coriander or spring onions
Instructions
- Prepare you vegetables: finely dice onion, mince garlic cloves, peel and cube pumpkin and slice mushrooms. Rinse lentils in a strainer. Set it all aside.
- Heat the coconut oil in a large pot on a medium heat.
- Add onion and garlic to the coconut oil and cook for one minute, until onions are just translucent.
- Add all spices to the onion and garlic, and stir through for a further minute until the spices are fragrant.
- Add lentils and pumpkin into the pot and stir and cook through for 2 minutes.
- Add in your stock and tin of diced tomatoes to the pot and stir.
- Bring up to the boil and then turn the pot down to a gentle simmer and cook, partially covered, for 15 minutes, or until lentils have broken down and pumpkin is soft and cooked through.
- Add coconut milk, spinach and mushrooms to the pot. Stir and taste, season with salt and pepper as needed. Cook for a further two minutes until spinach has wilted and mushrooms have cooked through.
- Serve as desired. (Recommended to serve on rice with toppings as noted in recipe).