Spinach and lentil curry with coconut rice

How has your week been? I've been busy and had little time for blogging, which is always annoying. However now I'm going to dedicate more time for it over the weekend. I have today off from work, which means it's a long weekend for me. I got up bright and early today to enjoy the day fully and I'm soon heading to town to see what's going on in there. Tonight there's a gathering from my partner's work place, which could be quite nice as well.

And now to the recipe itself. A vegan curry is always a lovely lovely thing. I decided to make a nice and comforting curry full of good things. I used spinach, green lentils and potatoes as the main ingredients and spiced the curry with garam masala and turmeric. I served fluffy coconut rice on the side. I rarely use white rice, but sometimes this sort of “proper” basmati is so lovely to have. This is just the sort of dish that I could keep eating all autumn and winter, and why not also spring and summer. Have a look at the recipe below, which should serve four.

Ingredients

1 cup green lentils

8 potatoes

3 onions

3 garlic cloves

3 cm fresh ginger (similar amount to the garlic)

2 small chillies

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp garam masala

160 ml coconut cream

2 bay leaves

1 tsp ground turmeric

Sprinkle of salt

200 g spinach

1 cup basmati rice

2-4 tbsp desiccated coconut

1 tbsp coconut oil

Method

Pre-cook the lentils and the potatoes separately. They don't have to be fully cooked, as they will cook further in the final curry mix.

Chop the onions, garlic, ginger and chillies finely. Cook the onion first in oil until slightly browned and caramelised. Then add the garlic, ginger and chilli and keep frying for a while.

Make the garam masala mix or use a pre-made variation and add about one tablespoon of the spice mix and stir it in to the pan. Here is for example one of my own garam masala instructions, but nowadays I just randomly add the ingredients and grind.

Then add the coconut cream, bay leaves, ground turmeric and salt. Also add the pre-cooked lentils and potatoes and let simmer. Stir the spinach in only just before serving, as it doesn't need long until it wilts.

Cook the rice while the curry is simmering. Dry toast the desiccated coconut in a pan and stir it into the cooked rice. Also add some coconut oil to the rice.

Add any more seasoning to the curry to taste and serve it with the rice.

This recipe will be my Eat Your Greens entry, which I'm hosting this month, taking turns every other month with Shaheen. Remember that you still have plenty of time to submit your entries!

I also want to share this recipe with My Legume Love Affair cooking challenge that concentrates on vegetarian dishes that contain legumes. This month's event is the 100^th edition hosted by Siri from Cooking With Siri and co-hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen. Many congratulations for making it to the 100^th edition, that's amazing!

Enjoy your weekend!

Your VegHog