Resident Recipe - Lentil, Chickpea and Kale Curry

Every so often it is good to give meat a miss so this wonderful vegan recipe should hit the spot. It isn’t too hot but it is packed full of flavour so I am sure you will enjoy.  Feel free to adjust the amount of spice to suit your taste.

Whilst there are a number of spices involved, they can be used with countless other recipes and will keep for ages so don’t be put off buying them. I like to create recipes whereby the main ingredients can be used time and time again to minimise waste.  Aside from the spices, the other ingredients are relatively cheap and this makes for a real budget friendly dish. If you’re not a fan of kale you can use spinach instead.

Ingredients

•  1 tbsp coconut oil
•  1 red onion, finely chopped (reserve a few slices to garnish)
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• Thumb sized piece of grated ginger
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tin coconut milk
• 1 tin drained chickpeas
• 100g red lentils
• 2 small chillies, thinly sliced (seeds removed)
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 3 tsp medium curry powder
• Small pack of coriander, finely chopped but keep leaves & stalks separate
• Two large handfuls of curly kale (remove any pieces of stalk)

Method

Heat the oil in a large frying pan.

Add the onions, spices, 1 chopped chilli, garlic, ginger and the coriander stalks and fry for around 5 minutes – add a splash of water if it gets dry.

Add the chickpeas and a pinch of salt and fry for another couple of minutes. 

Add the tomato purée, coconut milk, tinned tomatoes, lentils and curly kale and simmer for around 30-40 minutes. 

Garnish with the reserved red onion, chilli and chopped coriander and serve with boiled rice.

Mark’s Top Tip

Chop up any leftover herbs, store them in an ice cube tray, cover in water and freeze. If a recipe requires a small amount of a fresh herb, just pop them out of the tray when needed.

For more delicious, quick and cheap recipes check out Mark’s blog A Mouthful of Mark

Sarah’s Attempt

The spices were fantastic, however I dislike chickpeas and lentils so kind of set myself up to fail on this one! The prep was extremely easy and I had most of the spices from previous dishes that Mark has done. Ten minutes after starting, the cooking had started, tin can lids were falling in it and we were on our way (note to self: take the lids off the cans properly to avoid that happening). For me though – I’d have to swap out the chickpeas and lentils, however if you like them – you’ll will not be disappointed. My wife absolutely loved it and my home now smells amazing!! I think I agree with Mark’s score – much better than the 2/10 I got last week!