Red Lentil and Spinach Dahl
This Red Lentil and Spinach Dahl recipe is a delicious vegetarian option for a meatless Monday dinner. Pair it up with brown rice or a pan of roasted vegetables.
Some food looks great in photos and others … well, not so much.
However, I’ve decided that this blog is not just about looks. It’s about taste, real food, healthy ingredients etc. I won’t not post something just because the camera may not love it.
This is the case with this Red Lentil & Spinach Dahl. It won’t win any Miss Photogenic contests any time soon but it has Miss Congeniality wrapped up!
Spicy and packed with flavour, this healthy vegetarian dish will please your palate and keep you full for hours. If you wanted to add some more protein to it besides the lentils, I’m sure some chicken stewed in with this would also be very good.
I do like to keep it meatless for a couple of meals a week so I’m keeping this one vegetarian. It’s also very vegan friendly, if you are so inclined, as you can easily sub out the butter for Earth Balance or just use more olive oil.
RED LENTIL & SPINACH DAHL
Start with rinsing the red lentils, them soaking them for about 20 minutes.
I love the colour of the red lentil. 🙂
It would make a great nail polish hue!
In the meantime chop up a medium sized onion.
In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil and add the red lentils, turmeric and chili powder and let simmer.
Meanwhile, chiffonade 4 cups of spinach. Chiffonade is a fancy chef’s term for slicing greens into strips. I like fancy chef talk.
Add the spinach to the lentils, stir well and leave to simmer.
Melt some vegan butter and olive oil in a small pot and add the onion along with curry powder, ginger, ground mustard, cumin and sea salt and pepper.
Cook the onion until it’s softened. About 5 minutes.
Pour the onions into the lentils, stir well.
Pour in the coconut milk and cook until heated through.
Keep in mind that I really like the spice so you may have to scale the flavour to suit your own taste buds.
Serve this over brown rice.
HOW TO COOK BROWN RICE
I use this stovetop method –> How To Cook Brown Rice
Or I cook it in my Instant Pot –> Instant Pot Brown Rice
MORE HEALTHY VEGAN DINNER RECIPES:
Lentil Marinara with Spaghetti Squash
*Originally posted May 31, 2013. February 4, 2019*
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Red Lentil & Spinach Dahl
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups red lentils
- 3 1/2 cups water
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 4 cups spinach cut into strips
- 2 tbsp Earth Balance or butter if vegetarian
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp ground mustard
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
Instructions
- Rinse lentils and soak for 20 minutes
- In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil. Add in lentils, turmeric, and chili powder
- Stir well and return to a boil
- Cover and reduce heat to low. Let simmer for 15 minutes
- Add spinach to lentils, stir, and leave over low heat
- In a small saucepan, melt vegan butter with olive oil and add in onions and remaining spices
- Cook onions until softened, about 5 minutes
- Stir onions into lentils and pour in coconut milk
- Cook until heated through and serve over brown rice
Yum, yum, yum, yum , yummmmm. So warming on a cold winter day
Absolutely! Yum x 10 🙂
what can i substitute for coconut milk? and I don’t like chili powder..do i just leave it out or is there a substitute for that as well?
You could try subbing almond milk or try regular milk or cream. As far as the chili powder leaving it out is no big deal. Maybe add a little more ground pepper instead.
Oh, this looks good. I’m curious, how do you chiffonade your spinach? It seems like it would be so time consuming, do you have any tips?
I stack the spinach leaves on top of each other, lining them up as close as I can, making a pile around 2 inches high , then slice whole the pile into strips. It can be done pretty quickly:)