Smooth Coconut Lentil Curry

Curry is one of the most popular dishes in India and, personally, one of my favorite dishes. Curry in India has been traced all the way back to around 2000 BC, had slowly made it’s way to England in the 17th century, and after was brought over to America by curry loving English people.

The easiest way to tell the difference between northern, eastern and Southern Indian curry is that the North tends to serve theirs with unleavened bread, the East with rice, and the south with millet. Out of the three I prefer the Eastern’s way though, Eastern India normally does theirs with a very heavy amount of spices, a variety of vegetables, lentil or meat, really that depends on the region its made in, and normally water based with milk or coconut milk to give it the smooth, creamy texture that I really think gives it the personal touch.

Spices reminds me, I LOVE the smell the spices leave throughout the house when the oil is thrown in then the spices to release there smell, don’t tell anyone but I’ll even sometimes purposefully try and find something to do near the cooking spices well I’m waiting to add in the rest of the ingredients just to be able to breath in those aromas.

Now, unto the ingredients for your curry, I prefer coconut oil over olive oil, but, I ran out of my Nutiva Organic Virgin Coconut Oil yesterday sadly enough and had to use a replacement.

One mistake I had made while making the curry, is that I didn’t mince the ginger well enough, so, I would highly recommend mincing it into smaller pieces than what’s above. You might be wondering, “where is the spinach in the image?” heh heh well, the spinach was a spontaneous choice when the dish was almost done, that happens more than I’d like to admit, but hey, I think it came out better with the spinach, taste and color wise than the dull color of the orange in the curry and the quinoa.

Now, in recipes you may notice large containers of different items and that’s because large families calls for everything to be multiplied and supersized when it comes to food!

If the curry seems really liquidy like in the image above after you add the lentils and water, no worries, the lentils will absorb the water after the time period and most of it will vaporize

This will be about how it looks after the 40 minute time.

*Also, forgot to mention, the images are what the recipe would look like multiplied by three*

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons Coconut oil (Alternatively, Olive oil can be used)
• 1 1/4 Tablespoon ground Cumin
• 1 Tablespoon ground Coriander
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
• 1 Tablespoon Turmeric
• 1 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 2 Teaspoons Salt (we use pink Himalayan salt because of the health benefits)
• 1 cup dried lentils
• 3 cups water
• Optional: 1-2 teaspoon cayenne powder
• 1 – 15 ounce can coconut milk
• 2 cups spinach

Directions:

1. Heat the coconut oil in a large pot or skillet over medium to high heat. Next add the cumin and coriander to the pot, stir for about 45 seconds. Then add the garlic, ginger and turmeric to the pot and let garlic brown, about 2 minutes.
2. Add canned tomatoes and salt to pot, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add lentils, if using cayenne, and 3 cups of water, bring to a boil, reduce to low heat, and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until lentils are soft.
3. While pot is simmering, put quinoa and 2 cups of water into separate put on high heat until reaching rolling boil, lower heat, place lid on pot, and let simmer for 15 minutes, or until quinoa has absorbed liquid. Remove from heat.
4. Once lentils are soft, add coconut milk and bring pot to a simmer, remove from heat, add spinach to pot. stir then serve!

Benefits of ginger

• Helps prevent Strokes and heart disease

  Ginger has an anti-blood-clotting component thus helps prevent them from happening

• Diabetes

  Ginger can also helps enhance insulin sensitivity, and studies have also shown that it lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol.

  Read more about ginger benefits at Ginger’s Many Evidence-Based Health Benefits Revealed written by Dr. mercola