Lentil Veggie Curry Recipe

rpyle111

One of my lunch staples is a lentil veggie curry. I make a big batch that gives me about 25-30 lunch servings (200g or about 1/2 cup for 150ish calories). It’s a pretty loose recipe but I have standardized it a bit. It also really helps me maintain regularity so i make an effort to have it at least every other day.

450g dry lentils (about half of a large bag)
chicken stock (or any other stock)
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
diced garlic
1 hot pepper (your choice or omit)
1 medium to large onion
8 oz mushrooms
1 medium eggplant (about 1.5 pounds)
1 small can diced or petite diced tomatoes
1 large can All in One Tomatoes (chopped tomatoes in puree)
3-4 Tbsp garam masala (curry spice mix)


Start a small saucepan going with the lentils and the stock. I put in enough stock to cover the lentils and then add more stock as they cook to keep them just covered. A slow simmer is fine as they will finish cooking in the baking dish. Feel free to add more spices, but they will be added to a spicy veggie mixture, so don’t overdo it.

Prepare veggies. I use a fine dice on the garlic and hot peppers, a medium dice on the onion and I use the small french fry setting on my mandolin for the eggplant. Gives different sized bites for good texture in the final dish to have different sizes.

Sautee garlic, onions and pepper in olive oil. I add about half of the garam masala here and it makes the kitchen smell wonderful!

When the veggies are translucent, add the mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes until they get a little color and give up their juices.

Add eggplant (largest volume addition) and cook for another 5 minutes or so. The previous mixture will coat the eggplant, but you need to keep moving things around or the eggplant will scorch.

Add tomatoes and simmer for a short while.

Add contents of lentil pan, including stock. This will make a soupy mix, which is OK, as it will tighten some as it bakes. Check for desired spiciness and add remaining garam masala and any other spices (including salt) to hit desired spice level. I like mine spicy!

Using hand blender, puree about 25% of the mixture. Alternatively, take about 25% and blend into puree in a blender and return to cooking vessel.

Move to large baking dish and bake for 20-30 minutes or until desired consistency. This bakes out the excess stock and allow eggplant to fully cook and get yummy!

Cool and store in a large tupperware (or two). I weigh the mixture as I put into tupperware to see how many servings I end up with for use with MFP recipe maker. It general comes out to about 75 calories per 100g. Then I measure out my lunch servings (I usually serve about 200g for lunch) and add a little meat to the lunch serving. Reheat at lunch and enjoy!

Rob

janet0513

I've been seeing this on your diary and was going to ask. Thanks for the recipe.

homerismyhero

Thanks for sharing! I think a good soup recipe is essential- saves money because it makes packing easy for the week, usualy it's something that has a lot of beans or veg in it and is good for your whole body- and an easy way to keep low cal and high protien. My "go to" is a simelar version of lentil soup or a collard green soup I eat almost daily.

garber6th

Looks great, Rob! Does the MFP recipe maker say how much protein is in each serving?

rpyle111

My latest batch was (for a 100g serving):

78 calories
1.3g fat
12.4g carbohydrates
5.5g fiber
1.6g sugars
4.7g protein

My recipe made 30 100g servings.

So it is not the best for protein density, but when I add a boca burger or a hunk of brisket for lunch it comes out nice for lunch.

Rob

Living4me123

Thank you for sharing the recipe. I will def. try..I love lentils and curry! I also have to check out the MFP recipe builder!

weeziebeth

This looks amazing Rob. I'm thinking a poached egg on top would be delicious. Thanks for sharing.

wilrhy

Thanks Rob!

rpyle111

weeziebeth wrote: »

This looks amazing Rob. I'm thinking a poached egg on top would be delicious. Thanks for sharing.

Wow, you nailed it! That sounds wonderful. So far, I've taken it at lunch with 1) leftover bacon, 2) Boca fake chicken pattie, 3) leftover smoked brisket. Poached egg sounds delightful!

juliebccs

This is very similar to one of the recipes on my original nutritionist list. I had my surgery in India so they all had some form of dahl and vegetables etc. My diet chart did not have meat in it. But I am just not a vegetarian, so I haven't looked at it in ages. But seeing your recipe here has made me think about some of the great recipes I used early on. They really were lovely. So time to re familiarise myself with them I think. Thanks for sharing Rob.

juliebccs

Rob how much stock do you add to this recipe and is it generic stock or something light? It is harder here in Oz to get some of the lighter versions of products you guys seem to get in the US. Thanks

rpyle111

juliebccs wrote: »

Rob how much stock do you add to this recipe and is it generic stock or something light? It is harder here in Oz to get some of the lighter versions of products you guys seem to get in the US. Thanks

I usually try to buy reduced sodium stock, and I have some concentrated stuff that I use as well. I don't think it really matters what liquid is used (wine would probably do the job well), but the key for me was to use as little as possible to keep the lentils covered and that turned into a proper mixture for the end product. If it ends up too soupy, I would probably bake it longer to try and reduce the liquid content.

One of the hard things I find with sharing recipes is that i feel the need to get across what I am looking for because I am not a measure and mix cook, I play and try to remember what I did when it works out!

Rob