Coconut Red Lentils With Spinach, Cashews & Lime

This is really good served over brown or jasmine rice. If you don’t like rice, try serving it with chapti or naan bread (Costco sells both!)

This recipe is from ExtraVeganZa cookbook (Buy Here).

Ingredients:

  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons curry powder – I use my usual, Kashmiri favorite but you can use whatever you have
  • 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 cup red lentils, rinsed and sorted
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (to taste)
  • 1 (14 ounce) can light coconut milk
  • 1 lime, juice of
  • 1 3/4 cups water
  • 1/3 cup whole cashews
  • 1 cup fresh spinach, roughly chopped – I used 2 bundles of organic spinach since it wilts down so much and we love spinach!
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped (optional)

Directions:

  1. In a large pot saute the onion in the olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes. While the onion cooks get the rest of the ingredients ready to go.
  2. Add in the curry powder, mustard seeds, turmeric and red lentils – cook for another 5 minutes. Watch the lentils don’t stick by stirring frequently and/or adding more oil if necessary.
  3. Mix in the coconut milk, salt, lime juice and water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium low, cover the pot and let simmer for about 20-25 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Unlikely, but if you find the lentils have absorbed all of the liquid and are still not cooked, add a bit more water.
  4. Once the lentils are cooked they will break down quite a bit and you’ll have a reasonably thick dahl like consistency. Stir in the cashews and spinach, along with cilantro if using. Give those ingredients about 3 or 4 minutes to warm through and then you’re ready to serve. Garnish with additional cilantro, lime wedges and/or cashews. I added a bit of shredded coconut to the top of ours and it was good!

The BEST Green Smoothie

My CSA goodie box (from Abundant Organics) arrived this morning so I decided to make up a new green smoothie recipe. I threw this together and it turned out to be super delicious! Both my hubby and toddler slurped one down and asked for another, we may need to run to Sprouts for more greens!

I’ve been going back and forth from juicing to blending because I can’t decide which one I like better. A VitaMix blender really makes the difference when it comes to blending, most (if not all) other regular blenders don’t hold a candle to the VitaMix! Costco has the best price I’ve ever seen so if you’re looking to buy one, check it out!

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