A delicious and comforting spicy lentil curry. It’s perfect for the cold, dark and wet winter months. Packed full of nutrients, this kill a cold lentil curry can help ward off or alleviate the symptoms of colds and flu.
CT has a cold and I can feel a sore throat coming. In a bid to alleviate CT’s symptoms and stop myself from developing the cold, I’m turning to my all time favourite comfort food, dhal. In this instance it’s made with split red lentils, but pretty much any pulse will do. So for National Curry Week, I give you this Kill a Cold Lentil Curry with Kale & Red Peppers. Whether it will stop a cold in its tracks remains to be seen, but it’s a killer for flavour and full on satisfaction.
Dhal or Dal if you Prefer
Lentil curry is such a versatile dish. I make it a lot and it’s different each time. Fry the onions and spices first, then add the lentils and cook. Cook the lentils first then add the fried onions at the end. Throw in your favourite spices. Use coconut milk or not. You can also include whichever vegetables you have to hand or just cook it plain.
One of the most memorable lentil dhals I ever had was back in my student days. I was an active member of the local Friends of the Earth group and some of us used to meet at a lovely Indian gentleman’s house. Back in the day, he had accompanied Satish Kumar on part of his 8,000 mile Peace Walk around India and then on to Moscow, Paris, London and Washington in a bid to rid the world of nuclear weapons. He always cooked us a lentil curry and chucked in what ever vegetables happened to be in season, including Brussels sprouts. It was always delicious.
My mother has been a big curry fan ever since her student days in Edinburgh. When I was young, it was always lentil curry with plenty of garlic she turned to at the slightest sign of a sniffle. I loved it then and love it now.
Kill a Cold Lentil Curry
For this kill a cold lentil curry, I’ve included lots of garlic, ginger, chilli and turmeric, all of which strengthen the immune system. Nutrient rich kale and red peppers can only make things better. I served the dhal with brown basmati rice and some yoghurt. Everything was organic for additional nutrition and mineral content. Two of the ingredients we grew ourselves. Our gardening endeavours this year have been highly unsuccessful. Pretty much everything we planted has been eaten by wildlife of one sort or another. Our garlic crop, which we’ve kept going for over ten years now was thankfully untouched. Another stalwart is our tree kale, but any kale would be good.
National Curry Week
As well as this being National Curry Week, it’s also National Rice Week and International Year of Pulses. So my lentil curry served with brown basmati rice hits all three. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s also National Chocolate Week and you’ll find my post to celebrate this event coming very soon.
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this kill a cold lentil curry, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or via social media. Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them. For more delicious and nutritious recipes, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.
If you like my lentil curry recipe, why not pin it for later?
Other Recipes for Vegan Curries You Might Like
- Aubergine, mushroom & sweet potato massaman curry via Planet Veggie
- Cauliflower rice & jerk sweet potatoes in coconut via Tin & Thyme
- Easy baked bean curry via Thinly Spread
- Green split pea curry via Tin and Thyme
- Pumpkin Thai red curry via Recipes from a Pantry
- Thai green curry via Tin & Thyme
Kill a Cold Lentil Curry – The Recipe
Kill a Cold Lentil Curry or Dhal
Ingredients
- 8 oz red split lentils - soaked in water if possible
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 large cloves garlic - peeled and finely chopped
- 1 3 cm sq lump of root ginger - peeled and finely chopped
- 1 red chilli - deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp curry powder (I used Steenburg's)
- ½-1 tsp sea salt according to taste
- a good grinding of black pepper
- 1 400 g tin coconut milk
- 1 red pepper - desseeded and roughly chopped
- handful of kale - washed and roughly chopped.
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 large onion - peeled and finely sliced
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp nigella seeds (also known as kalonji) or black mustard seeds
Instructions
- Rinse the lentils well. Place in a large pan with the bay leaf and just cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are soft and have collapsed.
- After ten minutes add the garlic, spices, salt, pepper and vegetables. You may need to add a little more water at this stage if the lentils are looking dry. Stir and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk and simmer for a further few minutes until everything is cooked to perfection.
- Meanwhile fry the onions gently in the coconut oil for 15 minutes or so until they have caramelised.
- Add the cumin and kalonji seeds after the first 5 minutes and stir from time to time.
- Just before serving, stir half of the onions into the dhal, then scatter the rest over the top.
Notes
Linkies
I’m sending my kill a cold lentil curry to Jac at Tinned Tomatoes for Meat Free Mondays. And, as I made enough for two nights running, I’m also sending my dhal to Corina at Searching for Spice for Cook Once Eat Twice.
This dish looks so delicious and is full of goodness, which for me is an ideal combination when it comes to food:)
I’m with you there Monika, there’s nothing quite like good food cooked well. Thank you 🙂
Oh wow this curry looks and sounds amazing! This is going on my to try list! x #cookonceeattwice
Thanks Kirsty, it’s one of my go to dishes 🙂
Most definitely the perfect comfort food and even if it doesn’t cure the cold, it will certainly make you feel loved!
I can confirm Jacqueline’s tip about zinc above. I usually take it through the winter and it definitely cuts down the number of infections….. Unfortunately this year I managed to have the most hideous flu-type bug which lasted the best part of the month and started in September (before the time when I usually hit the zinc)! x
Ah that’s interesting Kate. Maybe I should get CT onto the Zinc. He’s the one that tends to suffer more than me. I’ve managed to avoid the cold, but CT has had his for nearly 2 weeks ago. However, he’s not suffering with it nearly as badly as he often does. We’ve upped our intake of turmeric and other spices a lot in the last few weeks. Sorry to hear you had nearly a month of it. We were both completely knocked out with flue a couple of years ago and it lasted a month – horrible.
I love dal, we eat it a lot. This is quite similar to my spinach and coconut dal but I use cumin, ginger and coriander instead of curry powder. I love all your toppings. Hope it worked. My tip, try taking zinc tablets every day. It builds your immune system. It’s a good top up.
Dhal is such a brilliant vegetarian standby with the added bonus of it being vegan too. Thanks of the zinc tip. i’m not too keen on taking tablets, but will research what I can eat to get more zinc into our diets.
I’m sorry CT isn’t feel well, I too am on the brink, I can just tell! This curry would be a perfect cure. I love Dhal. I love the way it’s heady aroma hits you in the back of the throat. I need some of this now… right, off to the shops!
Make some quick Dom. CT’s cold didn’t hit him nearly as bad as it often does and I have managed to stave it off – so far! Lots of finger crossing going on.
I love lentil curry! I first made it from a red lentil curry recipe in Food 52’s “Genius Recipes” cookbook. Looks like it would certainly take out a cold.
It’s amazing stuff Katie. Crossing fingers, but it looks as though it might have worked.
Love the ingredients in this curry and perfect for autumn going into winter. Crossing fingers I don’t catch a cold any time soon!
Indeed not Camilla, colds are horrid things and flu a lot worse. Crossing fingers, but this seems to have worked.
Love the name of this. I used to make a ‘cure a cold soup’ so I shall have to try this curry too!
Ooh, what was in your cure a cold soup Charlie?
That certainly should warm you up and hopefully keep the cold away!
Thanks Janice – feeling OK so far *searches desperately for some wood*.
It looks incredible! I love lentils, especially now it’s getting colder, they’re so filling and warming. Yum.
Thanks Helen. Lentils are just brilliant and they make for a nice cheap meal too.
This looks like the perfect curry for when you’re feeling a little under the weather and it’s making me hungry for my own vegetable curry tonight which is sitting in the slow cooker as I write! I do love all the colours in this one too. Thank you so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice!
Thanks Corina. Great minds and all that or maybe it’s just the curry season 🙂
Warming, comforting and delicious! I love this lentil curry.
Thank you Angie. Thankfully, so did I as we had it two evenings on the trot.
YUM! Love a good lentil curry, and this one certainly does look like a good one 🙂 Eb x
Thanks Eb. I can’t resist lentil curry!
A good, spicy, warm you to the bones curry is very hard to beat and I too always turn to dahl when someone is under the weather! Thanks so much for linking to my baked bean curry – your student stories made me smile, baked bean curry was the first thing H cooked for me when we were students!
Oh, I can see the attachment to baked bean curry now. Although it sounds very good in its own right. Dahl is an excellent story teller, so a great writer to turn to when feeling ill 😉
I always eat spicy food when I’ve got a cold – I’m a firm believer that it cures it. Although, my main go-to is a chilli pizza with a can of Coke, so possibly a tad unhealthier than your curry 😉
Thanks Cathy, you’ve really made me giggle. Just what I need at the moment.