If I could only cook one dish for a vegan skeptic…

the question i'm asked most frequently is i'm vegan but my family's not and they don't like what i cook what can i make them that will get them excited about vegan food so when i hear that question my first thought is but have you tried my taco bell crunchwrap supreme because it's so good but then i remember that there are a few steps involved it's not exactly something you're going to whip up every weeknight so it's more of a special occasion treat so that my second thought is you really need to try my red lentil curry this recipe is perfect not only for vegans but also vegan skeptics and anyone trying to eat more plant-based food and here's why first this recipe is weeknight friendly from start to finish with prep time involved it's 45 minutes or less so it's definitely something you can whip up on a weeknight this curry is something you can make ahead of time the flavors actually get better the next day it freezes well and it's great for meal prep this curry is also really easy to make no special skills involved you can be a beginner cook and still make it and it's made with mostly pantry ingredients this curry is well balanced we've got healthy fats protein and complex carbs so nobody's gonna go hungry or feel unsatisfied and finally this red lentil curry is forking delicious i have introduced it to so many people including vegan skeptics who now say it's part of their regular rotation because it's so easy yet so flavorful [Music] to start we'll prep our aromatics we've got garlic which i'm going to mince up green chili peppers i've got serrano peppers and ginger garlic ginger and green chili peppers are kind of the holy trinity of indian cooking when you saute them in oil they form the base of so many indian dishes i guess it should actually be a holy quartet because onions are often involved but we don't really need onions in this recipe it's actually a fraternity a what a quaternity not a quartet yeah i don't think so i've never used the word quaternity is not a word we're not using it it's one more than infinity and one less than quantity okay we're done here and i'm grating the ginger with a microplane which is one of my favorite kitchen tools if you don't have one you can use a grater as well oh oh oh we also need one or two serrano peppers that will dice up i leave the seeds in because we love spicy food but if you're a little sensitive to spicy food or you have baby mouth which is what max calls people who can't eat spicy food if you have baby mouth take the seeds out before you go if you're wondering what lovely kitchen i'm in today this is my parents house we moved to california a couple weeks ago still looking for our own place but in the meantime my parents kittens pretty great one of the ingredients in this curry like many indian curries is turmeric if you can find fresh turmeric it's really lovely in this recipe it looks like ginger but it's got an orange skin you can find it at south asian grocery stores and some other bougie grocery stores as well totally fine if you can't find it because ground turmeric also works we need a variety of ground spices for this curry cumin coriander curry powder turmeric garam masala and indian red chili pepper this is a weeknight curry as i mentioned so we're not going to use whole spices in addition to ground spices which is what i often do with indian recipes so we're keeping it simple today but don't worry there's lots of flavor in these spices i've got one cup of red lentils here and i'm going to rinse them until the water runs clear these are regular red lentils but you can also use split red lentils those ones cook a little bit quicker but they both work really well all of our prep is done so now we're going to go to the stove and start cooking our curry the first thing you want to do for this recipe is heat a large deep saucepan with a little bit of coconut oil or any neutral cooking oil of your choice once the oil is hot we'll add the garlic ginger and green chili peppers now we're going to add all of those ground spices along with salt and pepper and we'll cook that for just a minute until everything smells really delicious you want to give the spices a little time to bloom and that's going to add more flavor into your food instead of just adding the spices with the liquid ground spices can burn pretty quickly though so if you need to turn down the heat and as soon as they're really fragrant go ahead and add in your liquid which is our vegetable broth this is a really new pan so nothing is sticking but if you have some brown bits stuck to the bottom of your pan just pour in the vegetable broth and stir with a spatula until you get those loosened we'll also add those washed red lentils and we'll add one 14 ounce can of crushed tomatoes stir everything together and then we'll lower the heat cover the pan and let the lentils simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until they're al dente and then we'll add in a couple more ingredients the lentils have been simmering for 25 minutes they are al dente but cooked through and now i'm going to stir in two ingredients to make this really creamy and indulgent first up i have some full fat coconut milk in a can this is what's going to help balance those spices so please do not skip this because the curry will be a little too spicy and tangy if you don't add the coconut milk the coconut milk really helps balance all of the flavors and brings a nice rich texture and the second ingredient which is a little less traditional in a curry is almond butter it's so rich adds a slight nuttiness and just gives a little extra indulgence to this curry and then we'll cook the curry on low or medium low uncovered for five to seven minutes until it's a little bit thicker i'm also going to add a little bit of salt and pepper at this stage the curry is almost done and it smells so good like the most aromatic indian food the whole house smells like curry i used to get those jokes a lot in grade school like your house smells like curry gross and i was like well it doesn't smell like dry meatloaf which is worse just kidding i probably didn't say that because i wasn't that funny of a kid and so i'm just chopping up some fresh cilantro i've got some lemon juice we'll finish the curry with that this curry is ready it smells so good and i wouldn't be a good indian if i didn't tell you to serve it with some white basmati rice i've also got some vegan naan here you could also do roti or paratha now it's time for me to try it whether you're vegan vegan skeptic or just looking to eat more plants you're going to absolutely love this curry super easy and quick to make it's creamy it's rich it's indulgent i know how challenging it can be to whip up flavorful meals on a weeknight so i put a short playlist together for you it's right here

Channel: Rainbow Plant Life

Views: 2,024,251

Keywords: red lentil curry vegan, vegan red lentil curry, red lentil curry, vegan indian food, vegan indian curry, vegan lentil curry, vegan curry recipe, weeknight dinner ideas, vegan weeknight dinners, vegan weeknight dinners easy, easy vegan meals, easy vegan recipes, easy vegan dinners, indian recipes for dinner, indian recipes for beginners, easy indian recipes, easy indian dinner recipes, vegan indian recipes, lentil curry vegan, lentil curry with coconut milk, vegan curry

Id: BHRyfEbhFFU

Length: 6min 25sec (385 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 26 2020