Hearty, healthy and QUICK. This dish is the perfect weeknight meal. It comes together in about 20 minutes with mostly pantry ingredients. The sauce is a simple mix of red curry flavors and coconut milk. Feel free to mix up the vegetables– use squash instead of sweet potato, stir in fresh spinach for extra greens, etc. etc. Serve with jasmine rice, or don’t! But you definitely should…
Serves 4.
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 1 one-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
- 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
- salt
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce (you can omit this for a vegan dish)
- 1 (15 ounce) can full fat coconut milk
- 1 (15 ounce) can lentils, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup cubed sweet potato
- fresh cilantro for garnish
- lime wedges for serving (optional)
- jasmine rice for serving (optional)
Method
In a medium sauce pan, heat olive oil (about three turns of the pan) over medium heat. Sauté the garlic and ginger with a pinch of salt until soft and fragrant, about three minutes. Add the tomato paste and curry paste and cook an additional two minutes. Add the fish sauce and coconut milk and mix well. Put the cover on the pot and bring the mixture to a bubble. Then, add the lentils and the sweet potato. Return to a simmer, cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer 15 minutes until the sweet potato is fork tender. Taste and season with salt if needed. The curry paste and fish sauce are both very salty, so I don’t typically add anything. Garnish with fresh cilantro and top with a squeeze of lime if you like. Serve immediately.
