Coconut Lentil Curry Meal Prep
Red lentils melt into the sauce, the sweet potato goes soft and sweet, and the whole pot costs less than one takeaway curry. It tastes better on day three than on day one, which is exactly what you want from a prep.
You need
- 1 large pot
- 1 saucepan for the rice
- 1 baking tray
- 1 wooden spoon
- 1 knife and board
- 4 meal prep boxes
Ingredients
For 4 servings
- 250 g (1 1/4 cups) red lentils, dry, rinsed
- 240 g (1 1/4 cups) basmati rice, dry
- 1 tin (400 ml) (14 fl oz) light coconut milk
- 1 tin (400 g) (14 oz) chopped tomatoes
- 1 large (about 400 g) (14 oz) sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2 cm cubes
- 150 g (5 oz) fresh spinach
- 500 ml (2 cups) vegetable stock
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, grated
- 20 g (a thumb) fresh ginger, grated
- 2 tbsp mild curry powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- 1 lime
- to taste salt, plus fresh coriander to serve
How to cook
Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and cook it by your usual method, then spread it on the baking tray to cool while the curry cooks.
Spread thin, rice cools in about 15 minutes instead of an hour in the pot, and cooling it fast is what makes rice safe to keep.
Warm the oil in the large pot over medium heat and soften the onion for 6 minutes, until translucent and just golden at the edges.
Add the garlic, ginger, curry powder, cumin and turmeric and stir for 1 minute.
Frying the spices in oil before any liquid goes in turns curry powder from dusty to deep. You will smell the moment it changes.
Add the sweet potato, lentils, tomatoes, coconut milk and stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, until the lentils have collapsed and a knife slides through the sweet potato.
Stir from the bottom every few minutes. Red lentils sink and catch on the base once the curry thickens.
Stir in the spinach until it wilts, then squeeze in the lime and season with salt.
Taste after the lime. If it still tastes flat, it needs salt, not more spice.
Let the curry cool for no longer than 2 hours, then divide the rice and curry between the 4 boxes and refrigerate.
Keeps 4 days in the fridge and freezes for up to 2 months; thaw frozen boxes overnight in the fridge. The curry thickens as it sits, so add a splash of water and microwave, stirring halfway, until steaming hot all the way through. Reheat the rice only once.
Why it fits a maintain goal
- 25g protein per box with no meat at all. The lentils bring most of it, at a fraction of the price of chicken.
- A full plate of curry and rice that fits a maintenance day and keeps you full for hours.
- Light coconut milk gives the same creamy body for about a third of the fat of a full fat tin.
- Want this in a prep? Pann plans a week of meal prep around recipes like this: one cooking session, and a box for every meal with its day and how long it keeps.
Cooking guides
Pann plans meal prep around the days you pick: one cooking session, a box for every meal with its day and how long it keeps, and the shopping list. Free for 7 days.
