Sooooooo AMAZING!
Vegan butter lentils and potatoes were inspired by the traditional Indian dish butter chicken. Veganized and made so much easier. This hearty, healthy dish is definitely a keeper. Serve with some basmati rice and maybe some naan. This stuff is addictive. It would be hard to mess up, even if you have never cooked Indian food. I tried to make it as simple as possible!
Usually, Indian butter dishes are a little more time consuming. You cook whole spices and whole tomatoes and then puree them in a blender. However, to make this way easier, I used regular dry, crushed spices and tomato sauce. This makes this a faster, one pot meal. With way less to clean up. Which is usually my goal!
Vegan butter lentils and potatoes are so flavorful and fragrant. All of the spices with tomato and coconut milk, it is something I crave all the time. Healthy, all kinds of protein and super filling!
Just saute potatoes first, I used adorable itty bitty potatoes, with garlic and ginger. Then add lentils and saute. Then all you need to do is add all the spices, tomato sauce, veggie broth and coconut milk. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked through. That’s it! Soooo delicious! Serve over rice for a perfectly balanced gluten-free and of course plant based meal.
Vegan Butter Lentils and Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1/4 Cup + 1 Tablespoon Vegan butter, I used Earth Balance (divided)
- 2 Cups Potatoes, diced ( I used baby potatoes)
- 1 Cup Cooked brown lentils
- 6 Cloves Garlic, chopped
- 2 Teaspoons Fresh ginger, grated
- 2 Shallots, diced
- 1 Can(15oz.) Tomato sauce
- 1/2 Cup Vegetable broth
- 1/2 Cup Coconut milk
- Juice of 1 Lemon
- 2 Teaspoon Garam Masala
- 1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1/4 Teaspoon Cloves
- 1/4 Teaspoon Cardamom
- 1/2 Teaspoon Paprika
- 1/4 Teaspoon Turmeric
- 1/4 Teaspoon Red pepper flakes
- 1 Tablespoon Agave syrup
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot or skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of vegan butter on medium high. Then add the diced potatoes. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Saute the potatoes, reducing heat as needed until they are starting to brown and have softened a bit. About 5-7 minutes.
- Next, add the remaining 1/4 cup of vegan butter, the lentils, garlic, ginger and shallots. Saute for another minute or so until the shallots are translucent.
- Now, add the tomato sauce, vegetable broth, coconut milk, lemon juice, all the spices and the agave. Stir to combine.
- Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the potatoes are soft and cooked through. The sauce will get nice and thick.
- Taste the sauce and adjust seasonings. Serve immediately over basmati rice. I topped mine with chutney and parsley.
This looks amazing! My husband and I are looking forward to trying it tonight.
This looks wonderful, but I just have one question / clarification. When you refer to tomato sauce, do you mean a passata (pasta) type tomato sauce, or the type of sauce that is used as a condiment, i.e. here in Australia we would use it with fried foods, to dip French fries into, etc.?
Thanks
It is canned tomato sauce that is just pureed tomatoes with no other ingredients. Like you would use for pasta sauce.
Thanks for that clarification.
Do you mean coconut milk that you would drink or canned coconut milk?
The canned kind of coconut milk. I will make a note of that so it isn’t confusing!
Perfection. This is the third recipe of yours I’ve tried and all 3 have been amazing.thank you!
For this recipe, I added diced sweet potatoes and carrots to the mix. Next time I’ll add chickpeas too. The sauce was too thick for my taste, so I added more veg. Broth at the end. It was really great and still thick. I cooked in a tagine and Served with brown rice. I can guarantee that I’ll make this over and over…and over!
This is one my favorite things I’ve ever eaten. I’ve never had flavors like this before, so I was hesitant when I was preparing it, but omg! The flavors mend so well. This will definitely be put into the monthly rotation! Thank you 🙂
Looks amazing!! Do you think I could pull it off without the coconut milk (allergic)?
I think it need some creaminess. Do you use any other non dairy milks? You can use an alternative.
Hi Tesia. I don’t know if you’ll see this, but just in case you do, or if someone else is looking for the same answer, you can blend 2 to 2 1/2 cup of water (depending on how thick you want your “cream” to be) with 2/3 cup of oats and a pinch of salt. Add some imitation coconut baking extract, if you still want that flavor. Depending on whether, or not, you have a high speed blender, you may want to strain your oat cream to remove any remaining bits. Good luck!
This looks amazing! I plan on making it for dinner tonight! Just to be sure, should the lentils be cooked on their own beforehand? Or do they cook in the broth and coconut milk while the dish simmers?
I cook them beforehand and then add them. I like to cook a bunch of lentils and keep them on hand in the fridge to throw into recipes!
I am super lazy, and didn’t feel like cooking the lentils ahead of time. So I just added 1 cup water and 1/2 cup dried lentils. Worked great. I also just throw all of the ingredients in the instant pot. I’ve made it a few times this way and have been really happy with the results.
what are the instructions for the instant pot method
This is a pretty good dish. One I will refer to again and again. The only minus is the amount of Garam Masala. I replaced this with hot curry powder the third time I made this and it came out even better. Thank you.
This was DELICIOUS, thank you! I served it over basmati rice cooked with coconut milk and fresh ginger – so good.
I love the one pot recipes where you can clean everything up while the food is simmering on the stove – timing worked out perfectly too!
Awesome recipe. I’ve made it twice now, the first time I used too many lentils, and they weren’t cooked long enough. This time I used canned navy beans and it honestly was a fine substitution. With no hard preparation. I also only have jasmine rice at the house and that always goes well with it. Probably not the “perfect” version but everyone loved it! No leftovers! Thanks for the great recipe!
Omg….this was SPECTACULAR!!!
I haven’t tried this yet, but it looks delicious! I was wondering, I’m usually in a time crunch, could I avoid the butter and microwave the potatoes for a short time and let them finish on the skillet?
Can’t wait to try it, thanks!
Yes, I think that is a great idea!
I have made it 4 times now and love it.I do leave out the cardamon and chilli though So do our friends.I serve it with cuscus or rice.Delicious
We love this!!! It has quickly become a regular in our dinner rotation. Thank You!!!
I have made this dish maybe 10 times. It is literally one of my all-time favorite meals EVER. EVERY SINGLE PERSON who eats it raves about it. Thank you, thank you for coming up with this!!
Just made this and its great, but I just realised there is no nutritional info on it I’m on a calorie control diet ATM. Do you have this info?
Amazing,I have made it numerous times now and its delicious
i have made this so many times now and never get tired of it. love it
Hi can you use red lentils instead for this recipe?
Thanks
Sure! They should work well too!
This dish was absolutely amazing!! It was so good! I had everything on hand, except tomato sauce, so I used one can of Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes. It was delicious and very tasty. I will make this again. Thank you so much!
Made this last night, realized I didn’t have cardamom or cloves, so I used a 3rd tsp. of Garam Marsala. It came out so delicious! Next time I might add celery or green peas, just to get something green in there, but really lovely recipe overall.
A total knockout! I will never again miss Indian dishes with chicken.
This was delicious! I doubled the recipe due to the sizes of my cans of tomato sauce and coconut milk and used about 1.5# of potatoes and we’re so glad there will be enough for tomorrow’s dinner, too. I will likely add some quartered crimini mushrooms this time, but your recipe needs no adjusting to be a huge hit in our house! Thanks for a great and easy recipe!
what kind of chutney did you put on top?