Thai Red Curry with Lentils and Eggplant

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Thai-Style Red Curry recipe with a vegan twist! It’s healthy, naturally gluten-free, ready in 30 minutes, and 100% delicious!

This is not your everyday curry.

This Thai-style Red Curry will please both Thai food lovers and ‘non-lovers’ (for lack of a better word) because it’s hearty, creamy, and not spicy at all.

If you’re like me, every time you think of Thai food you are prepared to cry at every bite, this recipe if for you! If you want to make it spicy though – go right ahead, make this recipe yours!

You will need 10 ingredients for this recipe and 30 minutes. The main ingredients are lentils and eggplants. A combo you don’t hear of too often.

Why lentils? They add richness and protein to our curry. I went with green lentils because they do not get mushy when cooked. All other lentils disintegrate when cooked! (maybe I’m doing it all wrong 😉)

Why eggplant? It adds a meaty texture to our dish. It’s my way of veganizing a popular meat-heavy recipe.

I love how the combination of lentils and eggplants came out in this recipe. Lentils absorbed all the Thai flavors from the liquid as they cooked. Grilled eggplants complimented the richness of lentils and added a vegetable component to our dish.

As the first step, you will have to brown eggplant for about 5 minutes and set it aside. Keep in mind that eggplant LOVES moisture. It will soak up a tablespoon of olive in under one second! Unless you’d like to keep adding more olive oil, I recommend adding water, a little a time. This will help eggplant cook without getting stuck to the bottom of your pot.

The second step will be to quickly cook the Thai Red Curry Paste for 30 seconds. You can find it in most grocery stores. You only need one tablespoon of this because we aren’t making it too spicy. Just want the flavor to come through.

Then we will add all the liquid ingredients. Love the combo of coconut milk and vegetable broth. You simply can’t make a Thai curry without coconut milk! It will make our dish creamy and add a nice coconut taste.

I also recommend not substituting water for the vegetable broth because you won’t achieve a rich flavor profile. You can always make it at home in about an hour – check out my fave Vegetable Broth recipe.

The last ingredient which we will add once we’re done cooking is basil. Traditionally, you should use Thai basil to this recipe, but I couldn’t find any at my local grocery store. I don’t think a lot of places sell it. So regular good ol’ Italian basil it is.

Basil adds bold and fresh flavor to our curry making it complete. The perfect finishing touch. Yums!

Okay, you ready? Grab your cooking gear and let’s get cooking!

Print

Thai Red Curry with Lentils and Eggplant

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

25 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

Thai-Style Red Curry recipe with a vegan twist! It’s healthy, naturally gluten-free, ready in 30 minutes, and 100% delicious!

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Thai

Servings: 6 servings (1 cup per serving)

Calories: 317 kcal

Author: Simple Fit Vegan

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large eggplant, cut into small square pieces
• 1 tbsp red curry paste
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar or coconut sugar
• 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 cup green lentils
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized pot, heat 1 tbsp of oil, add eggplant and cook for 5 minutes until browned. Transfer to a bowl. 

   Note: eggplant absorbs a lot of liquid, if 1 tbsp of oil is not enough, add 1 tbsp of water at a time to prevent the eggplant from sticking and burning.

2. In the same pot, heat 1 tbsp of remaining oil and add curry paste and cook for 30 seconds stirring continuously. Whisk in coconut milk, soy sauce, and sugar.
3. Whisk cornstarch with vegetable broth in a separate bowl and then add to the pot. Add salt and pepper.
4. Add lentils and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

5. Add eggplant and simmer for another 5-10 minutes, until lentils and eggplants are fully cooked. 

6. Stir in basil and turn off the heat.

7. Store in air-tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
8. Serve with brown rice, farro, or quinoa.

Recipe Notes

Nutrition Information: Calories: 317 Fat: 18.2 g Saturated fat: 12 g Carbohydrates: 29.5 g Dietary Fiber: 12.5 g Sugar: 5.5 g Sodium: 483 mg Protein: 11.6 g

My brand new cookbook is out on Amazon! It’s called “30-Minute Plant-Based Recipes” and it’s perfect for busy vegans. Grab it now!