Curry Sweet Potato Lentils

Things are really beginning to wind up here at the Grady-Taylor household. Will's trying to plow through his last presentations/papers for the semester, while I'm over here trying to put the finishing touches on our wedding. We knew this fall would be super busy and even though we had the foresight to recognize that little fact, it doesn't make it any easier! I don't know about Will, but speaking for myself, I feel completely unfocused about 95% of the time...even in yoga, which is when I'm supposed to be letting go. But once the wedding's over, I know things will calm down a little bit (read: a LOT) as we cruise through the spring semester, enjoying lazy weekends together and revving back up for spring racing season. Can I tell you how excited I am to have weekends to do things like take long runs, go to wineries/historic sites, and bake? Superduperexcited. I'm hoping for an onslaught of new recipes come spring.

But let's start with this one. It was supposed to be a crockpot recipe....oops! Let's just say Will and I thought we had coordinated when this would be started in the slow cooker and then about two hours to late, realized we had completely forgotten to get it going!  After a series of texts being shot back and forth on how to remedy our mistake, we ultimately reached the same conclusion which resulted in this dinner! You can find the original crockpot recipe here and I'm sure it's really delightful - we did pick it out to try for a reason. But this just goes to show that even when you may not make a recipe "correctly" it does not mean all hope is lost. If I could even figure out how to save this, then anybody can! What I think I liked most about this recipe was that the lentils and the sweet potatoes almost seemed to be battling for which ingredient was the "main" feature. Usually, in our lentil dishes, we allow the legume to be the feature ingredient, sustaining the protein and nutritional value of the meal. However, in this instance, it was a little more challenging to determine whether the sweet potato or the lentils were the main ingredient, since both provided so much sustenance and protein to the dinner. We'll just call them even (and delicious)!

Cooking Notes: I've adjusted the original recipe with all of Will's changes. Click below to find out what it was really supposed to be like. Consider ours the non-slow cooker version of Pinch of Yum's original.

Curry Sweet Potato Lentils (adapted from Pinch of Yum; serves 6-8)
2-3 large sweet potatoes, diced (about 6 cups)
3 cups vegetable broth
1 onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp garam masala
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups uncooked red lentils
1 can coconut milk
1 cup water

Zap the sweet potatoes on high in the microwave for 3-4 minutes, until they are mostly soft. Allow to cool slightly, then cut them up and toss them into the Dutch oven with the onion, garlic, and spices. Saute, then add veggie broth, cooking for an hour over medium to medium-low heat until veggies are soft. Cook lentils according to package directions while veggies were cooking. Mix lentils into Dutch oven veggie mixture, then stir in coconut milk and as much water as necessary to get the right consistency.

Recipe: Pinch of Yum: Crockpot Sweet Potato Lentils