This creamy Black Lentil Curry recipe is inspired by the popular Indian Dal Makhani but made vegan with coconut milk, beluga lentils, and healthy veggies. It is loaded with flavorful spices and has a wonderful thick texture, making it to one of the best curry dishes you ever had!
Creamy Vegan Black Lentil Curry
When I‘m in the mood for comfort food, a deliciously creamy nourishing curry is always perfect! I really love my yellow lentil soup and my Indian red lentil dal from my cookbook “Vegan Foodporn” so today I wanted to share another curry made with black lentils.
Black Lentils (Urad Dal, Beluga Lentils)
Black lentils are also called “beluga lentils” here in Germany but in some countries, they’re also known as “urad dal”. They’re slightly different than the red, brown, yellow or green lentils you may already tired but they’re really amazing! What I love about them is that they don’t fall apart or turn into mush like other lentils when you cook them longer. Furthermore, they have a rich, deep and earthy flavor so they’re perfect for savory curries!
Where can I buy them?
Black lentils can be found in almost any supermarkets, Indian stores or be easily ordered online (click here).
Vegan Indian Dal Makhani
This vegan curry recipe is actually inspired by the flavorful Dal Makhani which is a very popular dish from north India. While the traditional Dal Makhani is made with rich butter and cream, I made mine healthier by using only vegan plant-based ingredients.
For the butter, I used coconut oil and for the cream, I used coconut milk. Also, I’ve added healthy vegetables, such as strained tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and spinach for more vitamins! So this vegan black lentil curry is not only dairy-free and lighter than the original but also as delicious!
How to make Black Lentil Curry
Making this lentil dal curry recipe is super quick and easy! Start to heat the coconut oil or another plant-based oil you like. Add chopped onions, garlic, ginger and carrots and sauté until slightly browned. Next, add the spicy curry paste and black lentils and sauté for another 1-2 minutes to unfold flavors.
Pour in vegetable broth, strained tomatoes (or passata) and coconut milk and simmer for about 20-25 minutes. Then, add sweet potatoes or other vegetables of choice, such as pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower or whatever veggies you have on hand. Cook for another 15 minutes, or until the curry is thick and creamy and the veggies are tender.
I also like to add some fresh spinach in the end, however, this is just optional. Feel free to garnish your vegan black lentil curry with chopped parsley or coriander, sesame seeds and a swirl of dairy-free yogurt. For a fresh flavor, I suggest drizzling a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon juice over your dal.
This Indian Black Lentil Dal is:
- Vegan (Meat-free, dairy-free)
- Gluten-Free
- Easy to make
- Flavorful
- Savory
- Rich & Creamy
- Healthy
- Protein-rich
- Delicious
- Perfect for lunch, dinner, meal prep or as a side dish!
What can you eat with Dal?
I usually serve curry and dal dishes over rice, mashed potatoes or with vegan naan bread. However, this creamy curry can be also used as filling for quesadillas, burrito samosas, tortilla wraps or savory scallion pancakes. Of course, you can also serve the curry on its own like a thick, spicy, flavorful soup or stew if you prefer.
Looking for more vegan lentil or curry recipes? If so, make sure to check out the following:
- Lentil Meatballs in Indian Curry Sauce
- Vegan Lentil Zucchini Lasagna
- Sweet Potato Lentil Fritters
- Vegan Lentil Bolognese
- Cauliflower Tikka Masala
If you do try this Vegan Indian Black Lentil Curry Recipe, please leave me a comment below sharing how you liked it! And if you take a photo of your creamy Lentil Dal and share it on Instagram, please tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka because I love seeing your remakes! Happy cooking!
Black Lentil Curry (Vegan Indian Dal)
Author:Ingredients
For the Curry
- 1 tbsp coconut oil for frying
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp ginger minced
- 2 small carrots cut into slices or cubes
- 1 ½ tbsp curry paste or curry powder or spice mix (*see notes)
- 1 ½ cups (300 g) beluga lentils
- 1 14 oz can (400 ml) strained tomatoes
- 1 14 oz can (400 ml) coconut milk
- 2 ⅓ cup (560 ml) vegetable broth
- 1 sweet potato cut into cubes
- 2 cups (60 g) fresh baby spinach
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp lime juice or to taste
To serve (optional)
- 2-3 tbsp (1-2 tbsp) non-dairy yogurt
- fresh parsley or coriander
- sesame seeds
- Rice cooked
Instructions
* See step-by-step photos in my blog post above!
- Heat the coconut oil in a saucepan. Add the chopped onions, garlic, ginger and carrots and sauté for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the curry paste, black lentils and sauté for another minute. Then add strained tomatoes, coconut milk and 1 cup of the vegetable broth. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Cook covered for about 20-25 minutes while stirring occasionally and adding the remaining broth gradually.
- Add the sweet potato cubes and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the sweet potato is tender and the curry is thick and creamy. Taste and adjust with salt, pepper, and lime juice. Add spinach and cook for a further minute until wilted as desired. (If the curry is too thick, add more water to thin).
- Garnish your curry with a swirl of non-dairy yogurt, fresh chopped parsley or coriander, and sesame seeds or other toppings you like. Serve over rice or with naan or use as a filling for your favorite tortilla recipe. Enjoy!
Notes
- Spice mix: If you have no curry paste or curry powder, you can also make your own spice mix with 1 ½ tsp garam masala + 1-2 tsp ground cumin + 1 tsp ground coriander.
- Storage & freezing: Store leftover curry in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or freeze for the future.
- Can I use other lentils? Please read my blog post for further information on this recipe.
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Delicious!!! Thank you for this easy and very tasty recipe! I adapted it to our taste by adding some hot chilies as we like spicy food and did not use the sweet potato! We sided it up with fluffy rice, fresh coriander, lime juice and lime zest! Fantastic!
Sounds like a good meal, Chris! I’m happy you enjoyed it. 🙂
Excellent. Followed recipe exactly with tasty results! Thanks a lot!
Glad to hear that, Bob! Many thanks. 🙂
Should I use red, yellow or green curry paste?
Hi Mary!
You can use whatever you’d like.
My daughter is vegetarian so I made this for my family and they all loved it. So flavorful and healthy. The lentils took longer to cook than specified, but no big deal. Love this and will definitely make it again!
Awesome! You’re a great mom for cooking this vegan dish for her. I’m glad everything turned out just fine. 🙂
Beautiful dish, with easy step by step instructions. Needles to say, the taste is so divine!
My family loves curry and I often cook a vegan version of it, and this delicious recipe will definitely be one of our favourites ones!
Thank you so much! I’m super happy to hear that you enjoyed this dish. 🙂
This is absolutely amazing!I’m not a vegan but this beats any meat dish! Only change I made was using less milk and more tomatoes. I could happily eat it every day!!
Fantastic! Thank you so much, I’m super happy that you liked this meal that much. 🙂
great recipe ! I made some changes, replaced the carrot with broccoli and it taste amazing
Thank you! I’m super glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Hi Bianca
This recipe looks delicious, do you think this recipe would still work without tomatoes as I am unable to eat them?
Yes, sure! You can also add some red bell peppers for more juicy flavor if you like! 🙂
So delicious and hearty, I’ll definitely be making this again very soon.
Thank you so much! Glad you liked it! 🙂
I love that you are playing with new ideas. If we only stick to traditional ways we would stifle innovation. I can only imagine the outrage of the traditionalists in Italy to the arrival of tomatoes back in the early 1500s 😂. This recipe is easy to prepare and yields such wonderful flavours! A new favourite. I doubled the sweet potato because I love them. I also added a tadka of coconut oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida and dried chilli. It is worth keeping the dal thick because the filled tortilla idea the following day is brilliant.
Hi Glenn.
Thank you so much for your lovely feedback. I’m super glad that you enjoyed this curry that much. And I’m happy that the tortilla idea convinced you as well. 🙂
Nice enough recipe, but … urad dal and black (beluga) lentils are not the same thing. You can substitute them, but urad dal is not called “beluga lentil” in Germany. We call Urad Dal “Urdbohne” in German.
Beluga lentils are true lentils, urad dal isn’t even related to them.
I didn’t know that so thank you for sharing this information! 🙂
One of the best Dal curries I have made – fulfiled the promised! 😀
To cut the fat and even spiking up the health of this dish – I didn’t use any oil (used 1/4 cup of water) and used of of the coconut milk and some fresh coconut purée (fresh coconut flash blended with some water). Was creamy and hearty but not heavy!
Thanks 🙏🏻
That sounds great! Glad you turned this curry into a low-fat dish and it was still delicious! 😀 Thanks for your feedback! 🙂
I’ve always wanted to make a lentil curry and this is my first one – I can’t believe how simple and quick it was! We made it using potatoes and it’s turned out really well, silky and thick and warming. Perfect for a chilly night and lots left over for tomorrow’s dinner as well. Thank you for this recipe, it is 100% going to become a staple and part of the weekly rotation!!
That’s awesome! So glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for your feedback! 🙂 ♡
Amazing recipe! Thank you Bianca. I started to cook it early in the morning for the evening meal. But I guess we shall eat most of it for breakfast. Delicious!!
Yay, that’s great! Thank you so much for your feedback! 🙂
Was honestly incredible! My partner made it for us so I cannot take credit, but will honestly be one of our new go to black lentil dishes! We topped ours with some broccoli sprouts and coconut tsatsiki, but it literally is perfect on its own. Thank you so much Bianca, cannot wait to try more recipes 👌💜
Hi Kaylah,
I am glad you loved this recipe! ♡
I hope you’ll enjoy my other recipes too.
Many thanks,
Bianca
Amazing and so easy. I didn’t have stock so I used water instead and added cumin + tumeric. New vegan staple. Thank you !
So glad you enjoyed it, dear Jasmine!
Thanks for your great feedback! 🙂
Made the curry today and damn it’s delicious! I guess Vegan Foodporn will be my next acquisition 😀
So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 Thank you!
Have fun with my cookbook! <3
I made this recipe last night and it is so delicious!!! Served it up w some quinoa and a side of avocado. I included crushed red pepper flakes to make it extra spicy!!! My family loved it.
So glad your whole family loved this recipe!
Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback! <3
This looks delicious. Are you using split or whole lentils? Also, are you soaking or cooking them ahead of time before adding to the pan?
I use whole lentils and rinse them throughly before adding them into the pan! 😊
Thanks for yet another great recipe. Healthy yet delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it! ❤️
When do you use the second 1 1/3 c of veggie broth?
Never mind. I see it. Feel free to delete this comment.
Don’t worry! 😃
It’s mentioned in step 2: “… and adding the remaining broth gradually.”
Easy, fast and tasty 😍
Thank you! 🙂
This vegan lentil curry looks so yummy! I love lentils so much and I am sure this dish is super comforting and delicious! 🙂
Thank you so much! Hope you’ll try this curry! 🙂
Excuse me do you actually research recipes from other countries before you make your own version of it?? This is far away from Dal Makhani – please don’t even call it “Indian dal makhani”. It’s ok to skip the butter – because you have a vegan version and it may taste good BUT !! First of all Beluga Lentils are not even close to Urad dal. Both are black but Urad Dal is only black from the outside – and their texture is very very different. Putting coconut milk in a Punjabi dish is the next weird thing!!! And on top you put spinach with other vegetables in it. Sorry, one more thing – A Thai Curry Paste in an indian dish – Really???? You have deformed the original dish in such a way that you should not call it “Indian Dal Makhani” at all.
Hi there, I have mentioned in the subtitle that my recipe is just INSPIRED by the Indian Dal Makhani. I’ve made my own vegan version with coconut milk, veggies, and beluga lentils as written in the blog post and in the subtitle. I’m a recipe CREATOR and I love creating my own combinations and versions which are inspired by other dishes.
Kudos to you for taking that inspiration & creating simply good food!! I’ll be trying this dish tomorrow to try beluga lentils for the first time!
Hope you’ll love it! 🙂
Great that you stand up against the haters Bianca! I love you blog, your photos and your approach to vegan cooking! Made your Maultaschen yesterday and my German boyfriend who is not even vegan said they were perfect (I am Portuguese) 😀 your zebra cake is another favourite of ours, among many other amazing recipes you developed! Much love from Frankfurt am Main and a lot of success to you. About this curry I will definitely try it over the next days, just need to get sweet potatoes 🙂
You’re so kind! Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback!
So glad you love my blog and my recipes!
Hope you’ll try even more recipes!
Much love to you! 🙂