Vegan Spinach Lentils Stew || Keerai Kootu
A Simple vegan dish loaded with healthy lentils, spinach and mildly spiced and tempered. This Vegan Spinach Lentils stew is perfect with hot steamed rice.
Ingredients
Step 1 - Cook the Lentils
- 1 Cup Yellow Lentils Or red Lentils
- 1/2 tsp Olive Oil
- 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 2 Cups Water
Step 2- Adding Spinach and other veggies with Spices
- 2 Cups Spinach Cleaned and washed. Chop if using big leafs
- 1 Large Onion Sliced
- 1 Small Tomato Chopped
- 2 Whole Green Chilli Slit if you need too spicy
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 tsp Red chilli Powder
- 1-2 Cups Water Adjust as needed
Step 3 - Tempering the stew
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil Or Ghee
- 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 Small Onion Sliced
- 1-2 Whole Dried Red Chilli Optional
Instructions
Step 1 - Cook the Lentils
- Add all the ingredients under Step 1 - Cook the Lentils in a sauce pan or a pressure cooker and cook until soft - but not mushy.
Step 2- Add the Spinach and other veggies with Spices and cook
- Add the spinach, sliced onion, tomato, green chillies, salt, turmeric powder and red chilli to the cooked lentils.
- Add water and stir well.
- Pressure cook for 1 whistle if using or if using a sauce pan cook until the stew is done. Should take about 7-8 minutes in medium flame.
Step 3 - Tempering the stew
- In a separate fry pan or a kadai heat oil.
- Add the mustard seeds and the dried red chilli.
- Let the mustard seeds splutter.
- Add the sliced onions and fry until brown.
- Add the tempering to the cooked spinach lentils carefully and mix well.
- Serve the spinach lentil stew hot with steamed rice and papad.
Notes
- Use red or yellow lentils as available.
- Add coconut milk at the end if you like. We don't use it in our home and do not like the taste of it in the spinach dish.
- If no mustard seeds, do the tempering with cumin seeds.