Green lentil curry

This instant pot green lentil curry is a comforting and delicious dal recipe from India. Serve it with some fragrant basmati rice or any Indian bread of choice to enjoy a simple Indian meal at home. It's a vegan and gluten-free recipe.

What's needed to make green lentil curry?

For this green lentil curry recipe, you will need the ingredients shown below:

Ingredient notes and substitute suggestions

• Green lentils: In India, dried lentils are cooked from scratch. You will never see Indians using canned lentils in their Indian recipes. Dishes made with home-cooked lentils taste better and have better nutritional value too. However, if you don't have dried lentils and want to use canned lentils, you can still make the dish with them. You don't need an instant pot to make curry with canned lentils. You can also make similar recipes using black lentils, French lentils, and brown lentils. Their cooking time may vary. 
• Onion: Red onion is the best for Indian recipes but if you don't have that use yellow (brown onion) or white onion.
• Garlic: Use fresh garlic. Garlic powder doesn't add the same taste to curry. You can also add some finely chopped fresh ginger along with garlic. Ginger-garlic paste can be used too.
• Tomato: Use juicy red tomatoes to make Indian curry sauce. Though not a traditional way of Indian cooking, canned diced tomatoes can also be used if you don't have fresh tomatoes. You can also add a tablespoon of tomato paste for a richer tomato flavor. However, please note that tomato paste is not traditionally used in Indian recipes.
• Lemon: Lemon juice adds a nice refreshing taste to lentil curry. Lime juice can be used too.
• Green chilies: Adding green chilies is optional, if you don't like spicy food, skip them. You can also remove some chili seeds to make the curry less spicy.
• Cilantro: Indian curries taste incomplete without fresh cilantro. However, if you don't like cilantro, skip it. Don't replace cilantro with parsley in Indian recipes.
• Cumin seeds: Black mustard seeds can also be used instead of cumin seeds. Both can be used too.
• Powdered spices: In my daily Indian cooking, I mostly use only three basic spices- turmeric powder, red chili powder, and coriander powder. You can add other spices too like asafoetida, cumin powder, red pepper flakes, garam masala, and curry powder. All these Indian spices are easily available in most grocery stores these days. You can buy them online too.
• Cooking oil: Feel free to use any cooking oil of choice. I used mustard oil but olive oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil, all are fine. Non vegans may use ghee or butter too.

Other ingredient details and nutritional information are shared in the recipe card below.

How to make (step-by-step instructions)?

To make curry with green lentils in an instant pot, just follow the easy step-by-step instructions given below:

Step 1: Start by rinsing the lentils and soaking them in water while the other preparation is done.

Step 2: Switch on the instant pot and select saute mode for 15 minutes. Add cooking oil and let it heat up for a minute. Add cumin seeds to the oil and let them splutter for a few seconds.

Step 3: Add chopped garlic and onion. 

Step 4: Cook until the onion starts turning brown.

Step 5: Add turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder, and ground black pepper. Saute for around 5 seconds. You can also mix the powdered spices with around a tablespoon of water. Add this spice paste instead of directly adding the powdered spices as they may get burned quickly.

Step 6: Add chopped tomatoes, green chilies, and salt. Mix.

Step 7: Cook until the tomatoes turn mushy.

Step 8: Discard the water in which the lentils were soaked and add the soaked lentils to the instant pot. Saute for a minute.

Step 9: Add hot water and mix. Cancel the saute mode.

Step 10: Seal the lid of the instant pot. Select high pressure and a cooking time of 10 minutes. When the timer stops allow the pressure to get released naturally for 10 minutes then vent to release the pressure completely.

Step 11: Once all the pressure is released remove the instant pot lid. Stir the curried lentils.

Step 12: Add lemon juice and chopped cilantro. Mix.

Your delicious and comforting green lentil curry is ready to be served.

Serving lentil curry

Like most other curries, this lentil curry is also served hot.

You can serve it with basmati rice, any other white rice, brown rice, or a side dish made with rice like jeera rice, tomato rice, lemon rice, cabbage rice, or vegetable rice. Lebanese vermicelli rice also tastes great with it.

It can be paired with any Indian flatbread like roti, paratha, or naan too.

You can also enjoy this curry as a hearty lentil soup.

Storing, freezing, and reheating the leftovers

To store the leftover dal, transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate. Consume within 3 days.

In India, people usually prefer consuming dal within the same day or at maximum, the next day, once it's cooked. After that most people knead dal with wheat flour and seasonings to make a dough. This dough is used to make paratha (pan-fried Indian flatbread).

Dal also freezes well. To freeze, transfer to a freezer-safe, air-tight container and keep in the freezer. It will be fine for 3 months.

To reheat, either microwave or reheat on the stovetop. Generally, dal thickens up after storing. Add some hot water while reheating to adjust the consistency of your lentil curry. You can also check and reseason if required.

Recipe tips, tricks, and variation suggestions

• Please note that the instant pot will take some time to create the required pressure (around 7-8 minutes), the pressure cooking time will start after that.
• Use hot water in instant pot recipes, it will reduce the pressure-building time.
• In India water is used to cook lentils but if you want you can use vegetable broth too.
• Powdered spices get burned very easily, to avoid that you can mix the powdered spices with 1-2 tablespoons of water before adding them to the pot.
• To make this dish more delicious and nutritious, add some roughly chopped fresh spinach or other leafy greens of choice, once the lentils are cooked. Then turn on the saute mode and cook for 1-2 minutes or until the leaves get wilted.
• Add a can of coconut milk along with water to make coconut lentil curry recipe. Reduce the amount of water if you are adding coconut milk too. Both creamy coconut milk and light coconut milk are fine. Pick whichever you prefer. The addition of coconut milk will give this dish a more creamy texture.
• You may add more or less water depending on the consistency of lentil curry you prefer.
• If your dal is too thick, add some hot water and cook for 2-3 minutes on saute mode.
• If your dal is too runny, select the saute mode and cook dal until it thickens.
• You can also cook brown lentils following the same recipe but pressure cook it for a lesser time (around 8 minutes).

Frequently asked questions

More dal recipes from India

Lentils and beans are a great source of plant-based protein. So, if you are on a plant-based diet, you must include different types of lentils and beans in your meals. You can get an idea of how lentils and beans are used in Indian cooking from the recipes below: 

1. Moong masoor dal
2. Urad chana dal
3. Chana dal
4. Dal spinach curry
5. Moong dal khichdi
6. Toor dal khichdi
7. Quinoa khichdi
8. Sabut moong dal
9. Brown lentil curry
10. Mixed bean curry

Other easy Indian curry recipes

If you enjoyed this vegan lentil curry and looking for more curries from Indian cuisine then the following recipes are worth trying out:

1. Mixed vegetable curry
2. Mushroom curry with coconut milk
3. Matar mushroom
4. Green pea curry
5. Potato curry
6. Mushroom masala

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