Instant Pot Lentil Curry. How to cook curried green lentils in the instant pot pressure cooker. Loaded with vegetables, tomatoes, green lentils, and spices, this is a fantastic healthy vegan detox curry for lazy weeknights.
Instant Pot Lentil Curry
Confession time. Because Dominic and the rest of the family are not into green lentils, I always knew that when I made this instant pot lentil curry, I would be sharing it with my mum.
My mum is one of those people that will eat most things and can’t think of many foods that she doesn’t like. My dad however is the opposite and most of the time I can’t remember what he does like.
Therefore, my mum will cook for him and will often miss out on great food that she loves.
If I am recipe testing food that I know she will really like I will save some for the freezer and freeze it until I next see her.
Then I can deliver it her when we next meet up.
Well at the time of typing this up I have not seen my mum for more than six months and took these photos back in March.
Well the Instant Pot Lentil Curry was do delicious, I couldn’t help myself and ate the LOT.
I should have made more of this green lentil curry than I did and then I wouldn’t have been so greedy.
But my parents have been lucky over the years with what food I have gifted them, and it has become a tradition that started back when I was working as a waitress in my teens.
I worked at a doughnut counter for these wonderful Filipino ladies and they were obsessed with feeding me and my friend sugary doughnuts as we worked.
Then they would give us a HUGE batch to take home with us. Well I grew to hate them and would just give them to my dad.
The same can be said of when I worked at Sara Lee’s or when I worked at an Indian takeaway.
How Do You Cook Lentils In Instant Pot?
Instant Pot lentils are just like cooking a soup, stew, or curry. You rinse your lentils before cooking then load them into your instant pot.
They cook with the other ingredients and create a filling nutritious meal. They are also fantastic as a filler to stretch your meal further if you are on a budget.
Red lentils don’t take long at all to cook. In fact, when I made instant pot red Thai curry soup the cook time was JUST 5 minutes.
Green lentils, however, have a longer cook time and suit a stew. They are also ideal for the instant pot because you are not having to wait hours to soak your green lentils or wait for them to cook.
How Do You Flavour Lentils?
The problem with lentils is that they are so boring and flavourless on their own. I know this from experience.
I remember boring lentils in a diet dish in my teens and it was awful and just needed more flavour.
Add to this that the instant pot often strips flavour because of the way it pressure cooks.
The best way to solve the problem and to flavour your lentils it to make an instant pot vegan lentil curry.
Instant Pot Vegan Lentil Curry
Grab your favourite long cook vegetables, load them into the instant pot with green lentils and plenty of spices and you have a delicious instant pot vegan lentil curry.
I like to mix and match with what ingredients I have in and call it a bottom of the fridge vegetable raid the night before grocery shopping.
The fun of using just items from your pantry and your fridge to make an instant pot green lentil curry is the best as you feel like not only are you eating delicious instant pot lentils, but saving money too.
How To Cook Lentils In The Instant Pot?
Cooking green lentil curry is one of the EASIEST EVER instant pot lentil recipes.
- Sauté an onion in the instant pot.
- Load in ginger, and garlic.
- Stir in prepped vegetables and dump in the rest of the ingredients.
- Place the lid on the instant pot, cook for 15 minutes on natural pressure release.
- Serve.
How Long To Pressure Cook Lentils In Instant Pot?
The cook time to pressure cook lentils in the instant pot is 15 minutes. This is because any less and your green lentils will have too much of a crunchy bite to them. We also completed natural pressure release too.
With natural pressure release included, this took our cook time for a lentil curry to 28 minutes. Do note though, that this is much quicker than soaking lentils.
Instant Pot Curry Lentils & Rice
You will also notice that we served our instant pot curry lentils with rice. This is because when we were cooking our green lentils, we also had our other instant pot making instant pot brown rice.
The instant pot curry lentils were delicious served with brown rice and this is the combo I will follow each time now when I make curry lentils.
Instant Pot Lentil Curry
Ingredients
Kitchen Gadgets:
Instant Lentil Curry Recipe Ingredients:
- 1 Medium Onion
- 800 g Tinned Tomatoes
- 1.5 Cups Green Lentils
- 2 Medium Carrots
- 2 Celery Sticks
- 800 ml Vegetable Stock
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 Tsp Garlic Puree
- 2 Tsp Lazy Ginger
- 1 Tbsp Paprika
- ½ Tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1 Tsp Coriander
- 2 Tsp Parsley
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Peel and dice your onion. Load into the instant pot with extra virgin olive oil and sauté until the onion starts to change colour.
- Cancel sauté and add in and stir ginger and garlic.
- Peel, dice, and load into the instant pot your carrot and celery.
- Rinse and add in your green lentils.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, stir, and place the lid on the instant pot.
- Set the valve to sealing and cook for 15 minutes on manual.
- Use natural pressure release and wait until the natural pressure is complete.
- When you open the instant pot, it will be liquid free and you can fluff it up with a fork.
- Then load into bowls with brown rice.
Notes
Nutrition
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Perfect timing to post this recipe for Colorado’s first snow day!! Had all the ingredients on hand to whip this up after work. Comforting and delicious. This will turn into another “go-to” like so many of your recipes!
Just made your lentil curry for lunch and it was amazing. Served it with your instant pot quinoa. Going to meal prep this for a couple of days next week.
Uggggh this looks so good! The perfect antidote to this chilly MN weather!