Vadouvan Red Lentil Curry with Cherry Tomatoes and Butternut Squash

This creamy satisfying curry is layered with complex yet subtle aromatic flavors. Earthy pre-roasted slightly caramelized butternut squash cubes lead the all star cast of ingredients, grounding the palette while accentuating the sweet fruity goodness of fresh cherry tomatoes. A nourishing one-pot meal that’s ideal for the cozy season and well worth a little extra effort.

WHY I LOVE IT

I’m new enough to whole food plant-based oil-free (WFPNO) cooking that I still get a special thrill when I manage to create a dish that checks off all the nutritional objectives of this lifestyle while delivering mind-blowing deliciousness. The idea for this recipe emerged in early October, when my small but very sunny urban backyard was brimming over with an abundance of cherry tomatoes and butternut squash beyond my wildest expectations. I knew I wanted to combine my two most prolific crops into a single dish and a curry seemed to me to be a great way to do this. Creamy coconut milk curries are one of my guilty vegan pleasures. Not only is coconut milk a processed ingredient, it’s also particularly problematic due to its high saturated fat content. I do sometimes make exceptions and when I started working on this recipe, I thought I’d end up relying on some amount of coconut milk to get the flavor experience I wanted. To my delight, this curry was creamy and satisfying enough without needing to add coconut milk or cashew cream in the final step. The combination of red lentils, sautéd veggies, pre-roasted veggies and one of my favorite curry blends was rich enough on its own!

WHAT IS VADOUVAN CURRY?

Vadouvan curry is a curry blend that originated in India and reflects the influence that French culinary traditions had on southeast Indian cuisine starting in the late 17th century when France had colonized that region. This mild slightly sweet curry merges traditional roasted Indian spices with a hint of typically French ingredients such as shallots, garlic and onion. The result is a rich, complex and gentle aromatic profile that’s warm, inviting and versatile.

CAN I USE A DIFFERENT CURRY POWDER?

Absolutely! Use any type of curry powder you like. This dish will still be delicious. No need to spend extra time and money getting your hands on vadouvan curry powder unless you want to. But should the opportunity ever arise, I would encourage everyone to try this lovely spice blend because it will almost certainly delight any and all curry lovers. And even folks who aren’t particularly fond of curry may like vadouvan’s distinctly smooth, more subtle, flavor profile better than other curry blends they’ve tried. Can you tell I’m low key in love with the stuff?

PRE-ROASTING VEGGIES TO BUILD FLAVOR

Creating layered complex flavors in whole food plant-based no oil (WFPBNO) cooking involves a slightly different set of techniques than those used in conventional recipes. Sautéing vegetables with broth or other liquids works surprisingly well if done correctly. For example, caramelization does occur in oil-free sautéing because ingredients (usually vegetables) are momentarily allowed to stick to the bottom of the pan before quickly adding more liquid to deglaze this caramelized stickiness before it burns. This type of caramelization is not quite as rich and flavorful as what you get when using oil but it comes close. The tradeoff is worth it when you consider the health benefits. But there’s no need to resign ourselves to food that’s almost but not quite as tasty. That’s because there are other ways to introduce layered flavor. One of my favorite ways to do this is to pre-roast some of the ingredients, in effect allowing my oven to do some of the work. Pre-roasted vegetables don’t just introduce more caramelization, they also contribute to variations in texture and density which intensify flavor.

MANAGING PREP TIME

For this recipe butternut squash cubes are roasted separately from red peppers because each of these veggies has its own optimum oven temperature and cooking time. I prefer to prep these vegetables the day before if I know I’ll be making this dish. But if you’re doing everything in one go, it’s a good idea to prepare the roasted veggies before doing anything else, roasting the peppers before the butternut squash so you can use the time while the peppers are in the oven to peel and cut the squash.

Usually I roast more red peppers than I’ll need for any given recipe, just because I like having extra roasted red peppers stored in their own juice to use in salads and sandwiches throughout the week.

Although there are many ways to prepare butternut squash for oven roasting including leaving the peel on, I prefer using peeled butternut squash that’s been cut into small bite size pieces for this particular dish. If making this recipe all in one go, you can chop and measure all the other ingredients for the curry while the squash is roasting.

PARSNIPS AND SUBSTITUTIONS

Whenever I use parsnips in a recipe I’m struck by how much I love their quirky sweet taste and dense texture, making a mental note to use them more often. In this dish I like the extra color contrast against all the orange and red.

In the US, Canada and many parts of Europe parsnips are widely available. But because they can be difficult or impossible to get in some parts of the world, I want to clarify that there are a handful of great substitutes for parsnips, the most obvious being carrots. But other root vegetables like turnips or even sweet potatoes (white sweet potatoes especially) would be fine.

EASY PEASY OIL-FREE SAUTÉING

Although this is a recipe where eventually most of the ingredients are simmered together for an extended amount of time, I still like to sauté the onions, celery, parsnip, garlic and ginger first in order to build flavor through caramelization. And yes, like I mentioned earlier, caramelization still happens when you’re not using oil for sautéing.

I prefer to use vegetable stock for sautéing but water works perfectly well too. Usually, I make my vegetable stock by dissolving low salt stock cubes in water, but you can use any kind of vegetable stock—homemade, liquid concentrate, canned or boxed.

Begin by heating 2 to 3 tablespoons of vegetable stock, or water, in a medium to large soup pot or dutch oven over high heat. Keep more water or stock close at hand to use as needed. When the liquid in the pot comes to a rolling boil, reduce heat to medium-high and add chopped onions. Sauté for 6 to 10 minutes or until the onions become soft and translucent, adding little bits of liquid as needed. Then add the celery, parsnip, garlic and ginger and sauté for about another 10 minutes, adding small amounts of liquid whenever vegetables start to stick to the bottom of the pot. If you have the patience, sautéing a little longer is a great way to add flavor so long as you carefully continue to add liquid to keep things from burning.

SIMMERING PHASE

This is my favorite part because I enjoy watching the fresh bouncy cherry tomatoes heat up and soften. Keep the heat at medium-high and add the halved cherry tomatoes to sautéd veggies and cook, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes. The tomatoes will gradually release their juice and soften. Then add remaining broth and all other ingredients except leafy greens (if using) and garnishes. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until lentils are fully cooked. Finally you can add your leafy greens and cook a few more minutes until the greens are soft and wilted. Tender baby greens will become soft in about 2 minutes, but something like chopped kale might take a bit longer.

GARNISHES

I like to serve this curry with lime wedges and chopped cilantro, but it’s pretty tasty without either of these garnishes. If cilantro’s not your thing, chopped basil or parsley can work well too. And, of course, it goes without saying that you can always use lemon wedges instead of lime.

VARIATIONS

• Use Any Other Winter Squash Instead of Butternut: Just about any type of roasted winter squash would be good in this recipe

• Use Any Other Chopped Fresh Ripe Tomato: The look and texture will be a bit different but you can use any other kind of chopped tomato instead of cherry tomatoes

• Try A Different Spice Blend: I’ve already mentioned that any type of curry is fine, but this recipe would also be interesting with another type of spice blend altogether such as ras el hanout, a warm and delicious blend of Moroccan spices, or harissa powder another great blend also from Northern Africa

• Peas Instead of Leafy Greens: You can skip the leafy greens and use a cup of fresh or frozen peas instead. The pop of green color will look nice and the protein content of the recipe will be boosted (not that leafy greens don’t also have protein!)

• Use a Different Type of Lentil: Any type of lentil works in this recipe, the optics are just different and the soup will be chunkier and not as creamy with other lentils, but it’s still good. I’ve used brown lentils with this recipe and it turned out great

• Turn This Recipe Into a Soup: This recipe easily morphs into a delicious chunky soup by simply adding more liquid. Keep it low in saturated fat by simply adding more vegetable broth, or intensify the flavor and creaminess by adding a combination of canned coconut milk and broth. The amount of extra liquid you need to add depends on how thick you want the soup to be

• Coconut Extract for Coconut Flavor Without Adding Saturated Fat: Coconut extract is a clever way to get coconut flavor without the fat in coconut milk and coconut flesh. Try starting with one teaspoon of coconut extract, after you season your soup with salt and pepper. Taste and see if you need more then add a quarter teaspoon at a time until you achieve the desired level of coconutty-ness

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