Serves 10 to 12
Active time: 15 minutes || Total time: 40 minutes
You know those food magazines that you flip through while in the checkout line at the supermarket? The ones you put back on the rack, all the better for knowing that you can make a casserole out of a can of soup and 35 egg whites? Yeah, well, I buy those magazines. All of them. It is my secret shame.
But this week a magazine cover gave me the chutzpah to do what I’ve always wanted to… put Thai red curry paste in everything. Or at least chili! To be fair, the magazine was Clean Eating, which usually has pretty awesome non-soup can ideas. And the original recipe was even vegan, so yay.
This isn’t their exact recipe, I just ripped off the idea (jeez, I have some integrity). It’s just as awesome as you would imagine if you threw together a Thai curry and a chili. OK fine, maybe that doesn’t sound awesome, but it was! I used red lentils for texture and kept the main ingredients as is: sweet potatoes and big meaty kidney beans. It’s really satisfying and blessedly easy so make it the next time you want to switch up your chili repertoire. It makes a lot so freeze the leftover and have chili whenever you want.
Olive oil (1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons, however much you feel like using)
1 large yellow onion, diced medium
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced medium
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 ½ lbs sweet potatoes cut into ¾ inch chunks
1 cup red lentils
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups vegetable broth
2 15 oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
1 15 oz can lowfat coconut milk
28 oz can diced tomatoes
½ cup fresh cilantro, plus extra for garnish
Limes for garnish (optional)
Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium heat. Saute onions and pepper in oil with a pinch of salt, for 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and saute a minute more.
Add chili powder, sweet potatoes, lentils, salt and vegetable broth. Cover and bring to a boil. Let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. When lentils are cooked and sweet potatoes are tender, add the remaining ingredients and heat through.
Taste for salt and seasoning, top with cilantro and lime and serve!
I bought that same magazine Isa! It sounded like such a great combo for chili. I love your take with the red lentils. I’m going to make it tomorrow night for dinner. Thanks for sharing.
Hope you’re surviving the Mid West winter. How has it been so far?
Julie
Isa, any suggestions for a brand or make of red curry paste?
I haven’t found a satisfactory one…
Thanks!
Amamda
I love those magazines. I don’t buy them but my co-worker does and I always secretly hope she’ll bring them when we work together.
The spicier, the better! Looks like I know what kind of chili I’m making this weekend!
I have that “Clean Eating” mag. I subscribe to it, because they usually include a lot of recipes that are naturally veg, and the others are easily veganizable. I think the sister magazine is “Oxygen,” and I rather like that one, too. Often includes a lot of tasty recipes that are also easily made veg, and the smoothie recipes are always interesting and yummy. The health and exercise advice is pretty good, too. Also generally fond of “Women’s Health.” Those, along with “Vegetarian Times,” are the only mags I’ve found worth it lately. Had to cancel “Cooking Light” because everything was too labor intensive, boring, and not really much I could do to veganize them.
I made this tonight, one of the many PPK/Isa Chandra recipes in my arsenal. It was absolutely delicious!
Yum… I wish I had that for lunch right now.
I made this for lunch today. It was excellent, Isa…thank you for another one. My friends think I am some super chef now. I just say “naw…my cooking coach Isa is…I just follow directions really well” then direct them to your site. I did not have lowfat coconut milk, just the full on “keep my love handles” version, and it was a multi-cultural feast. As for the post above asking brand of paste I used Maesri brand, always like their pastes. Homemade paste is easy though if you have access to ingredients like lemongrass.
Dear Julie,
Oregon is not in the Midwest. It’s in the North West. Just FYI.
Made this today for a vegan potluck/graduation celebration/going away party. It was amazingly delicious and so easy to throw together this morning! The fam is really excited about dinner tonight and the whole house smells divine. Thanks, Isa. You make me look like an amazing chef (amazing chef with a very happy belly ;). Love this one. New favorite chili recipe for sure!
This is SOOOOOOOO good! All other chili recipes pale in comparison.
I used Thai Kitchen red curry paste, from Whole Foods. I sauted the onions, garlic, and pepper, then put all ingredients except the coconut milk and cilantro in my slow cooker. Cooked it on low for 6 hours, then added the coconut milk and cilantro and continued cooking for another half hour or so.
A squeeze of lime juice was the crowning touch. Best chili ever!
Making this tonight! I didn’t have any sweet potatoes so I’m using white. Also I love cilantro so I’m using twice as much. Thanks for the recipe!!
AMAZING! I used regular coconut milk and it was delicious!
This sounds awesome; I can’t wait to try it. Spicy, spicy, spicy this winter!
Perfect meal for a winter night! This was fantastic and sooooo easy! Thanks for sharing
Yep, as everyone says, this was delicious! Very easy, comes together quickly and super tasty. I made mine spicier with red chili peppers & added some cinnamon too. Served with cilantro, lime rice. Thanks for the great recipe!
Oh. My. F*#(%@. God. This was amazing!!!! I don’t know how we would have made the transition to vegan without your recipes. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
I am making this right now, to bring to a potluck tomorrow night. Right now everything is boiling and it smells so, so, so good. Thank you for posting this!
When I suggested making this for dinner my husband (Javier Villegas) moaned and groaned about fusion food, well, I’ve just watched him polish off two bowls so I’m feeling pretty smug right now. Next on the must make list are the mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodles, but after a day of hunting NYC for chocolate extract he’s convinced that Isa made it up and it doesn’t actually exist, but I’m determined to prove him wrong. Thanks for the recipes!
This looks amazing – great way for me to get over my “lentil fear” (i.e. I’d rather someone else prepared them, preferably in dal form)…now I just have to make it to the store!
This is a great recipe! Even my picky 5yr old loved it and ate every bite. I made mine in the slow cooker as suggested in a previous post, got off work this morning, put it all together, and woke up to a great meal!
I can’t believe I forgot the cilantro and lime! Even without it, the chili was fantastic. This one is definitely a keeper. I served it with naan, but it would be great with rice or cornbread, too.
Soo good! I made it tonight and I had to put it away so my boyfriend and I didn’t eat it all. I didn’t have a bell pepper, but I used 2 good sized jalapenos and took out the seeds and cut down a bit on the chili powder and curry paste so it wasn’t too hot (but I like it pretty spicy) and put it over Basmati rice. We are just starting to cook vegan and this makes it seem really easy, thanks!
@anon: Maybe Julie was confusing Isa with Dara Moskowitz, the (James Beard-winning!) food writer, who does live in the Midwest.
or maybe Isa really does live in the midwest???? also anonymous posters can bite me.
xo
kittee
Dear Anon,
Isa lives in Nebraska, not Portland. But thanks for giving me a geography lesson.
You gotta love the internet!
This was really good with rice noodles, and a beer, and huge snowdrifts outside our house.
This was ridiculously crazy good. Fed us for four meals (one including friends who had seconds!) too! Best PPK recipe I’ve tried yet. In my version, I used reg coconut milk, one can kidney & one can black beans, and Geo Organics red Thai curry paste. Yes!
I made this last night .. and this was SOOO good. I halved the recipe, since it’s just the 2 of us. I also made a few modifications based on what I had: used chickpeas instead of kidney beans since we didn’t have any, used spring onions (green part) instead of cilantro! So so so so good! Will definitely be making this again!
Has anyone tried this in the crockpot? Sounds yummy!
the lentil have to be soaked overnight if I only have dried
I got a subscription to that magazine for Christmas as my sister keep raving on about it. Its nice to see this slightly altered version as I couldnt find any bulgar in my small town and Im dying to try these flavous together. Thanks for the inspiration!
that was DO the lentils have to be soaked overnight if I only have dried. Can you make a lot and freeze
The lentils don’t have to be soaked. They cook faster if they’re soaked but it’s not necessary. And yes you can freeze lentils!
I cooked this 🙂 it was very tasty and even my 5yo loved it 🙂
this was by far the best chili i have ever had!! Thank you!!
Wonderful soup! My husband said he would give it 6 stars if he could. And he’s a tough critic. I’m so glad I stumbled onto your great blog – you have some awesome recipes. 🙂
This chili is the best I’ve ever made. And I’ve made a lot of chili. I used pinto beans instead of kidney because it’s what I had, and dried cilantro (1 TB) instead of fresh. Oh, and I threw in a zucchini just for fun (diced and sauteed). Thanks to the commenter who provided slow-cooker instructions, because that’s what I did, too!
I love guilty secrets like checkout-line mags. I don’t have that addiction–my Mom cured me of it wtih her own. But chili powder and curry paste is a remarkable combination. Reminds me of those recipes that ask you to put marshmallows and sweet potatoes together. I’m sure it does taste good, but it takes some kind of brave heart to try it. Or an Isa in the kitchen.
This is the first recipe I tried from your website and it is sooo delicious :-)…I am pretty sure that I will try some of your other recipes too.
Greetings from Germany.
I made this a few weeks ago when I had some friends over and got rave reviews (“This is the best vegetarian thing I have ever had!” YES!) but I was still surprised that when the superbowl party conversation came up I had 3 different people request it! It was just as great the second time- you rock! Thanks for posting it! <3
Yummm! Awesome recipe, I made this tonight. My 2 year old gobbled it down (I was worried it would be too spicy but it wasn’t at all) and so did my Man. And Lots left over for quick lunches/suppers. Mmmmm…. I served it on some plain Jasmine rice, but I think for the next time I’ll just have it with some sort of flatbread to dip. Thanks for the great recipe!
Holy Crap! This is the best thing I’ve ever had! I made it last night for dinner, and I am eating some leftovers for lunch right now.
Isa – Not one of your recipes has let me down! Thanks for making an amateur vegan cook like me look like a pro! 😀
I think I may be addicted to this chili. Seriously. I have made it three times now. Twice for potlucks and the other day just for me. I have about six servings (always have it with a side of steamed veggies) that I put in the fridge and then individually bag up six more in the deep freeze. Thai Chili all the time! woot!
SOOO Yummy! I replaced red lentils with green lentils [it had to boil double time] and then doubled up on chili powder. It was amazing! There were two bowls for my friend and I, enough for my next door neighbors..and there are STILL leftovers. Totally worth the trip up to Meijer. Thanks Isa! Another great recipe.
I just made this tonight. This is so good. I plan to stock up on red lentils this weekend, so I can make this often!
make this recipe even healthier by sauting vegs in water or broth rather than oil! Doesn’t change a thing other than fewer calories and teh taste of the vegs come thru even better!
This is really a fantastic meal! I made this for my one of my Plant Based Nutrition Bootcamp classes at the Florida School of Holistic Living in Orlando using broth in place of oil. Everyone loved it and they all know who “Isa” is now 🙂