One bite of this vegan Jamaican lentil curry will have your taste buds begging for more! A family favorite here will turn into your next favorite meal!
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You are simply going to love this vegan Jamaican lentil curry recipe.
It is a family favorite in our house and we know that it’s going to be a hit at yours as well.
While traditionally, Jamaican curries are made with meat, the lentils in this dish give the same mouth feel without needing to use animal products.
This dish pairs perfectly with our Jamaican Rice and Peas.
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love This Dish
- Flavorful – You’ll be amazed at how much flavor is in this dish! Each ingredient is thoughtfully picked out to have the most impact on the dish.
- Simple – Cooking is the longest part of this dish, which means you just have to wait but the dish itself is very simple.
- Allergy-Friendly – this dish is very allergy-friendly and with the minimal ingredients in with top allergens can be easily swapped
🥘Recipe Ingredients
Gather your ingredients!
- Lentils – We recommended using green or brown lentils for this recipe.
- Coconut Milk – this helps with creaminess and thickness of the curry
- Vegetable Stock – we recommend using a low sodium stock for this recipe to be able to control the salt level
- Vegetable Bouillon – this is helping with taste. You can use bouillon paste like in the photo above or use a bouillon cube
- Scotch Bonnet Pepper – the traditional pepper of Jamaica. This is a very spicy pepper, so you will want to make sure that you are careful with using it
See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
Substitutions and Variations:
- Lentils – red lentils could also be used but be mindful that they will break down in this dish, not hold their original shape and thicken it more. You may need to add more liquid. Alternatively, lentils could be replaced with chickpeas or tofu crumbles in this dish
- Coconut Milk – a thick non-dairy milk like soy or creamy oat would be the best replacement
- Vegetable Bouillon – you could use a vegan poultry seasoning in place
- Scotch Bonnet Pepper – many US grocers don’t sell scotch bonnet peppers, so if you cannot find this, you could use habanero instead
- Spinach – kale can be used instead
- Other Vegetables or Additions – other things to add could be green beans, sugar snap peas, cauliflower, baby corn, broccoli, mushrooms, tofu, chickpeas, and more
Step by Step Instructions for vegan lentil curry:
Step 1. In a large saucepan, cook onions and peppers until softened. This will take about 3 to 4 minutes.
Step 2. Add in garlic, green onions, ginger, and thyme and let cook for 2 minutes. Mixture should be fragrant. Then add curry powder, bouillon, garam masala, cumin, paprika, and allspice. Stir together and cook for 1 minute.
Step 3. Add lentils, potatoes, and carrots. Stir together.
Step 4. Add the broth and combine. Bring to a boil, add the scotch bonnet pepper, then reduce heat to low. Cover with a lid and cook on simmer for 15-20 minutes.
When ready lentils should be soft and vegetables tender.
Note: If at any time you feel like there’s not enough liquid, you can add more stock.
Step 5. Remove lid and add in spinach, coconut milk, and peanut butter, if adding. Stir together well. Let cook for 5 minutes, spinach should be wilted.
Step 6. Curry should be thick; however, if your curry feels too thick, add additional broth to thin out. Remove from the heat. Remove pepper and thyme sprigs. Stir in lime juice as desired.
Recipe FAQs:
Sub the coconut milk for another creamy non-dairy milk like creamy oat. Make sure there is no soy in your other ingredients.
Yes. Once cooled completely, you can store in an air tight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Yes. Use a large skillet to cook this recipe.
Yes, you can make and freeze this recipe ahead of time.
Other Vegan Jamaican Recipes to Consider:
More recipes to try
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🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Jamaican Lentil Curry
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- ½ red bell pepper, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
- 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 ½ tablespoon Jamaican curry powder
- 2 teaspoon vegetable bouillon paste (or 2 vegetable bouillon cubes)
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 cup dried brown lentils (or green lentils) (200g)
- 1 large russet potato, cubed
- 1 large carrot, cubed
- 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth (900g)
- 1 scotch bonnet pepper, left whole
- 2 cups spinach, packed (60g)
- 1 cup canned coconut milk (240g)
- 1 heaping tbsp creamy peanut butter, optional
- lime juice
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium high. Once hot, add onions and peppers and cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add in garlic, green onions, ginger, and thyme, and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add curry powder, bouillon, garam masala, cumin, paprika, and allspice. Stir together and cook for 1 minute.
- Add lentils, potatoes, and carrots. Stir together. Add the broth and combine. Bring to a boil, add the scotch bonnet pepper, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook on simmer for 15-20 minutes. Lentils should be soft and vegetables tender.
- Add spinach, coconut milk, and peanut butter, if adding. Stir together well. Let cook for 5 minutes, spinach should be wilted. If your curry feels too thick, add additional broth to thin. Remove from the heat.
- Remove pepper and thyme sprigs. Stir in lime juice as desired. Serve with Jamaican rice and peas.
Guys, I love your channel and recipes ❤️. I just made the lentils curry for dinner and I love it. Made some substitutions but I’ll try to make it as the original next time. Thank you for all the amazing recipes and your hard work too. I really appreciate it ☺️.
So happy to hear that
My guy…this is amazing. I made a few subs for what I had on hand (shallots for onions; just a pinch of allspice; chicken broth instead of veggie broth) and this is now my new go-to! Sometimes I get nervous trying new curries (am Indian), but this absolutely blew me out of the water. I also have some hormone issues that caused me to gain weight and I’m needing to back to the gym. You already know how imperative a “clean” diet is for people with health issues and how hard cutting/bulking can be for vegetarians and vegans. But recipes like this make good, balanced health possible. THANK YOU for sharing your amazing recipes with us. Please don’t stop you’ve got a follower for life!!
So glad you gave it a try and loved it!
Hands down one of my new go-to Sunday dinners! My husband and children loves this recipes, usually I am the one to pick something out to cook but they actually requested this again even with all the veggies in it 😀
Love that so much!
Soooo good! Definitely throwing this in the weekly rotation.
yay! great to hear
Made this for my mosque members when we broke fast this past weekend and it was gone! Definitely going to make again. Thank you again 😉
Wonderful!
Question, can you cook this Ina crockpot by any chance?
I’ll be honest we haven’t tried. What I know about crock pot cooking though, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Make sure that the lentils are pushed under all the broth. Lentils also seem to benefit from a longer crock pot cooking time for low for 6-8 hours would likely be best. May need another cup or two of stock. Hope that helps! Let us know if you try it!
I can’t wait to try this after my juice cleanse session is all finished.
Enjoy!
I enjoyed this recipe but it was not as spicy as I would have liked. I didn’t have a scotch bonnet pepper & in fact never heard of it…lol
I did use a habanero but when I looked it up they are the same.🤷🏽♀️. Mine also looked a lot more soupy than yours. I do have a lot left over, do you have any recommendations to spice it up? Oh, I used the Curry powder I have, is Jamaican curry much different?
Thanks love your recipes!
Scotch Bonnet Peppers are the typical hot peppers used in Jamaican cuisine. As far as curry powders, they are different as they include different peppers, spices, and amounts.