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.
Is there a recommended alternative to the russet potato? Maybe pumpkin or sweet potato?
Not pumpkin puree, but cubed pumpkin sure. Sweet potato yes. Also butternut squash would be great
The flavor is a big WOW!! We loved it! Full disclosure: I used regular curry powder, and didn’t have the garam marsala, but I don’t think we missed it. I used a very small jalapeno too because we’re not huge on super spicy. And I served it like stew instead of over rice to keep the calories and carbs in check. I know….not exactly as written, but it does show how flexible the recipe is, right? 😉 It was great Andrew! Thanks so much for sharing this great recipe!!
Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try! We love hearing when someone takes one of our recipes and makes it their own. Especially if it helps it fit into your regular meal rotation. We truly appreciate you giving it a try and sharing your experience!
We love this one! My omnivorous husband also eats this vegan meal with me it’s so good. I’m in Michigan though and a few ingredients are hard to come by locally- the scotch bonnet we sub other spicy peppers with and the curry we simply don’t have. When I run out of the sub curry we got I will buy online- could you share what brand/blend you are using?
So glad that you are both enjoying this recipe and that you’ve made it work for you. For Jamaican recipes that call for curry we use this brand – https://amzn.to/4aFTvvF (affiliate link)
Sometimes you can find this in international stores if you have any nearby
Great recipe!!! Held spinach back and added it to our bowls rather than the pot to avoid mushy green…Thought initially that 1 1/2 YBSP of curry was too much, but you were right!!
Thank you so much! We truly appreciate you giving the recipe a try!
Absolutely delicious! Definitely will make again!
Thank you so much! We’re happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe!
This was ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR!!
Thank you so much!!!
Delicious! Easy to make and my family loved it :).
Aww thank you! We love to hear when the whole family enjoyed a recipe. Thank you for giving it a try!