Learn how to make an easy red lentil and moong dal recipe with pumpkin and spinach. You’ll need simple plant-based ingredients and 30 minutes of your time.
What I love about this recipe:
- Quick and easy to prepare.
- Ultimate autumnal comfort food.
- Perfect for batch-cooking.
My moong dal recipe is vegan and plant-based, gluten-free, low glycemic, vegan Candida diet friendly, nut-free as well as peanut-free, soy-free, oil-free, and low-fat.
Table of contents
How to Make Red Lentil and Moong Dal Recipe with Pumpkin
The Ingredients
The Base Components
In this recipe, the main components are red lentils and mung dal aka yellow split mung beans. I must admit that I simply love the heartiness and creaminess of moong dal. In addition, mung beans and lentils are low glycemic and an excellent source of plant protein. In case you don’t have red lentils, feel free to use only moong dal in this recipe.
Next up is pumpkin. Besides adding a nice golden colour, it also brings in some sweetness and extra creaminess. As a side note, you may use any winter squash variety. For example, regular pumpkin, butternut squash, or even Hokkaido pumpkin aka pie pumpkin. In case you are avoiding starchy veggies, simply leave the pumpkin out.
Herbs and Spices
It’s noteworthy that I almost always include a bay leaf when cooking legumes and grains. The reason is that bay leaf adds a heavenly flavour and makes beans, lentils, and grains easier to digest as well.
As always, there’s onion and garlic. By the way, I add crushed garlic at the end not to lose its benefits.
Besides curry paste, I also include turmeric to enhance the colour of my moong dal. As it happens, I find curry paste to be irreplaceable when it comes to quick meals. To me, it simply gives the best flavouring and saves a significant amount of time.
Instead of curry paste you may also use curry powder, Indian spice mix, or garam masala mix along with some mustard seeds and curry leaves.
Extras
In my opinion, coconut milk and moong dal are a match made in heaven. That being said, you can add as little or as much as you like. Simply adjust the fat contents to your liking. Provided you want to avoid saturated fats altogether, replace coconut milk with some tahini or blended silken tofu.
Finally, it’s my preference to include greens whenever I can. So, a big bunch of baby spinach go into this moong dal recipe as well.
The Process
Start by thoroughly washing moong dal and red lentils in a medium pot. In order to do that, cover them with water and then move your hand around in the pot. After that discard the soggy water. Now, repeat this process for about 7 times until the water becomes clear. Then, cover the legumes with clean water and let them soak for at least a few hours. When the time is up, drain, rinse, and transfer back into the pot.
Next, add one large or two smaller bay leaves, chopped onion, and cubed pumpkin into the pot as well. Then, cover with water and let simmer for 10 minutes until the lentils, moong dal and pumpkin are soft.
Now, crush the garlic cloves and mix those into the dal along with turmeric.
Then, in a glass or a small bowl, combine curry paste, coconut milk, and some water. Mix this into the dal as well.
Finally, transfer baby spinach on top of everything and simply stir it in. By the way, it will wilt very quickly and diminish in size significantly.
How to Serve
Serve this moong dal with any cooked whole grains (rice, quinoa, teff, sorghum), whole grain pasta, or sourdough bread. For example, fermented buckwheat bread, whole grain spelt sourdough bread, or buckwheat and quinoa sourdough bread. Alternatively, try out my buckwheat tortillas or flatbread.
As you may have noticed, this moong dal recipe already includes a bunch of greens, but it won’t hurt to have some extra salad as a side. In case you struggle with salad dressing ideas, check out my Guide to Oil-Free Salad Dressings. Alternatively, use this moong dal as dressing. Believe me, it works wonderfully!
Here are some oil-free salad dressing recipes for you to try out:
To spice it up, sprinkle on a bit of red chili flakes, chili powder, or cayenne pepper. Alternatively, add chopped red chilis while cooking the dal.
Eventually, garnish your moong dal with chopped fresh cilantro or parsley and squeeze some fresh lemon juice on top.
How to Store This Moong Dal Recipe
Let me say that this moong dal recipe is excellent for batch-cooking. Moreover, prepare some extra grains as well and you’re good to go for the next couple of days.
So, store this moong dal in an airtight container or jar in the fridge for up to 4 days. Then, heat it up on stovetop or in microwave oven and dig in!
More delicious gluten-free and vegan curry and stew ideas:
- 30-minute Indian flavoured vegan curry with chickpeas, potatoes and red beans
- Creamy Chickpea and Tomato Curry
- Curried Red Lentil Dahl with Jerusalem Artichoke
- Asparagus and Mushroom Curry
- Curried Millet and Red Lentil Stew
- Oil-Free Sweet Potato and Lentil Stew
- Lentil-Pea-Corn Stew
- Creamy Lentil Stew with Potatoes and Tomato
- Quick Artichoke and Bean Stew
- Hearty Millet and Beluga Lentil Stew
- Sweet and Simple Pumpkin and Chickpea Stew
Watch how I make this pumpkin moong dal recipe along with 4 other savoury pumpkin recipes in the below video:
Download my Guide to Low Glycemic Plant-Based Diet!
What are glycemic index and glycemic load and why those matter.
The list of low, medium and high glycemic foods.
Easy tips on staying on a low glycemic diet.
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Red Lentil and Moong Dal Recipe with Pumpkin
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Learn how to make an easy red lentil and moong dal recipe with pumpkin and spinach. You’ll need simple plant-based ingredients and 30 minutes of your time.
Soaking time: 2 hours
Ingredients
- 1 cup (195g, 6.9oz) moong dal (split yellow mung beans)
- 1 cup (185g, 6.5oz) red lentils
- 1 medium onion (80g, 2.8oz with skin)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1½ cups (230g, 8.1oz) cubed pumpkin
- 2 tbsps. (37g, 1.3oz) curry paste + 2 tbsps. hot water
- 1 tsp. turmeric
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 boxes (150g, 5.3oz) baby spinach
- 610g (21.5oz, 2½ cups) water
- ¼ cup (4 tbsps.) coconut milk
Instructions
- Start by thoroughly washing moong dal and red lentils in a medium pot. To do that, cover them with water and then move your hand around in the pot for a short while. Discard the soggy water. Repeat this process for about 7 times until the water becomes clear. Then, cover the lentils and dal with clean water and let soak for at least a few hours. Then, drain, rinse, and transfer back into the pot.
- Next, add one large or two smaller bay leaves, chopped onion, and cubed pumpkin into the pot as well. Cover with water and let simmer for 10 minutes until the lentils, moong dal and pumpkin are soft.
- Now, crush the garlic cloves and mix those into the dal along with turmeric.
- Then, in a glass or a small bowl, combine curry paste, coconut milk, and some water. Add this mixture to the dal.
- Finally, transfer baby spinach on top of everything and simply mix it in. It will wilt very quickly and diminish in size significantly.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Method: Stovetop
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/5 of recipe
- Calories: 334 kcal
- Sodium: 208.7mg
- Fat: 3.7g
- Saturated Fat: 2.1g
- Carbohydrates: 44.7g
- Fiber: 13.5g
- Protein: 20.1g
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