Slow Cooker Pineapple Coconut Lentil Curry with Spinach and Black-Eyed Peas (Vegan)

Written by on in Dinner, Side Dish

Happy New Year! Different cultures have different New Year’s Day traditions as to the foods you should eat to bring you luck and wealth in the new year. In the South, they eat black-eyed peas. In Italy, they eat lentils because they look like Roman coins. And in some cultures, they eat greens because we all want more green-backs in the new year. Given this year the traditional family gathering was put on hold, I decided to try a new way to eat our tradition of black-eyed peas. Best part about this recipe is that you can make the onion-spice mixture the night before and then just mix it in the slow cooker on the day of letting it cook on the counter during the day. Perfect if you partied a little too hard the night/morning before.

Slow Cooker Pineapple Coconut Lentil Curry with Spinach and Black-Eyed Peas
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Slow Cooker Pineapple Coconut Lentil Curry with Spinach and Black-Eyed Peas

Recipe by The Cooking LawyerCourse: DinnerCuisine: Asian FusionDifficulty: Easy
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

10

minutes
Cooking time

6

hours 
Total time

6

hours 

10

minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup lentils (brown)

  • 1 can light coconut milk

  • 1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained

  • 1 can crushed pineapple with juice

  • 1 onion, finely diced

  • 1 tsp curry powder

  • 1/2 tsp cumin

  • 1/2 tsp turmeric

  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon

  • 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

  • Non-stick cooking spray

  • 1 bag of spinach

Directions

  • Mix curry powder, turmeric, cumin, and cinnamon together.
  • In small skillet, spray with non-stick cooking spray. Then add finely diced onion. Cook onion on low eat until translucent.
  • Add the spices and continue cooking until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
  • Rinse lentils and drain. Add to basin of slow cooker.
  • Add crushed pineapple with the liquid, rinsed black-eyed peas, onion mixture, coconut milk, and crushed red pepper. Mix. Set slow cooker to low for 6 hours. Monitor to make sure your lentils do not need additional liquid. If you need more liquid, add 1/2 cup of water at a time to avoid oversaturating the lentils (I found I did not need any extra water given the juicy pineapple).
  • Hour hour before time is done on the slow cooker, add spinach to slow cooker. Mix spinach into curry. Serve immediately or let sit on warm function. Great reheated too!

Notes

  • If you don’t have fresh spinach, frozen spinach works fine. Just make sure you squeeze out the extra liquid.

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