Sweet Potato Lentil Stew — The Lighter Sunday

Two weeks of seminars in. The reading load at TCC is heavy in a way I had been warned about and had still underestimated — the freshman writing seminar alone has us doing sixty pages of dense reading a night minimum, plus the supplemental essays Dr. Choi assigns at the start of each week, plus the writing for our Friday workshop submissions, plus the marginalia we’re expected to bring to Tuesday and Thursday morning class to demonstrate close reading. Add to that my American history survey, my intro to philosophy, and my Spanish III conversation class, and the average weeknight in the dorm is six hours of focused reading with breaks for coffee.

I have been eating in the dining hall most weeknights to save kitchen time and save myself from cooking-as-procrastination, which I had identified as my own personal danger pattern by the end of the first week. The dining hall is fine. The dining hall is a dining hall. It feeds me protein and vegetables and a salad bar and lets me sit at a long table reading while I eat. Sundays are still mine. Sundays are still the kitchen, and Sundays are the day I have started circling on my paper week-planner as the day that holds the rest of my week together.

This Sunday I made a sweet potato and red lentil stew because the week had been heavy in a heart-and-head way as well as a workload way (the workload was heavy, but so was a phone call with Mama Tuesday in which she told me Cody was struggling at the Tulsa restaurant where he’d been doing his shadowing rotations, that the head chef had been rough with him, and that Cody had come home Tuesday quiet in a way Mama hadn’t seen since spring), and my body wanted plant protein and warm spices and not another beef stew. The sweet-potato-and-lentil combination is the kind of dish that feels nourishing in a way meat-based stews don’t for me. The lentils give the protein. The sweet potatoes give the body. The coconut milk gives the richness. The spices give the depth.

The technique: olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. One large yellow onion diced, four cloves of garlic minced, a two-inch piece of fresh ginger grated on the microplane, sweated for eight minutes until soft. Two tablespoons of curry powder (a good Madras curry powder if your store has it; the supermarket generic is fine but you’ll need a touch more), one teaspoon of cumin, one teaspoon of ground coriander, a half-teaspoon of cinnamon, a quarter-teaspoon of cayenne (optional, depending on heat tolerance), bloomed in the oil for thirty seconds.

Two large sweet potatoes peeled and cut into one-inch cubes added and stirred to coat in the spice oil. One cup of red lentils added and stirred (red lentils are the move — they cook in twenty minutes, they don’t need pre-soaking, they break down into the broth and thicken the stew naturally). One can of full-fat coconut milk poured in. Four cups of low-sodium vegetable broth. A tablespoon of tomato paste. Salt. Bring to a simmer and hold there for twenty-five minutes until the sweet potatoes are tender and the lentils have broken down into the liquid.

Two big handfuls of kale leaves stripped from their stems and torn into bite-sized pieces stirred in for the last five minutes. Off the heat, finish with the juice of one lime, a generous handful of fresh cilantro chopped fine, and adjust salt. Serve over basmati rice cooked with a bay leaf and a pinch of salt. A swirl of plain whole-milk yogurt on top of each bowl for the cool contrast against the warm spice. A wedge of lime on the side. Crushed roasted peanuts and extra cilantro for the heat-tolerant.

Dustin came up to the second-floor kitchen at six PM Sunday. He brought a small paper bag of fresh-baked naan from the Indian place across campus where he’d been studying that afternoon, and a bottle of cheap Two-Buck-Chuck white wine he’d picked up at the corner store. We ate at the common-room table while a few dorm-mates wandered through and helped themselves to bowls. Dustin asked me about Mama and Cody, in a quiet way, after the dorm-mates had cleared out and it was just the two of us at the table. I told him the version of the family story I tell strangers — the basics, the bullet points, the structure. Then I told him the longer version, because Dustin had already earned the longer version, and because his face when I’d told him the bullet points had been the face of someone listening for what I wasn’t saying. The longer version took an hour. He didn’t interrupt. When I finished, he said, very quietly, “Thanks for trusting me with that.” That was all he said. We ate the rest of the stew.

Red lentils don’t pre-soak. Twenty-five minutes simmer. Kale at the end. Here’s the build.

Sweet Potato Lentil Stew

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1 1/2 cups red lentils, rinsed
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups fresh spinach or chopped kale (optional)
• Juice of 1 lemon

Instructions

1. Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4–5 minutes until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more, until fragrant.
2. Build the stew. Add the sweet potato cubes, rinsed lentils, diced tomatoes with their liquid, and vegetable broth. Stir to combine.
3. Season. Stir in the cumin, smoked paprika, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Mix well so the spices are evenly distributed.
4. Simmer. Bring the stew to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover partially and simmer for 25–30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are completely soft and the sweet potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.
5. Finish and serve. If using greens, stir them in during the last 2 minutes of cooking until just wilted. Squeeze in the lemon juice and stir. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve hot, with crusty bread or over rice if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 275 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 3g | Carbs: 50g | Fiber: 11g | Sodium: 490mg