Easy Vegan Lentils with Sweet Potatoes

Portions: servings

Calories: 354kcal

5 from 1 vote

This aromatic, comforting, filling and light lentils with sweet potatoes recipe will be your new meatless favorite. It combines lentils, sweet potato, spinach, and carrot with a wonderful fragrant spice combination that makes it so very comforting and filling.

By Clara Gonzalez - Last revised Sep 30, 2025. Original Mar 6, 2013.

Why I ❤️ it Recipe Ingredients Preparation

Lentils with potatoes.

Why I ❤️ it

Serve this delicious lentil with sweet potatoes dish, and you will be making it again soon. There's so much going on here, so let me unpack it for you: very nutritious, light, easy to make, inexpensive, and tastes even better the next day (yay for leftovers!).

If you have the suspicion that I have borrowed more than a little inspiration from Indian cuisine, you are right. I have. I love their spices, so I incorporated some of my favorite ones into this dish.

Lentils with sweet potatoes recipe

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Learn how to make spiced lentils with sweet potatoes and carrots in a aromatic, comforting, filling, and light vegan dish.

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Inspiration: Vegan, Vegetarian

Category: easy lentil recipes, quick vegan lentil recipes, vegan lentil curry, vegan lentil recipes no soup

Author: Clara Gonzalez

Prep Time6 10

Cook Time15

Total Time6 25

Utensils and tools

Ingredients

Seeds from 12 cardamom pods
½ teaspoon of peppercorns
½ teaspoon of chili flakes
1 teaspoon of coarse salt
¼ cup of olive oil, divided
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 large white onion, diced
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
1½ pound of sweet potatoes, (orange or purple), diced
2 large carrots, diced
1 cup of minced fresh spinach (optional, see notes)
2 bay leaves
2 cups of dry lentils
2 cup of vegetable broth, divided

Preparation

Before starting, please make sure you have all the ingredients and utensils ready.

Step 1: Combine spices

Combine cardamom seeds, peppercorns, chili flakes and coarse salt. Crush with a mortar and pestle until it is ground.

Step 2: Sautee

Heat half the olive oil in a large skillet over very low heat. Add garlic cloves, and the mixture prepared above. Cook and stir for 30 seconds or until the ingredients release their aroma.

Add the onions to the skillet, increase the heat to medium-low, and cook and stir until the onions turn translucent.

Step 3: Season

Stir in the turmeric powder, sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, bay leaves and lentils. Stir until everything is well mixed.

Step 4: Simmer

Pour in half the vegetable stock, and mix well. Cover and simmer until the liquid has evaporated (stir every 3 minutes or so to prevent it from scorching).

Add the remaining stock, cover, and simmer (stirring frequently) until the carrots are cooked.

Step 5: Serve

Remove from the heat and drizzle with the remaining oil. Serve (see suggestions below).

Variations

You can make this same recipe by substituting potatoes for sweet potatoes. You can also use whatever kind of sweet potato you find, though be mindful that cooking times and flavor may vary slightly.

Kale also makes a great substitution for spinach, and if you don't like either, you can leave it out.

Top tips

If you would prefer it so, don't let all the stock evaporate in the end for a more curry-like consistency, this is perfect if you serve it with rice.
If you, like me, love spicy food, add more chili flakes, as much as you want. This recipe produces a very mild spicy dish.
Make sure the spices and garlic do not burn at any time of the process, as they will turn bitter.

Serving suggestions

You can eat this dish alone, or with some salad, or - my favorite - some white rice. Check these other inexpensive options too.

More meatless recipes

More: meatless recipes legumes recipes dinner recipes

Nutritional information

Calories: 354kcal - Carbohydrates: 50g - Protein: 18gFat: 10g - Saturated Fat: 1g - Sodium: 335mg - Potassium: 830mg - Fiber: 21g - Sugar: 5g - Vitamin A: 3590IU - Vitamin C: 11.4mg - Calcium: 59mg - Iron: 5.4mg

FAQs

What kind of lentils should I use?

You can use either green lentils or red lentils equally. Just be mindful that the cooking time may vary.

Print card

This is just a printer-friendly summary, some useful details are found in the recipe above.

Spiced Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Carrots

Serving: 6 servings

Ingredients

Seeds from 12 cardamon pods
½ teaspoon of peppercorns
½ teaspoon of chili flakes
1 teaspoon of course salt
¼ cup olive oil divided
6 garlic cloves crushed
2 white onion (large), diced
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
6 of sweet potatoes (or medium-size potatoes of your choice), diced
2 carrots (large), diced
1 cup minced fresh spinach
2 bay leaves
2 cups dry lentils
2 cups vegetable broth

Instructions

Step 1: Combine spices

Combine cardamom seeds, peppercorns, chili flakes and coarse salt. Crush with a mortar and pestle until it is ground.

Step 2: Sautee

Heat half the olive oil in a large skillet over very low heat. Add garlic cloves, and the mixture prepared above. Cook and stir for 30 seconds or until the ingredients release their aroma.
Add the onions to the skillet, increase the heat to medium-low, and cook and stir until the onions turn translucent.

Step 3: Season

Stir in the turmeric powder, sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, bay leaves and lentils. Stir until everything is well mixed.

Step 4: Simmer

Pour in half the vegetable stock, and mix well. Cover and simmer until the liquid has evaporated (stir ever 3 minutes or so to prevent it from scorching).
Add the remaining stock, cover and simmer (stirring frequently) until the carrots are cooked through.