Coconut-Curry Lentil Stew served over Quinoa - Review

This year I have decided to branch out our family's palate. Each week we are eating at least one vegetarian meal. The first couple of vegetarian weeks were great, but this week was not so great. Good way to start the new year.... :(

I was searching through allrecipes.com to find some vegetarian ideas, and came up with Coconut-Curry Lentil Stew served over Quinoa. The picture didn't look too exciting, but it was fairly highly reviewed and highly rated, so I thought we would give it a go.

Not so good. But I will blame myself for that one. Possibly.

Before I make anything that I find on allrecipes.com, I read the reviews. Half of them will give a recipe four or five stars, and then will say something like, "This recipe was FANTASTIC! I only cut the salt by half, added a cup more of chicken broth, added a bay leaf and threw in a handful of barley. SO good. Highly recommend." Yeah. So, I tend to read the reviews to find common themes among the reviewers, and then adapt the recipe according to the majority vote. This has proven to be a great way to approach the recipes there. So I read the reviews to this recipe and saw that, well, they all said basically, "Make the recipe as written. Only I didn't add coconut powder because I didn't have it." And half of them said, "And I added an extra can of coconut milk."

I followed the recipe except for two things: 1) didn't add coconut powder (neither does anyone else, apparently), and 2) I used brown lentils instead of red lentils.

Point of knowledge here: Brown lentils are the ones that you typically find bagged at the store. Think of the most drab color you can imagine, and you have brown lentils. Red lentils are more of a salmon color, and are a bit harder to find at stores. BUT, it turns out that they cook faster. Would have been good to know before I started this. :)

I got to the point in the recipe where the lentils were supposed to be done in about 15 mins. Brown lentils didn't soften up as quickly, and here is where a few reviewers added an extra can of coconut milk. I was feeling cheap and decided not to add the extra can, but added some water. This may have been the part that could have saved the recipe, but who knows.

I finished making the quinoa and the lentil stew, and served it to my family. My 7-year old, bless his heart, ate all of his portion - he doesn't like to make people feel bad. The rest of my family, including my husband who will eat almost anything, ate a few bites and then decided they couldn't finish it. I had to have my husband throw it all down the sink. It was WAY too spicy, and not nearly enough flavor to justify all of the spiciness. Even my husband, who dumps tabasco on everything, said it was too spicy. I get that curry is a different breed of spice, but when you add 3T. of curry powder and 2T. coriander, you are going to have a VEEERY spicy dish.

I have a chicken curry recipe that was given to me by a friend that I like a lot more, and it is much easier. I'll have to post that one sometime.

Family Rating: * (because of the child that finished it)
My Rating: * (because I am not sure if adding extra coconut milk would have helped or not. Otherwise it would be 0 stars because nobody ate it.)
Expense: $$ (probably closer to the $10 end - possibly more - depending on what you have on hand. Quinoa runs about $3.25/lb. where I found it, and the spices all add up too)