Benefits of Eating Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach

This post seems like a post about recipe stuff but in the actual sense, it’s just about the benefits of eating red curry lentils with sweet potatoes and spinach.

It may appear like a post that teaches how to prepare or make red curry lentils with sweet potatoes and spinach but here, I’m going to let you know what you stand to benefit when you consume red curry lentils with sweet potatoes and spinach.

You’d get to know the importance of combining these foods and how each of them benefits you and where they are mostly recommended for consumption.

How to prepare Red Curry Lentils with Sweet Potato and Spinach

First of all, you can serve this combo with some Basmati rice or warm naan bread

Ingredients are:

1 onion (medium size), chopped

3 tablespoons of red curry paste

3 tablespoons of groundnut oil or olive oil

3 Sweet Potatoes (medium size), peeled and washed, cut into 3/4 inch cubes

1 fresh ginger (1-inch) that’s already grated

1 tablespoon of ground turmeric

3 garlic gloves, already minced

1 red chile, get the ribs and seeds taken out

1 cup of red Lentils

1/2 lime juice

1 bag baby spinach

Coconut milk (1 can)

Salt as needed

3-4 cups of vegetable broth that’s low in sodium

How to prepare

Step 1

Take two (2) tablespoons of groundnut oil or olive oil, and medium-heating it in a pot. Put the chopped sweet potatoes cubes and cook. On few occasions, stir until they all turn brown. Take the potatoes out and put them in a separate plate.

Step 2

Take the remaining tablespoon of groundnut oil or olive and put it into the pot, slightly lowering the heat. Get the onions, add and cook. Add garlic, turmeric, curry paste, chile, and ginger and stir well. Continue cooking.

Step 3

Now, add lentils, sweet potatoes, stock, and salt to the pot and cook them as you increase the heating process.

Bring the down the heat and simmer; then stir. Occasionally stir for a period of 20 to 30 minutes allowing the lentils get tender.

Step 4

Add coconut milk, simmer and also stir as mentioned above allowing the liquid diminish and the lentils looking creamy.

Step 5

Get the spinach, add and stir for about 2 minutes. Remove the pot from the oven or from the heat and stir in the lime juice. Add salt if need be and garnish with cilantro.

That’s it!

Try this with Basmati rice and also give in to more of turmeric, pepper flakes.

Benefits of Eating This Food

I’m going to take them one after the other.

Red Lentils

Lentils belong to the category of foods that nourish or better the blood because they are highly rich in iron and fiber.

Lentils blend well with cabbages, dairy products and spinach because they are good sources of calcium which is quite scarce in lentils.

Red lentils or any lentils of any sort are quite rich in iron and folates, two nutrients highly recommended for young women and those who want to become pregnant.

In essence, red curry lentils with sweet potatoes and spinach is a great meal to consume because lentils are recommended in the following cases

1. Elevated cholesterol
2. Pregnancy
3. Constipation
4. Diabetes
5. Anemia.

Spinach

Lentils take care of the blood while spinach takes care of the eyes. Spinach gives strength to muscles and also provides protection for the retina.

It is said that spinach is the highest nutritious green leafy vegetable.

Its protein content is quite high and combines well with potatoes and lentils. Spinach is highly recommended in cases of:

1. Retina disorders
2. Anemia
3. Elevated cholesterol
4. Pregnancy.

One hundred grams of spinach provides the following

1. Vitamin A (672 µg RE)
2. Folic acid = 194 µg
3. Folates = 200 µg
4. Vitamin C = 28.1 mg

Spinach is highly rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements. This is one of the reasons it is beneficial to eat red curry lentils with sweet potatoes and spinach.

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are good for the stomach. Potatoes and even sweet potatoes is a balanced and almost complete food. One good thing is, cooking or baking potatoes helps retain most of the nutrients.

Raw potato juice helps neutralize stomach acid, as well as cooked ones. Sweet potatoes provide high quality carbohydrates and protein.

Proteins in potatoes are of high biological value thereby providing all amino acids in their right proportions to facilitate growth. The proteins are rich lysine.

Sweet potatoes are rich in beta-carotene (provitamin A).

They also contain a significant amount of cellulose-type fiber. They are recommended in cases such as:

1. Obesity
2. Arteriosclerosis

Did you now see that these foods contain unique nutrients highly recommended for various cases mentioned above? Consuming red curry lentils with sweet potatoes will help us obtain the above mentioned nutrients which will help in fighting certain disease.

There are many ways to prepare this foods, you can get another method on bbc good food.

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