These Lentil Meatballs in Curry Sauce are a perfect vegetarian comfort meal. Serve over cooked rice or meal-prep to eat throughout the week.

Curries have been on our menu a lot this year. We’ve fallen in love with curries in Thailand, and since coming home I’ve cooked them about once every two weeks or so.
This time I wanted to make like a meatball curry, but vegetarian, and went with a lentil version which worked splendidly!
The lentils add a hearty feel to the dish, and the curry sauce adds creaminess, spice, and comfort. If you ask me, this Lentil Meatballs in Curry Sauce is a perfect dish for the colder months, plus you can make it with just a couple of basic pantry ingredients.
Now I’ll admit, making lentil meatballs does include a couple of steps, but they are fairly easy and all they take is a little time. I recommend makig this dish in a double batch and freeze the rest for later use, or make it as a meal-prep to enjoy for meals throughout the week.
There are two steps to makig these Lentil Meatballs in Curry Sauce:
- step 1: make lentil meatballs
- step 2: make the curry sauce
If you’re short on time, you can make the lentil meatballs a day ahead (or even freeze them), and then just make the curry sauce the following day.
How do you make Lentil Meatballs?
There are a couple of steps to making the lentil meatballs, but they’re all very simple!
Start by washing the dry lentils and then cook them in vegetable stock. You could cook them in salted water, but I find cooking them in stock gives them much more flavor once cooked.
Once the lentils are cooked and cooled down, pulse them with the rest of the ingredients (see recipe). You are looking for a texture that is half paste, and half whole lentils, so it has a bite to it.
Then, shape walnut-sized balls out of the mixture and fry them in a pan until golden brown in color.
What kind of lentils can I use?
We recommend using a sturdy kind of lentils. Brown and green lentils work really well, as they retain their shape when cooking. Yellow or red lentils will not work, as they fall apart when cooking.
How do you make the Curry Sauce?
Making this curry sauce is super easy! You can make it using a store-bought curry paste or curry mix spices. We chose a yellow curry paste that we simply added to a pot with a diced onion. Then we added coconut milk. We find it best to first add about 2 tablespoons of thick milk to the paste and let it cook for a couple of minutes until the fat in the coconut milk starts to separate. You’ll see it a drizzle of tiny fat droplets in the sauce. This process will make the sauce extra yummy, but if you are short on time, you can skip this step and just add in the whole of the can of coconut milk. then you also add in the vegetable stock, the cooked lentil meatballs and fresh herbs (we used parsley, but do use coriander if you have it). Don’t forget to season to taste with salt and pepper and then just let cook for about 15 minutes, so the flavors incorporate. That’s it!
How do you serve this dish?
We like having Lentil Meatballs in Curry Sauce served over cooked rice. Plain basmati or jasmine rice will do, but try also wild rice or a rice mixture for extra nutrients!
Is this dish vegetarian?
Yes, this dish is vegetarian but is not fully plant-based! I have not yet tried making it wholly plant-based, and the lentil meatballs do have an egg as a binder. But, you are free to try using an egg replacer (like flax-egg) to make it fully vegan. I would appreciate your feedback if you do try to veganize this recipe!
These Lentil Meatballs in Curry Sauce are a perfect vegetarian comfort meal. Serve over cooked rice or meal-prep to eat through the week. Nutrition data is automatically calculated using Nutritionix and may not be accurate.Lentil Meatballs in Curry Sauce
Ingredients
Lentil meatballs:
Curry sauce:
To serve:
Instructions
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6
Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 309Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 1313mgCarbohydrates: 30gFiber: 4gSugar: 4gProtein: 8g
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