Bean curry
So I tried the much-raved-about curry tonight in the crock pot and it came out pretty good. Admittedly, I am not a precise recipe follower, and I just used what I had in the pantry since this was a spur of the moment idea. But I was curious whether the curry usually comes out tasting sweet. I think I overdid the raisins -- I wasn't expecting the sweetness to be so strong. I also added too much cayenne pepper and it came out with a pretty good kick. 
Also, I read the reviews and some people say it comes out tasting more like chili than curry. Have you found that? I'm not sure what flavor I'm supposed to go for to make a 5-star dish like most of the reviewers got.
I used lentils, garbanzos, and pinto beans... and cumin seed (that I tried to crush up)... and a can of tomato sauce, since I didn't have crushed.... a little more than the recommended amount of raisins since I added extra beans... and all the other regular spices. I'll have to try this again and stick better to the prescribed recipe. I love beans and really want to get this right!
Re: Bean curry
If it's coming out too sweet, try cutting back on the amount of raisins - that's really the only sweet ingredient, so you might have to fiddle to get the right amount for your taste (for example, as Jaime mentioned below, she doubles the amount - I like less so I use the original recipe amount).
Using pinto beans instead of kidney beans might have made it taste sweeter, too - pinto beans seem to absorb more flavor while kidney beans have a stronger taste. Of course, although I've increased the amount of beans (sometimes tossing in two cans of kidney beans), I have never tried using different kinds of beans, so I could be talking out of my a$$...
What's in your tomato sauce? I know some of those have added sugar as well, vs just plain crushed tomatoes.
I haven't found it more chili than curry, but I also don't alter it much from the original recipe - maybe the people that made that comment did too many changes? Or decreased the amount of curry powder? That's one thing I forgot to mention below - I use heaping tablespoons of curry powder, not level ones. But like I mentioned, I like relatively heavily seasoned food.
I feel like it's not really like chili (b/c i think of chili as having meat in it...but I know there are vegetarian chilis out there) but also not like curry either.... definitely make sure you have a good curry powder b/c there are different ones out there and the curry flavor will vary depending on the curry powder you use. I have also thrown it into the crockpot with 1-2 frozen chicken breasts and then shred the chicken and it's delish
I guess to me it doesn't really matter if it tastes more like chili or more like curry as long as it tastes good. I just like the strong tomato-y curry flavor that it has and like that it has lots of good protein in it
I'm not a fan of pinto beans so I definitely think kidney beans are better in this recipe than pinto but that's probably just personal preference
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
Related to this, make sure your curry powder isn't too old. It's one of those spices that loses its potency rather quickly, so if it's been open for a while you'll probably need to use a lot more of it than the recipe calls for.