It’s soooo cold here! (read: below 75 degrees) So, I’ve been really into soups lately, if you can’t tell. Earlier this week I got an email from Lindsay with a red lentil soup recipe that she had found on Bodyrock.tv (link may be NSFW) and it looked scrumptious! Seeing that I had a big bag of red lentils in my cupboard, I had to make some. Well, I have to say that this Vegan Red Lentil Stew turned out phenomenal.
Serve this Vegan Red Lentil Stew with some hearty bread (or pita like in the pictures) to make sure that you have complete proteins. Legumes + grains = all of the amino acids that you need.
Aso, make sure you get red lentils and not brown or green for this recipe. Red lentils break down very quickly when cooked which is what makes this Vegan Red Lentil Stew so wonderfully thick and hearty! Even though I probably over paid for these red lentils, can you believe how inexpensive this is? I mean, WOW.
Vegan Red Lentil Stew
Vegan Red Lentil Stew
Servings 6Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.24)
- 1 medium yellow onion ($0.28)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 3 oz tomato paste ($0.26)
- 1 cup dry red lentils ($1.20)
- 1/2 lb carrots ($0.55)
- 1 medium potato ($0.49)
- 6 cups vegetable broth** ($0.78)
- 1 Tbsp cumin ($0.15)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika ($0.10)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.02)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Cook both in a large pot with olive oil over medium heat until soft and transparent (about 5 minutes). Add the tomato paste and continue to stir and cook for about 3-4 minutes more. The tomato paste will caramelize during this time, which will make it sweeter and cause it to look slightly darker.
- While the ingredients in the first step are cooking, peel and dice the potato and carrots. Rinse the lentils. Once the tomato paste has caramelized, add the carrots, potato, and lentils to the pot.
- Also add 6 cups of vegetable broth, cumin, smoked paprika, and cayenne pepper. Give everything a good stir to make sure it’s mixed well. Place a lid on top, turn the heat up to high, and bring the soup to a boil. As soon as it reaches a full boil, turn the heat down to its lowest level and allow it to simmer for 30 minutes.
- After it has simmered for 30 minutes give the pot a stir and add the salt, starting with 1/2 teaspoon. Add more if desired. I used about 3/4 teaspoon total. Serve hot!
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Notes
Nutrition
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Step By Step Photos
As always – dice the onion, mince the garlic. Cook both with olive oil over medium heat until soft.
Once the onions are soft, add the tomato paste. It will start out very bright red like this. (Don’t toss the rest of the tomato paste in the can, it can be frozen and used later).
Continue to stir and cook the tomato paste with the onions for 3-4 minutes. It will get a little dry and turn a deeper shade of red. That’s what you want. Make sure to stir often (although continuously is not necessary).
While all of that is going on, peel and dice the potato and carrots. I used a half pound of carrots, which is about 3-4 medium carrots or half of that bag.
Also, as with any dry bean product, make sure to give the lentils a good rinse. They’re so small that they’d slip through the slits in my colander, so I used a wire mesh sieve.
Add the potatoes, carrots, and lentils to the pot.
Add six cups of vegetable broth, cumin, smoked paprika, and cayenne pepper. Stir everything well to make sure the tomato paste is dissolved in. Put a lid on top, turn the heat up to high, and let it come to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to the lowest setting and let it simmer there for 30 minutes (with the lid on).
After it has simmered for 30 minutes, the lentils will have soaked up a lot of the liquid and gotten all nice and soft. Stir everything together. Add the salt, starting with just 1/2 teaspoon, give it a taste, and then add more if desired.
Serve hot!
Quite hearty and delicious! Vegan Red Lentil Stew for the win.
Last night I made the Bacon & Spinach Pasta with Parmesan, which was such a big hit that I had no leftovers to take for lunch today. So, I whipped up this Red Lentil Stew. It was surprisingly good! Almost everything I cook these days comes from this blog. Keep the awesome recipes coming!
Decent enough soup, I like that the ingredients are things that I pretty much always have on hand (except for tomato paste; luckily, I happened to have some in my pantry, but it’s rare for me). Plus I like how fast this soup is.
The soup was… ok. I used chicken soup base instead of vegetable stock, since that’s what I had, perhaps that is why? It was good, but not amazing. I like how healthy it is, and the amount of fiber it has, but there’s lots of other soups I like better.
The Red Lentil Stew is my favorite all time recipe. I don’t use oil though. Quick, easy, delicious and hearty. Everyone loves it especially in the winter.
I make several of your baked oatmeal recipes on a regular basis for my family but this was the first dinner recipe of yours I tried. I just happen to have the ingredients on a cold night I was having serious dinner block. My curry-hating, meat-loving husband was skeptical but found it to be better than he expected. I loved it! Thanks Beth! Great recipe!
Yummmm!!! Love all your recipes, but this soup just hits the spot on a cool evening. So glad I found your website. I recommend it to everyone.
So filling and delicious! Definitely making this again :)
I’m thinking of making this Saturday to eat on Sunday. Does it reheat well? I always worry that the veggies will “melt” away. :)
I thought it reheated well, although I’m not too picky when it comes to that. :)
Love making this for people, they all fall in love.
This is one my staples. Tonight I made it in preperation of Meatless Monday. Instead of a regular potato I added 1 medium sweet potato and grated (or riced) 1/2 a cauliflower head into it too. I also added 1 tablespoon of chipotle in adobo. I just put the whole can of chipotle in adobo in my food processor and then freeze it in an ice tray by the tablespoon. It is delicious! Nothing wrong with the original recipe either! Thanks for the recipes!
My favorites of the soups/stews I’ve done from here. Absolutely wonderful!
We just made this last night and it’s absolutely DELISH! We didn’t have vegetable broth, so we substituted it with chicken broth and it worked out well. Thanks!
Made this and my teen ate three bowls! I’m vegan and she is vegetarian – and this was a perfect meal for us and it made enough for us to have for lunch 2 days with me finishing it off for a late dinner last night. Scrumptious!
It works very well with homemade ham stock (it’s what I had available, left over from a slow cooked ham shank a couple of weeks back). I increased the smoked paprika from a teaspoon to a tablespoon as well, for the sole reason that I like smoked paprika, and threw some cheap frozen cauliflower and broccoli in for extra goodness.
I found using ham stock there was no need to add extra salt.
Where can you find red lentils?
I think I had found mine at a produce market, but you can check places like Whole Foods, ethnic markets, or anywhere that you can buy beans in bulk.
I’m trying this right now! Although I had to deviate from the original recipe. I could only find brown lentils and added 1/2 tbsp of curry powder to the mix and have it all stewing in my slow cooker.
Tip for anyone who doesn’t have a mesh strainer:
Use a needle to poke many small holes in the bag of lentils. Cut off one end of the bag and then run water drain through it. You’ll have to squeeze the bag around a little to make sure all of your lentils are sufficiently rinsed.