I’m already declaring THIS my favorite recipe of the winter of 2018/2019, and we haven’t even gotten to winter yet! That’s just how excited I am about this Lentil Stew. I’ve made it twice in a row and am not even tired of it yet. I’ve even eaten it twice for breakfast. My want for this hearty lentil stew knows no boundaries.
I had been craving beef stew but felt like I’d been eating a bit more meat than usual lately, so I decided to try to craft something just as rich, hearty, and flavorful, without meat. I modeled this Vegan Winter Lentil Stew recipe after my Slow Cooker Beef Stew, but I made a few substitutions to make it 100% plant-based. The medley of vegetables and herbs creates a thick, flavorful, and comforting stew that is just begging for some crusty bread to sop it all up. I served mine with a batch of No-Knead Bread and was in heaven.
Ingredients for Lentil Stew
- Aromatics: Any good stew will start with aromatics for a nice deep flavor. I used onion and garlic (four cloves, but you can measure with your heart!).
- Vegetables: A medley of vegetables adds flavor, color, and texture to this hearty stew. I used carrots, celery, potatoes, and green peas, but you could also try other vegetables like mushrooms, parsnips, or turnips.
- Lentils: Lentils are what make this stew so thick and hearty. They provide a ton of fiber and other nutrients, yet are super budget-friendly! We used green or brown lentils (not French green lentils), which cook quickly, in about 20 minutes, with no soaking needed.
- Broth: The liquid base for this stew is vegetable broth, which provides tons of complex flavor and an appealing stew-like brown color. The type of broth used will definitely impact the flavor of your stew, so I suggest using Better Than Bouillon.
- Seasoning: To flavor the stew even further we add dried rosemary, dried thyme, a little Dijon mustard for some zing, soy sauce for umami, and a little brown sugar to add a sweetness similar to what you’d find in Worcestershire sauce.
What to Serve with Lentil Stew
This hearty lentil stew is truly a complete meal in a bowl that is packed with nutrients. I wouldn’t typically serve a side dish with lentil stew, except maybe some bread for sopping up all that delicious gravy. Try our no-knead bread, garlic bread, beer bread, or drop biscuits.
How to Store and Reheat Lentil Stew
This stew will stay good in the refrigerator for up to five days. To reheat, simply microwave until hot or place in a saucepot and heat over medium-low, stirring frequently, until heated through.
To freeze this stew, I suggest dividing it into single portions, cooling it completely in the refrigerator overnight, and then transferring it to the freezer. And don’t forget, always label and date your freezer food! The stew will stay good in the freezer for about three months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before heating, or use the defrost function on a microwave.
Vegan Lentil Stew
Servings 8 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 4 carrots (about 1/2 lb.) ($0.45)
- 4 stalks celery ($0.75)
- 2 lbs potatoes ($0.70)
- 1 cup brown lentils ($0.49)
- 1 tsp dried rosemary ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme ($0.05)
- 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard ($0.09)
- 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.09)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.04)
- 6 cups vegetable broth ($0.78)
- 1 cup frozen peas ($0.38)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add the olive oil, onion, and garlic to a large soup pot and begin to sauté over medium heat.
- While the onion and garlic are sautéing, dice the celery, then add it to the pot and continue to sauté. As the celery, onion, and garlic are sautéing, peel and chop the carrots into half rounds. Add the carrots to the pot and continue to sauté.
- As the onion, garlic, celery, and carrots are sautéing, peel and cube the potatoes into 3/4 to 1-inch pieces. Add the cubed potatoes to the pot along with the lentils, rosemary, thyme, Dijon, soy sauce, brown sugar, and vegetable broth.
- Briefly stir the ingredients to combine, then place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to high, and bring the stew up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Toward the end of the simmer time, when the potatoes are very soft, begin to mash the potatoes a bit as you stir. This will help thicken the stew.
- Finally, after 30 minutes, stir in the frozen peas and allow them to heat through. Taste the stew and add salt if needed (this will depend on the salt content of your broth, I did not add any extra). Serve hot and enjoy!
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Vegan Lentil Stew – Step by Step Photos
Begin by dicing one yellow onion and mincing four cloves of garlic. Add the onion, garlic, and 2 Tbsp olive oil to a large soup pot. Sauté over medium heat.
While the onion and garlic are sautéing, dice or slice 4 stalks celery (depending on how chunky you want your stew). Add the celery to the pot and continue to sauté. Peel and chop four carrots into half-rounds, add them to the pot, and continue to sauté.
While the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic are sautéing, peel and cube 2 lbs. potatoes into 3/4 to 1-inch cubes. Add the potatoes to the pot along with 1 cup brown lentils, 1 tsp dried rosemary, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard, 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce, and 1 Tbsp brown sugar.
Finally, add 6 cups vegetable broth to the pot and give everything a brief stir. Place a lid on top, turn the heat up to high, and bring it up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low, and let it simmer for 3o minutes, stirring occasionally.
Toward the end of the simmer time, when the potatoes are very soft, begin to mash them a bit against the side of the pot as you stir. This will thicken the stew. After 30 minutes, add 1 cup frozen peas, and allow them to heat through. Finally, taste the stew and add salt if needed (I did not add any salt because the broth I used had enough).
Enjoy your Vegan Lentil Stew with a big chunk of crusty bread to sop up all that richness!
From one Beth M. to another, thanks for a super fabulous recipe! This is going into the rotation for sure. Comforting, filling, and I still feel virtuous after a bowl. :)
Hey Beth!! :D
Just made this last night and it was totally delicious! Thanks for another awesome recipe. 😍
Beth, you have been KILLING IT with the comfort food recipes lately! I can’t wait to try this, I’ve been looking for a good vegetarian alternative to beef stew for years. Thank you for always thinking of the vegetarians; you have so many vegetarian and vegan meals, and you always have ideas for substiting meat in other recipes. It’s appreciated! You are helping people make healthier choices more affordable. Please never stop!
Thank you, Sarah!!
I am going to make this tomorrow. I went to the local nice grocery store and bought ingredients today, and I stumbled across a bit of a cheaper way to get herbs there. Since it was the nice store, they have a bulk section, and they have a decent selection of herbs in it. I got a little more than a tablespoon of dried rosemary for 4 cents. I think that puts filling a normal grocery store spice jar for 30 cents or so. It was a neat little setup with small scoops and bags and stuff. Prolly old hat to you, but I was happy to find it. :)
Sorry this is not vegan nor vegitarian. Soy sauce has anchovies in it or Herring.. You may want to modify title.
I think you’re confusing soy sauce with Worcestershire sauce. Soy sauce only contains soy beans, wheat, salt, water, and bacterial cultures.
I visit this site all the time for dinner inspiration and you never disappoint. I find delicious, easy, budget friendly recipes every. single. time. And this stew was soooo good! I just had a bowl for I breakfast, too. I always forget how awesome lentils are. Going to use my IP for next batch and maybe play around with some different spices. For those asking about IP time, my guess would be 15 minutes at medium pressure and add peas at the end… but that’s just a guess.
Do you think this stew would work with french lentils instead of brown? Thanks for any advice :)
From what I understand (having not used French lentils before) they take much longer to cook. And you want to cook the lentils down a LOT so they kind of break down and help thicken the stew. So you’d probably need to at least double the cook time, which may affect how the rest of the ingredients cook down, too.
I replace celery with parsley stems in chicken soup sometimes -maybe that would work here too?
Can’t wait to give this a try!
Looks delish! Any estimate on how long in the Instantpot? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? Thanks!
This one looks great, can’t wait to try it out! We’ve been trying to cut back on meat lately, too.
For Instant Pot conversions I always check the IP cooking time chart: https://instantpot.com/instantpot-cooking-time/ and look for whatever ingredient will take the longest. It’s saying brown lentils need 10 minutes at a minimum…15 sounds about right to me.
Thank you for sharing that link!
I’m not very well practiced with my IP, so it’s hard to estimate, but I’d err on the longer side since you want the lentils and potatoes to really cook down so they break down and thicken the stew.
I make something very similar but add some seitan! It’s a meat substitute made of wheat gluten and tastes sort of beefy. You can get it at Asian grocery stores in a can and probably at places like Whole Foods. I’d love to see you use it in a new recipe.
Hi Liana! I have never used seitan but REALLLYYY want to get my hands on some. Do you have any tips on what to do with the seitan when adding it to a dish like this? Thanks :)
I would saute it at the beginning with the onions and garlic to get it nice and crispy, and bring out some of the flavor. Since it’s in a soup, it won’t stay crispy so just leave it in the pot with the rest of the ingredients. If you get the kind in a can, it comes packed in broth, which I think would work fantastically in this soup if used to replace some of the water.
Looks really yummy Beth! Question: how would you do this in a crockpot?
I’d probably just dump everything in there and press go (but probably still add the peas at the end). :) It’s really hard to say how it would turn out or how long it would need to cook without testing it out, though. It can be hard to predict conversions like this.
Hey Andy, I tried this in my crockpot last night, took about 4 hrs on high for everything to be cooked through, added peas near the end. However the potatoes didn’t really “break down” as I wasn’t smashing them as it’s cooking, I wasn’t too worried about that, figure I can blend a bit later or add cornstarch slurry to thicken if I want it thick, now it’s a but more soup than stew. Hope all that helps!
Thanks for sharing your results!
This looks and sounds amazing. I love mustard and potatoes, and often add soy sauce afterwards to vegetable soup. How clever to combine them beforehand. Thanks for posting.
That looks so good! I have to try it. I do not like celery, so I am not going to use that. If anyone has any ideas of something to put in it’s place I would love to hear that suggestion!
I don’t really like celery either, but sometimes in soup or stew I find it’s hard to replace that flavour. If you don’t completely hate the flavour, something I do sometimes is use less than the recipe requires and cut it up super thin and small. I think my issue is that cooked celery has such a weird texture, but if it’s small, you don’t really notice it. If you’re like me it might help! Good luck!
You could use celery salt in place of the salt called for in the recipe. It would add the celery-like flavor, if all you dislike is the texture of celery. If it’s just the stalks you don’t like, you could use the leaves of celery, chopped fine, just like you would fresh parsley.
Consider adding white vinegar to the recipe 5 minutes before serving. Up to a quarter cup. Really brightens the flavor. Learned this one from a Greek transplant, the mother of a family friend, when I saw her adding the vinegar shortly before serving.
Love it! I’m going to try that next time!
Definitely going to make this for my vegetarian teenage daughter and myself. Curious as to what brand of vegetable stock you like? I have not been able to find a brand I like and tend not to enjoy the soups I make for my daughter because of this. They often seem too sweet for my taste. I have been using mushroom broth when I make beef type soups going 1/2 and 1/2 with a mixture of beef stock and mushroom. I am thinking I might try 1/2 mushroom and 1/2 vegetable to make the broth more palatable.
I use Better Than Bouillon for pretty much all my soups and I love it! :)