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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Nutrition
Video
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!
Is there any chance you could give cooking times for the various steps? I’m new to cooking and I don’t have a sense as to how long the various vegetables should saute. Thanks!
I try to give estimates when possible, but cooking time varies depending on so many different factors (your range top, cookware, size the vegetables are cut, etc.) that often there is no set amount of time. Instead, I try to give sensory queues, like what it should look/sound/smell/feel like, that let you know when it’s time to move onto the next step. I definitely suggest checking out my article for 10 Tips for Recipe Success. It will help you navigate reading and executing recipes as a new cook. :)
I don’t have peas on hand right now. Do you think adding 1 cup of rice or barley instead would work just as well? I might need to add a little more broth if I tried either. I just would like another opinion since I haven’t tried this recipe . But I am going to soon. I can’t wait to try this. It looks so good.
You could definitely leave the peas out if you prefer and you wouldn’t need to necessarily replace them with anything. :) You’re right though, if you add rice or barley you will probably need to add more broth because those will both absorb liquid.
This looks wonderful and I can’t wait to try it with some modifications. Technically, Dijon mustard is NOT VEGAN. There are some fish by products used. But it would be easy to make some spicy mustard or use yellow mustard. I don’t imagine it would change the flavor too terribly much. Sounds yummy.
Your recipes are a life saver we have 6 kids and my brother in law here so I double the recipes and there are rarely leftovers
This was amazing!! I used red lentils, as my store didn’t have brown. My 1.5 year old totally approved too. The dog didn’t get any that night. ;)
I definitely recommend.
This is one of my favorite recipes to make when I’m trying to keep a healthy weight and a healthy budget. It seriously is as good as she mentioned! Depending on how strictly vegan you are, you can adjust the broth to suit your needs. I liked using chicken broth because it gave the meal a meatier flavor. Can’t wait to have this again!
Perfect. This was an instant hit in my house. Made this exactly as written, without substitutions.
This turned out great. I’m not usually a big lentil soup fan, because it can be bland, but this had a lot of flavor. I had to make a large quantity for a soup kitchen meal, and it was very easy.
I saw this website today and looked at a few recipes. I would like to try some of the recipes but was wondering if you have the nutritional information. I am on a 1200 calorie diet so I really need to know.
I looove this soup (and so so many of Beth’s recipes, really)! So definitely would recommend this.
But just in case you didn’t know, there are really great apps that can calculate the nutritional info so you can always have it handy. I logged this soup and saved the recipe in MyFitnessPal, so it’s super easy to pull it up whenever. It’s not really any more work that you’re probably already doing logging calories on a 1200/day approach. :)
For instance, this soup, following her recipe and serving suggestions, is in my app as 281 calories/serving (3.9 g F/ 51.3 g C/ 9.6 g P). But definitely check out MFP, so you can enjoy more of these great dishes!
LOVE this recipe and have made it several times as written! Thank you so much for sharing it.
Any suggestions about making this in a crockpot?
I didn’t have peas or potatoes, and I added cubed ham from a ham steak. It was delicious! My husband really enjoyed it.
I just made this and WOW..so good! So simple! And cheap to make with ingredients you have around the house. Highly recommend trying it if you’re thinking about it.
This looks yummy!! I am definitely trying it out this weekend.
One of my new favourites! Absolutely love love love it thank you so much
Three pound bags of potatoes were on sale for $2 each about three weeks ago, so I had to snag one, which meant I had a surplus of potatoes and needed more ideas with what to do with them. Naturally, I searched this site for recipes and found this one. Perfect! Only I had leftover chicken broth in my freezer and used that instead of vegetable broth. I’m not a fan of mustard – any kind of mustard – so I read through the comments before deciding to make this dish. Plenty of others had the same dislike and found the mustard enhanced the flavor, so I gave it a shot. Yum! Glad I did. I held off as long as I could, then added the Dijon and soy sauce, but skipped the brown sugar. Oh, and I realized after enjoying my first bowl that I’d forgotten the peas – and I LOVE peas! Oops! Anyway, another great recipe! Thank you! I need to make your cumin lime roasted sweet potatoes too! They’re on my list as well.
https://alongthecamelride.com/2019/03/25/meal-prep-monday-back-to-reality-and-meal-prepping/
I’ve made this several times and it’s very tasty! I omit the peas, add on small sweet potato, and basically “halve” all the ingredients! I use the “Instapot” and set it for 10 minutes; I leave it on “warm” for about 6 or 7 minutes, and then manually “vent”. Hope this is helpful info to others! Thanks!