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This hearty root vegetable lentil stew is a rustic dish perfect for cold, dreary days. It combines root vegetables, lentils, and peas in a deliciously flavored, soul-warming tomato broth. Rich and thick, it’ll taste like you spent hours making it, instead of 45 minutes only. Instant Pot instructions included!
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Table of Contents
- Why You’ll Love This Root Vegetable Lentil Stew Recipe
- Ingredients for Vegetable Lentil Stew
- How to Make Root Vegetable Lentil Stew
- Toni’s Recipe Tips for Lentil Vegetable Stew
- FAQs
- Serving Suggestions
- Make-Ahead and Storage Instructions
- More Hearty Stews to Warm Your Belly
- Root Vegetable Lentil Stew Recipe
Why You’ll Love This Root Vegetable Lentil Stew Recipe
A hearty homemade stew is essential on the winter meal rotation to keep you toasty and cozy from the inside out. This simple one-pot vegetable stew not only tastes phenomenal but is budget-friendly and uses ingredients that are quick to prepare and easy to keep on hand! Plus, it’s meal-prep friendly and can be frozen and reheated for easy weeknight dinners!
Even better, it is loaded with plenty of fiber, protein, and vitamins to nourish and energize. Feel free to play around with this recipe and use different veggies, based on your taste or what you have on hand. Enjoy this stew as a side dish to your meal, or make it an entrée with some crackers or fresh bread on the side!
Love root vegetables? Try my recipes for roasted parsnips, curried carrot soup, !
Ingredients for Vegetable Lentil Stew
This recipe uses frozen vegetables and pre-cooked lentils, making it incredibly easy to prepare.
How to Make Root Vegetable Lentil Stew
This Root Vegetable and Lentil Stew is a quick and easy one-pot dish that requires simple slicing, dicing, and simmering to make. See recipe below for complete instructions.
Step 1: First, sauté onion in a large pan over medium heat until translucent, then add garlic and stir for about 30 seconds.
Step 2: Next, add vegetable broth, water, and tomato paste and to a boil in the pot. Stir in the remaining ingredients in the pot.
Step 3: Cook for 20-25 minutes on low heat, or until the vegetables are soft. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Season with more salt, pepper, or garlic powder if you like.
Toni’s Recipe Tips for Lentil Vegetable Stew
- Make it thicker: Use an immersion blender or stab mixer and blitz the mixture after simmering to make a thicker soup.
- Keep the proportions the same: If you are using fresh veggies, cut them all the same size. This will ensure that they cook evenly and in around the same length of time.
- Dice into small pieces: Getting every single ingredient into one spoonful is the best way to enjoy this dish.
- Simmer using low heat: Do not let the mixture come to a boil or you will risk overcooking the vegetables and ending up with mushy veggies.
- Add some kick: A pinch of red pepper flakes will give this vegan stew a touch of spiciness.
FAQs
I used green lentils in this recipe. However, you can also use brown or red lentils for this stew. If you’ve never made lentils before, this Guide to Lentils may be helpful!
Absolutely! After sautéing, add the rest of the ingredients to the pot and press Manual or Pressure Cook and set the timer to 8 minutes on high pressure.
If you prefer a creamier soup, then you can replace the water with coconut milk instead. Or you can just add a dollop of vegan sour cream or vegan yogurt before serving.
Soup is any liquid-cooked mixture of ingredients. Stew refers to any dish barely submerged in just enough liquid to cook the ingredients thoroughly at a low simmer in a covered pot for an extended period of time. So it’s just a matter of the amount of liquid you use that makes a difference.
Serving Suggestions
- Bread: Try the the easiest no-knead bread, easy vegan dinner rolls, vegan focaccia bread, or easy vegan garlic bread.
- Cornbread: Like this vegan cornbread recipe cast iron skillet, sweet potato cornbread, or jalapeno cornbread.
- Biscuits: Consider quick and easy vegan biscuits or sweet potato biscuits.
- A simple side salad: A garden salad, kale salad, Vegan Caesar salad, etc.
- Winter salads: Such as easy apple pecan salad, roasted beet and kale salad, vegan broccoli salad, etc.
- A sandwich: Like this tempeh sandwich, or pesto tofu sandwich.
Make-Ahead and Storage Instructions
- Make-Ahead: The flavors in this recipe develop over time, and it reheats beautifully! Double the recipe and store half of the stew divided into individual serving sizes to enjoy for the next few days!
- Fridge: You can refrigerate it in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
- Freezer: This Root Vegetable Lentil Stew can be frozen for up to 3 months. Make sure to place it in a freezer-friendly bag or container and tag it with the storage date.
- To Reheat: If frozen, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator before reheating in a saucepan over medium heat. If it is too thick, add a splash of broth or water. You can use salt or pepper to season it if needed.
More Hearty Stews to Warm Your Belly
Vegan Dinners
Easy Chickpea Stew
Vegan Dinners
Easy Kidney Bean Vegetable Stew
![completed Eggplant Stew [With Tomatoes + Chickpeas] against a white surface](https://plantbasedonabudget.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Eggplant-Stew-Plant-Based-on-a-Budget-19-378x378.jpg)
Vegan Dinners
Eggplant Stew [With Tomatoes + Chickpeas]
Vegan Dinners
Hearty Red Lentil Stew [Stove, Crockpot, IP]
If you tried this root vegetable lentil stew recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks!
Photos by Alfonso Revilla
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Root Vegetable Lentil Stew
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Video
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ½ large onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 4 cups water
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 piece bay leaf
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 1 pack frozen root veggies 20-ounce pack, or chopped carrots, beets, potatoes, and turnips
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 2 to 3 cups pre-cooked lentils
- Pinch salt and pepper
- garlic powder to taste
- cumin to taste
Instructions
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the onion and sauté until the onions are translucent and tender. Then add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds.
- Add the vegetable broth, water, and tomato paste and bring the pot to a boil.
- To the pot, stir the remaining ingredients. Simmer on low for 20-25 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Remove the bay leaf and discard.
- For a thicker soup, use an immersion blender after turning the fire off on half of the soup mixture. Then return to the pan, mix, and reheat if needed.
- Stir in additional salt, pepper, or garlic powder to taste, if you’d like
Notes
- Make it thicker: Use an immersion blender or stab mixer and blitz the mixture after simmering to make a thicker soup.
- Keep the proportions the same: If you are using fresh veggies, cut them all the same size. This will ensure that they cook evenly and in around the same length of time.
- Dice into small pieces: Getting every single ingredient into one spoonful is the best way to enjoy this dish.
- Simmer using low heat: Do not let the mixture come to a boil or you will risk overcooking the vegetables and ending up with mushy veggies.
- Add some kick: A pinch of red pepper flakes will give this vegan stew a touch of spiciness.
- Use the Instant Pot: After sautéing, add the rest of the ingredients to the pot and press Manual or Pressure Cook and set the timer to 8 minutes on high pressure.
Cozy and delicious! What a fabulous recipe, I enjoyed making this so much.
So glad you enjoyed making it! It’s a great stew!