Vegan Lentil Stew (One Pot & Easy)
By Jessica Hylton -
- Updated
This Vegan Lentil Stew is packed with amazing coconut and curry flavours layered deeply into lentils simmering in a rich and creamy curry broth. The perfect one-pot meal! It’s such a comfort dish!
We all have a bag of lentils in the back of our pantry. Sitting there, waiting for us, ready to create an unexpected protein-packed dish. That’s how I stumbled upon making this delightful lentil stew. After whipping up another batch of my coconut curry lentil soup, Gav devoured it yet again. Then he tried something different – he cooked it down. He just wanted to reduce some of the liquid, make it more like my chickpea curry. Then he left it on for a few more minutes and made a stew. It was a simple step but truly blew our minds. Why have we never made a stew yet?!
This Lentil Stew is the ultimate comfort dish. Layered with coconut flavours, curry flavours, it’s one bowl, delightfully simple and tastes phenomenal.
How to make Lentil Stew
Lentil stew is as simple as simmering down the ingredients and letting them do all the magic. Feel free to add more seasonings and truly make it your own.
What goes well with Vegan Lentil Stew?
This lentil stew is best enjoyed in a few wonderful ways:
- Over a plate of rice
- With some fresh bread
- With some Vegan Naan Bread
- You could transform it into a wrap, into tacos
- with a side salad
- Dip some No Knead Bread (Dutch Oven Bread) into it to soak up the flavour!
This, a glass of red wine, some rustic bread and a side salad? YES please!!
Vegan Lentil Stew
This Vegan Lentil Stew is packed with amazing coconut and curry flavours layered deeply into lentils simmering in a rich and creamy curry broth. The perfect one-pot meal! It's such a comfort dish!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste - I use this vegan one
- 1/2 large red onion minced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt (to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon to 1 tablespoon coconut sugar or any sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce or liquid aminos/gluten free tamari/coconut aminos
- 1 1/2 cups dry green lentils rinsed and picked over
- 1 13.4 ounce can of coconut milk (full fat or lite) (383g)
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- juice of 1 lime
- 1/2 tablespoons sambal oelek or Sriracha (optional, for heat)
Instructions
Instructions
- In a pan over medium-high heat, heat the sesame oil. Add in the minced ginger and curry paste to fry it, stirring into the oil, for about 1 minute.
- Add in the chopped onion and the garlic and cook until the onion is slightly translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Place the sea salt, black pepper, coconut sugar, and liquid aminos on top and stir everything together. Add in the lentils and stir again.
- Add in the coconut milk and the veggie broth. Bring the soup to a boil and then lower to a simmer, allowing to simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes, until your lentils are fully cooked through. Stir the stew occasionally. You can let it simmer even more if desired.
- Squeeze the lime over, stir, and then remove from heat. Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Add in any of the optional add-ins/toppings. Stir in the sambal oelek (or Sriracha) or scotch bonnet pepper sauce if using.
- Enjoy!
NOTES
Nutrition
Calories: 260kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Sodium: 403mg | Potassium: 463mg | Fiber: 12g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 729IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 3mg
by Jessica
Can you use brown lentils instead of green? Because I have brown lentils..
Thanks so much for reading Janet. Yes you can as long as you check the cooking time for brown lentils they tend to be different. I hope this helps!
This recipe is fantastic, and will be a new regular menu item for our family. We are not strictly vegan, but try to stick with vegan options about 3x a week. Our 9 year-old twin boys call this “better than pizza” and asked if I could make this every night of their lives. Quick, affordable, easy and absolutely delicious! Looking forward to making this again!
This is the most delicious stew I’ve ever had, the flavours coming through are just *chefs kiss*. The beauty of it is you can make this in under an hour and freeze it for another day. Simple but perfect!
Made this with some basmati rice for my last work meal prep. Reheats very well and is a great lunch option. I will definitely add some vegetables in the future to beef it up a bit
This meal is satisfying, has such depth of flavor, and is simple to make. I had the leftovers for breakfast with a little greek yogurt, cilantro and greens. The refrigerated leftovers make a nice veggie dip for carrots, celery and cucumber.
The stew was absolutely delicious! What a wonderful mix of flavors. Loved it. Have one question though my lentils in the end were little harder than expected. Still devoured the whole dish over two meals licking every bit of it. Were my lentils old or should I have cooked it further? Or maybe my expectation of soft lentils is not correct. Could you please let me know?Want to impress my children(who turned vegan recently) with this delicious dish.
Best,
Sue
Hi Sudha! I’m so happy that you liked it. It looks like you should have cooked your lentils a bit longer. Also, lentils last a long time but if you’ve had them for a while you may want to check if they’ve gone bad. I hope this helps!
Could you make this in a slow cooker?
Hi Amy I don’t see why you couldn’t! Thank you so much for reading!
Such a great simple recipe! I’ve made it twice now, last time being a double batch just to have in the fridge for a quick lunch or dinner with some sourdough. 🙂
Awesome we’re so happy you enjoyed it Raechel! Thanks so much for reading!
Wow, this is a fantastic recipe! I’ve tried so many recipes using thai ingredients (which I love!!) where one ingredient overpowers the rest, but the flavors in this recipe are so well balanced. You can really taste the coconut, the ginger, the curry paste and the lime without each one being too strong. And this was super easy to make, too.
We’re so happy that you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for reading and leaving such a nice comment!