Vegan Lentil Stew (One Pot & Easy)
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
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
- 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!
Disclaimer: Although jessicainthekitchen.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, kindly note that these are only estimates. Nutritional information may be affected based on the product type, the brand that was purchased, and in other unforeseeable ways. Jessicainthekitchen.com will not be held liable for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on nutritional information. If you need to follow a specific caloric regimen, please consult your doctor first.
Loved this! Instructions were easy to follow, using ingredients I normally always have on hand. It was super tasty and very comforting for a stressful (and chilly!) day here. This may be my new fav lentil recipe, definitely making again soon & both kids gobbled it up!
Thanks for the glowing review Haviva! We’re glad that we were able to make your day even 1% better.
Tasty – my best lentil dish so far. Thanks! I am really enjoying your recipes.
Awesome Claudia! We’re happy you’re enjoying the recipes. Thanks so much for leaving such a nice review!
Probably the best best lentil stew I have ever eaten! I never would have thought to use a few of the ingredients to make lentils but I would 100% make this recipe again (and again). The lentils are hearty but not too rich, and the flavour is some savoury goodness with the slightest hint of sweetness. I just realized I forgot the squeeze of lime at the end but it tasted so perfect that I didn’t miss it!
So I used squeeze ginger from a bottle which I think has a lot of moisture so the sesame oil ended up splattering like crazy but I covered the pot and it ended up being fine but next time I’ll use fresh ginger to avoid that. Aside from my ginger mishap, this was super easy to make and I’m a sucker for a one pot meal!
Glad that the mishap turned out fine Alecia! We’re so happy that you enjoyed it! Thank you for leaving such a nice comment and reading!
I just made this for dinner tonight, and it was so good! I had it with homemade naan bread (also your recipe) and it was such a good combo!
This recipe was packed with flavor and completely delicious! I spread the stew over toast and drizzled it with Sriracha. I’ll be making it again!
Hi Jessica,
I made your lentil stew the other day and it turned out uber delicious. I was looking for a recipe to use up my store-bought red curry paste, and your recipe came in handy. I added a red bell pepper and chopped celery stalks since I had them lying around in the fridge, and was happy to find out that the stew adapts well to any produce that you add. I’ll be making the stew again this week and will add cauliflower and carrots. Nom.
Thanks for this and all your other great recipes, I’ll make sure to try out many of them. 🙂
Btw, I added ‘Jessica in the kitchen’ to my list of 100+ vegan food blogs everyone needs to know:
https://plantydelights.com/vegan-food-blogs/
Cheers,
Ramona
Very delicious and flavourful! Will absolutely make this again, only with a bit less curry paste (I’m a wimp 🙈). I also wilted in some spinach for a hit of greens! Thanks for a great dinner!!
Thank you, Jessica, for another great meal. I love lentils. Lentil burgers, tacos, loafs, stews, curry; I’ve made tons of recipes using lentils. This lentil stew tops them all!!! I not only licked the spoon, I licked the bowl clean. The flavors in this stew are layered and balanced. It is a warm, filling comfort food. Easy to make, and I served it with a crusty garlic bread. Perfection! I plan to make a double batch and put some in the freezer for quick delicious microwave meals my husband can grab after a busy day at the COVID clinic.
I made this last night and it was SO good. The lid on my pepper shaker accidentally fell off so it had a lot of pepper in it, but that was okay because I just didn’t add hot sauce afterwards. My mom doesn’t like lentils and even liked this dish. so, so good.
This lentil stew was DELICIOUS!! I added some kale that I needed to use and served it with rice — it was so good, I had to stop myself from eating extra spoonfuls straight out of the pot! I so appreciated the ease of this recipe and how it used ingredients I almost always have on hand, or ones that could be easily subbed. I realized I was out of curry paste, but even using curry powder it turned out great. It will definitely become a staple in my meal rotation! THANK YOU Jessica!