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Ridiculously Easy Lentil and Vegetable Stew

October 28, 2010 By Susan Voisin 149 Comments
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Privacy Policy.

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This rich, thick stew will taste like you spent hours making it, but it comes together quickly with frozen vegetables and canned lentils.

Ridiculously Easy Lentil Stew

I’d hoped to be sharing a Halloween recipe with you, but life has been getting in the way of cooking lately.

The other night I went into the kitchen to make a last-minute dinner of my Dirty Little Secret Soup but wound up making so many changes that it took on an entirely new character.  I had about 2/3 of a cup of leftover pumpkin puree that I wanted to use up, so I changed the other ingredients and seasonings to complement it.  And do you know what happens when you add pumpkin and quinoa to soup?  It thickens so much that it’s not soup anymore but stew!

The recipe is ridiculously easy because I used frozen vegetables and canned lentils, but if you want to do it the slow way, chop your own veg and cook your own lentils.  I’m sure fresh ingredients will make this flavorful and deeply satisfying stew even more delicious.

P.S.  I may still get around to creating a Halloween dish, but until then, check the bottom of this post for links to vegan Halloween treats.

Ridiculously Easy Lentil and Vegetable Stew

Ridiculously Easy Lentil and Vegetable Stew
5 from 6 votes
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Ridiculously Easy Lentil and Vegetable Stew

Gluten Free
Nut Free
Soy Free
Sugar Free
With canned lentils and frozen vegetables, you can have this easy lentil stew on the table in half and hour!
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 6
Author Susan Voisin

Ingredients

  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic cloves minced
  • 2 12-ounce packages frozen vegetables* (or 2 pounds fresh vegetables cut in bite-sized pieces)
  • 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted)
  • 1 15-ounce can cooked lentils (or 1 1/2 cups cooked lentils and cooking liquid)
  • 4 cups vegetable broth or “no-chicken” broth
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon Mexican oregano (or regular oregano)
  • 1/2 teaspoon hot smoked paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/3 cup quinoa rinsed very well
  • 2/3 cup pumpkin (canned or cooked and water pressed out)
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

  • Cook the onion in a large, non-stick Dutch oven until it begins to brown. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute. Add next 7 ingredients and cook until vegetables thaw and broth begins to boil. 
  • Add quinoa and cook on medium heat until it is tender, about 15 minutes. Add pumpkin and salt and pepper to taste and cook for 5 more minutes, adding a little water if it seems too thick. Serve hot, garnished with parsley, if desired.

Notes

*I used an Italian blend containing carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, lima beans, red bell peppers, and Italian green beans, but any blend of chunky-cut vegetables will do.
Nutrition Facts
Ridiculously Easy Lentil and Vegetable Stew
Amount Per Serving (1 serving)
Calories 181 Calories from Fat 8
% Daily Value*
Fat 0.9g1%
Sodium 536mg23%
Carbohydrates 33.4g11%
Fiber 8.5g35%
Sugar 8.7g10%
Protein 9.7g19%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutritional info is approximate.

Course Soup
Cuisine Vegan
Keyword lentil stew, quick
Have you made this recipe?Mention @SusanFFVK and tag #fatfreevegankitchen in your photos on Instagram.
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For a Spooktacular Vegan Halloween:

  • Spooky Black Bean Hummus on this blog
  • Pumpkin Cookies on this blog
  • Witches Fingers at Novel Eats
  • Ghastly Tortilla Chips & Ghoul-camole at Manifest Vegan
  • An Orange and Black Halloween Menu from Robin Robertson
  • Two Savory Halloween Treats at VegSpinz
  • Healthy Halloween Cookie Dough Balls from Oh She Glows
  • Healthy Raw Halloween Recipes at Happy Raw Kitchen
  • Raw Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes at Rawdorable

Please pin and share!

This delicious vegan stew can be made with items you may already have in your pantry in just 30 minutes.

Filed Under: One Pot Meals, Recipes, Soups, Stews and Chilies Tagged With: Eat-to-Live, Gluten-free, KISSS, Nut-Free, Pumpkin and Winter Squash Recipes, Ridiculously Easy, Zucchini and Summer Squash

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Comments

  1. Collette Osuna

    November 7, 2010 at 8:57 am

    Hello…..for some reason I wasnt subscribed to your feed!! I just fixed that STAT:)

    Love your blog….being a vegetarian…its sometimes hard to find different meal ideas:)

    Thank you!

    Stop by and say Hello ♥
    Enter my Awesome ModCloth Giveaway

    Reply
  2. Elaine

    November 7, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    This is really easy and really good. I have been having it for lunch and it is very satisfying.

    Reply
  3. Jen @ LitasWorld

    November 7, 2010 at 10:49 pm

    Congratulations!!! I’m so happy for you!! This recipe is just what is called for this week in this house…sounds so very yummy!!

    I’m going to look in to going to the vegan blog conference in August!! Thanks for sharing the info on it!

    Reply
  4. Vibeke

    November 8, 2010 at 11:04 am

    Supper tonight! Thanks for posting!

    Reply
  5. Angela (Oh She Glows)

    November 8, 2010 at 11:28 am

    Congrats Susan on your award! That is such an honour! 🙂

    Also thank you for the link shout-out about my Halloween dessert.

    Reply
  6. Aussie Fi

    November 8, 2010 at 9:00 pm

    Cooked this the other night for me and my carnivore partner. We both loved it…..when I suggested it become a weekly meal, carnivore replied “Oh for sure babe!”.

    Great mid week pick me up with all the vegie’s. I used fresh vegie’s (capsicum, carrots and zuchinni) and cooked for 20mins.

    Can’t wait to have it again!!

    Congrats on the blog win- you deserve it!!

    Reply
  7. JOSH L.

    November 9, 2010 at 8:38 pm

    Thanks for the recipe..do you know how to adapt this to a pressure cooker? I love using the pressure cooker in order to save time so if anybody has figured it out would appreciate it.

    Reply
  8. Sheva

    November 11, 2010 at 7:42 pm

    This stew looks amazing. Can’t wait to try this recipe myself!

    Reply
  9. Michelle J.

    November 12, 2010 at 11:26 pm

    This is an amazing recipe! I cooked the stew tonight for a ladies fellowship that I hosted at my home. Everyone raved about it! I gave you all the glory for the recipe and directed them to your website for more fabulous, healthy recipes. I will be making this very often! Thanks for a wonderful dinner recipe!

    Reply
  10. Carolyn

    November 14, 2010 at 11:27 am

    Thanks for the recipe!

    Just made it and substituted lentils with kidney beans. Also didn’t have the smoked paprika, so I added a bit of harissa and red wine vinegar to bring out the flavours. Delish!

    Reply
  11. Laura

    November 15, 2010 at 7:41 pm

    🙁 I tried this and mine really didn’t thicken at all. I have a nice pot of watery soup with some vegetables. I can’t figure out what I did wrong. Advice?

    Reply
    • SusanV

      November 15, 2010 at 8:19 pm

      I don’t know what went wrong, but you could try to thicken it by adding more quinoa. Hope it turned out edible anyway!

      Reply
  12. Carla

    November 16, 2010 at 2:01 pm

    Truly delicious! Raves all around. Used Better than Bullion “No Chicken” broth…my new favorite ingredient. Plus veg I froze from the garden this summer and about 3/4 cup of lentils cooked in 2 cups of water (turned out to be more than the recipe called for, but used it all). Anyone could make this and enjoy.

    This will be a new staple in our meal rotation.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  13. Vegan In the Kitchen

    November 16, 2010 at 10:26 pm

    Congrats on your award! You deserve it. I look forward to hearing you speak in Portland. 🙂

    Reply
  14. Lindsay@Another Almost Vegan Blog

    November 20, 2010 at 6:30 pm

    Congratulations again!!!!!! You deserve it.

    I’m going to have to try out this strew. I love lentil soups, I love quinoa, and I love pumpkin…I’m interested to see what they’d all taste like together.

    Reply
  15. Pam

    November 21, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    Tried this yesterday and it was wonderful! I used regular smoked paprika with no cayenne, which gave it a nice smoky taste but no spicy heat. My DH loved it. Perfect dish for a rainy cold Saturday. Thank you, Susan.

    Reply
  16. Cyn

    November 22, 2010 at 4:31 pm

    Can’t wait to try this recipe. One question about the quinoa… should it be cooked or uncooked? I’m fairly new to quinoa and when I see it unspecified in recipes I’m never sure if I should use cooked or uncooked. Thanks!

    Reply
    • SusanV

      November 22, 2010 at 5:39 pm

      Hi Cyn–It’s uncooked quinoa in this recipe. It cooks in the stew. Hope you enjoy!

      Reply
  17. Kim

    November 23, 2010 at 6:03 am

    Made this last night and it was exactly as stated-ridiculously easy. Was also really tasty. I can’t get quinoa so used bulghur. Also didn’t have time to pre-cook the lentils so just added them and cooked dish a bit longer. Thanks again Susan for a wonderfully easy and healthy recipe.

    Reply
  18. Kim

    November 23, 2010 at 6:19 am

    Made this last night and it was exactly as stated-ridiculously easy. Was also really tasty. I can’t get quinoa so used bulghur. Also didn’t have time to pre-cook the lentils so just added them and cooked dish a bit longer.

    Re-heated the leftovers for my three year old twins’ lunch today and one said “yum yum”. The other “I love it!”.

    Thanks again Susan for a wonderfully easy and healthy recipe.

    Reply
  19. Fiona

    November 26, 2010 at 12:02 pm

    I thought this soup was pretty good, and my fiance really liked it. It’s definitely good enough to make again, especially considering how easy it is. I could barely taste the 1/3 c. pumpkin so I kept adding more and more until finally the whole can was in the pot. I was happier with that anyway since otherwise I would have had 2/3 can of pumpkin to toss out. I used a 3 grain blend from Trader Joe’s that included quinoa and I think next time I would add a little more grain to the soup because it didn’t seem there was much in there. I also didn’t cook it as long as the directions state because I felt my vegetables would be overcooked. So I basically added the grain very soon after the frozen vegetables and then added the pumpkin during the last 5 minutes of cooking time. So the total cooking time went down which made this recipe even easier!

    Reply
    • Fiona

      September 8, 2011 at 6:01 am

      Just made and enjoyed this recipe again! I made it a bit differently this time but it came out just as tasty. I accidentally overcooked my red lentils in the multi-cooker so the soup was very thick from the lentils, and I added fresh chopped pumpkin instead of canned. I don’t like well-cooked vegetables so I just added my frozen vegetables and cooked for maybe a minute or two at the end; just enough time for them to get hot. Healthy, easy, tasty – yay!

      Reply
  20. KCalla

    November 28, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    I made this stew for dinner last night. It was fabulous. I could not find canned lentils locally, so cooked lentils from dry as recommended as an alternative. Also, as suggested, I added a little cayenne because I had only smoked paprika, not smoked hot paprika. Substituted Italian seasoning for oregano (again, what I had on hand). A really, really great stew. Fortunately we have a little left over to enjoy again today! Thank you for another wonderful recipe.

    Reply
  21. Running On Juice

    December 3, 2010 at 9:52 pm

    Hmm I am enjoying this right now. I recently started using a local farm delivery and wanted to use up this turnip. Something I rarely cook. So I made your dish with some turnip! Fantastic!!

    Reply
  22. Jenn

    December 6, 2010 at 7:37 pm

    I’m so glad I found your site! I just made this while juggling loads of laundry and coaxing food into my teething 1 year old’s mouth (not an easy task these days) and you were right, it was ridiculously easy. This is such a great combination of pantry staples; it’s warm, yummy and a perfect antidote to the 30 degree weather outside my window.

    Reply
  23. jenna

    December 23, 2010 at 9:21 pm

    GREAT post! Thank you for sharing this! I love it. It looks so yummy! I am a physician who advocates a plant-based diet. A friend and I recently started a blog on plant-based diets as a resource for those who are interested in transitioning to a plant-based diet. I would love to feature your blog on our site if you would be interested. We have lots of other plans too, but one step at a time. lmk and thanks again for the great post. Glad I found your blog…subscribing now! Jenn (www.theplantrx.com)

    Reply
  24. Azahara

    December 28, 2010 at 8:23 am

    This was really hearty and filling. Perfect for a cold day like today. This dish will certainly become a regular on my winter menu.
    Thanks for making it so easy. I think I’d starve without this blog!

    Reply
  25. Laurene Davison

    January 4, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    I made your Lentil and Vegetable Stew and was pleasantly surprised! It is delicious! My husband said he will try it when he gets home from work. Thanks and keep the delicious recipes coming!

    Reply
  26. dot

    January 9, 2011 at 8:15 am

    made this yesterday, and it was awesome =)

    Reply
  27. SusanB

    January 14, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    This was fantastic! The pumpkin was subtle and really yummy! So easy and delicious!

    Reply
  28. danielle

    January 24, 2011 at 11:52 am

    I have fallen in love with this soup. It’s fun to change it up to what you have on hand. I was sick the last few days and had a bunch of veggies starting to look droopy, so I took the basic idea of this soup and threw it all together. The pumpkin was amazing. I feel better already! Thanks!

    Reply
  29. Pat

    January 28, 2011 at 6:08 pm

    I have always loved lentils even as a little girl but I was a terrible eater also; my mother could never understand. Anyway, my son. who is a deli guy, said that it was quite good and ate every drop. Many thanks.

    Reply
  30. ziv

    February 2, 2011 at 5:20 am

    It was so tasty! That should be dietary, but it was not. We eat so much. Just kidding it looks great and taste better

    Reply
  31. Megan

    February 4, 2011 at 10:35 pm

    So excited to try this! Discovered a sad can of pumpkin from thanksgiving that was sitting in my cupboard… now I don’t have to wait until the next fall holiday to use it!

    Reply
  32. Mandie Best

    February 10, 2011 at 12:48 pm

    I’ve never seen or heard of a dutch oven.. What is it? Where do I get one? How do you cook with it? Why is it different from a slow cooker? haha
    I’m full of questions.

    Reply
    • SusanV

      February 10, 2011 at 1:02 pm

      Great questions! A Dutch oven is simply a thick-walled pot with a tight-fitting lid. They’re usually made of heavier metals like cast iron. You cook with them just the same as with any pot. They hold the heat in well, especially when covered, so you can turn your stove down very low. Most of them can also be used in the oven, allowing you to bake and yet keep the steam inside the pot. Here’s a link to the one I have: Lodge Logic EC6D43 Enameled Cast-Iron 6-Quart Dutch Oven (but mine’s a pretty blue).

      Reply
  33. Jerry

    February 12, 2011 at 6:06 am

    I plan to try this special recipe- i aint no great cook but this one “smells” great!!

    Reply
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Susan VoisinI'm Susan Voisin, and I love creating delicious whole foods plant-based dishes with no added oil. Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram.
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