This Vegetable Stew is hearty and delicious, and packed with healthy veggies and lentils! A super filling vegetarian comfort food meal that’s ready in under an hour!
Table of contents
Vegetable Stew Recipe
It’s chilly outside and comfort food season has arrived! Here at The Busy Baker we love a good comfort food meal, especially one that’s packed with nutrition!
This Vegetable Stew Recipe is SO deliciously filling. It’s the perfect balance of healthy veggies, savoury flavour, and heartiness. If you love a good soup or stew in the wintertime, you’re going to LOVE this recipe!
More Healthy Comfort Food Meals
We have shared SO many of our favourite healthy comfort food recipes here on The Busy Baker, and so many of them get rave reviews from YOU, our lovely readers. This Easy One Pan Lentil Daal Curry is one of our favourite comfort food dishes (especially when served with this easy Naan Bread!), these Baked Zucchini Fritters are perfectly indulgent (and healthy too!), and this Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup is like a healthy hug in a bowl.
One of our readers’ favourite recipes is our One Pot Beef Stew recipe – it’s SO amazingly delicious and it has countless 5-star reviews!
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We love finding ways to make our family dinner hour as easy as possible, even when enjoying delicious comfort foods like this recipe. One way to make this Vegetable Stew even more quickly on a busy weeknight is to prep some or all of the components of the recipe ahead of time. Wash and chop all the veggies and store them in a container in the fridge until you’re ready to cook.
Another great idea is to double the recipe and freeze half in an airtight container for a future meal. Defrost in the fridge for 24 hours (take it out of the freezer the night before), re-heat in a pot on the stove. You can also store this stew in individual portions in the fridge or freezer for take-to-work/school lunches.
Kitchen products we recommend for this recipe
One of the best investments you can make in your kitchen, especially if you do a lot of cooking and baking at home, is a cast iron Dutch Oven pot. They’re perfect for soups, stews, curries, and even homemade artisan bread!
My favourite Dutch Oven of all time is from Le Creuset. I’ve used it almost daily for over 6 years and it’s still going strong! I’ve also used similar cast iron pots from other brands, like this one from KitchenAid, this one from Lodge Cast Iron and this one from Denby, and they work just as well (all links are affiliate links).
To make this vegetarian stew recipe you will also need (affiliate links):
- a vegetable peeler
- a garlic press
- a sharp chef’s knife
- a sturdy cutting board
- a wooden spatula or other similar utensil
- liquid measuring cups and measuring spoons
Vegetable Stew Ingredients
To make this vegetarian stew recipe you will need:
- olive oil
- onion
- garlic
- celery
- carrots
- salt
- pepper
- dried thyme
- smoked paprika
- red wine (optional)
- Worcestershire sauce (optional)
- tomato paste
- mushrooms (white button and/or Cremini)
- vegetable stock
- potatoes
- canned lentils
- frozen green beans
How to Make Vegetable Stew
Time needed: 55 minutes
Follow these tips for the most delicious vegetable stew!
- Saute the veggies first.
Soften the veggies and develop their aromatic flavours before adding the rest of the ingredients.
- Deglaze the pot.
A little red wine goes a LONG way to adding a delicious flavour to this dish. The alcohol cooks off, but if you want to skip the wine you can deglaze the pot with some veggie stock instead.
- Don’t forget the protein.
The lentils provide a lot of fibre and protein to this delicious stew. Don’t skip them!
- Let it simmer.
Let the potatoes cook in the stew liquid and release their starch to thicken up the stew as they cook.
- Add the green beans last.
Throw the frozen green beans in for only the last few minutes of cooking so they keep their bright green colour and don’t go soggy.
- Serve with fresh bread.
Pick up a loaf at the bakery counter or better yet, make my Easy No Knead Bread yourself to enjoy with this stew!
Doesn’t the Worcestershire sauce in this recipe mean it’s not vegetarian/vegan?
Feel free to leave out the Worcestershire sauce if you don’t eat animal products of any kind, or simply replace it with a vegan Worcestershire sauce.
Can I use dried lentils in this recipe instead of canned lentils?
Yes. Instead of canned lentils add 1/2 cup dried whole brown lentils and add an extra 1 1/2 cups of vegetable stock or water. You may also have to increase the cooking time by 5-10 minutes.
We hope you enjoy this vegetarian stew recipe as much as we do! Let us know in the comments below, what’s your favourite healthy vegetarian recipe? We’d love to know!
Serve With:
Looking for something to serve with this vegetarian stew? You’ll LOVE these recipes.
Watch the video below to see exactly how we make this recipe. You can find many more deliciously simple recipe videos on our YouTube channel!
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Vegetable Stew
Recipe: Equipment
Recipe: Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic finely minced or pressed
- 3 ribs celery chopped
- 3 large carrots diced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce optional
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cups mushrooms halved or quartered
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 3 cups chopped potatoes in 1 1/2-inch pieces, skins on
- 3/4 cup canned brown lentils
- 1/2 cup frozen green beans
Recipe: Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium heat and add the olive oil.
- Once the oil is hot add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots and saute until the onion is soft and transluscent.
- Add the salt, pepper, thyme, and paprika and stir well.
- Deglaze the pot with the red wine (use a splash of vegetable stock in place of the red wine if you'd prefer), and scrape up all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan from cooking the veggies.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce (if using), tomato paste, and the mushrooms, and stir well. Cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms just begin to soften.
- Add the stock, potatoes, and lentils. Stir very well and cover the pot.
- Let the stew cook, covered, for about 30 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir regularly to prevent the stew from burning on the bottom of the pot.
- Test the potatoes with a fork. If they're soft, add the frozen green beans and stir well. Cover and let the green beans soften in the hot stew for 4-5 minutes.
- Serve with fresh bread.
Recipe: Notes
Storage Instructions
Store this stew in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.Reheating Instructions
Reheat this stew in the microwave, or in a pot on the stove until heated through.Freezer Instructions
Freeze this stew in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge for 24 hours and then reheat in a pot on the stove.Ingredient Substitutions
To substitute dried lentils for the canned lentils the recipe calls for: add 1/2 cup dried whole brown lentils and add an extra 1 1/2 cups of vegetable stock or water to the stew. You may also have to increase the cooking time by 5-10 minutes.Recipe: Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
This was AMAZING! I was a bit sceptical about a meatless stew but this recipe completely changed my mind. It will deffo make it into our rotation for meatless fridays!
I’m so happy we managed to change your mind about vegetarian stews. Thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback!
Hi … thanks for this recipe. Gonna try it. FYI, step #3 in the Instructions says to add salt, pepper and thyme. However there is no thyme listed in the ingredients. Thanks!
Thanks for catching our error, we have corrected the recipe card to include the measurement for thyme. Let us know how it turns out for you!