After my last, very lengthy post about the definition of veganism, here’s another extremely simple and healthy vegan dish for you!

Lentil Stew, with Salad

This dish may be one of the easiest complete protein (rice plus lentils) dishes for a vegan — at least if you don’t resort to processed soy products. Lentils are also a good source of iron. The end result can be either a soup or a stew, depending on the ratio of liquid to solids. I like my soups quite thick, so this one ended up being more of a stew than a soup. The recipe is inspired by Elizabeth (check her new blog for some cakes and metal), who once cooked me something similar.

Ingredients
1dl Brown Lentils
1dl Green Lentils
1dl Red Lentils
2dl Rice & Barley Mix
1 Vegetable Stock Cube
Paprika, Chipotle, Black Pepper from a grinder
1.5l Water

Enough for maybe three meals. You could replace the rice & barley mix with just rice, just barley, or another grain altogether, but rice and barley do go together nicely. You can use more liquid or add some later on if you’d like more of a soup than a stew.

Lentil Stew Closeup

Cooking
Time required: ~30min
-Heat the water in a pot.
-Add the vegetable stock cube.
-Add brown lentils, which take the longest to cook (maybe 30min).
-After 10min, add green lentils and rice & barley mix.
-After 10min, add red lentils.
-Add the rest of the spices.
-Cook for another 10min, on low heat in a covered pot.

Serve with a side salad and/or some bread. The lentils do not need to be soaked, although you could soak the brown/green lentils for an hour to reduce cooking time by some 10min. Do rinse the lentils thoroughly before you add them to the pot though. You could also add some vegetables to this dish, carrots and onions would be obvious choices, but I think that parsnips, pumpkin, sweet potato etc. would also work. It’s a pretty rich soup as it is though, so none of this is really necessary. If you want more ‘meaty’ character, you could add seitan or dehydrated soy chunks.