This lentil potato stew is another recipe that’s a great staple pantry meal using what you likely have on hand. With just a handful of ingredients plus spices, it’s a truly excellent classic dish.
The basics are made a bit more interesting here with rosemary, thyme, and Dijon mustard adding loads of flavour for a surprisingly complex vegan meal. This is winter comfort food all the way.
It’s sort of a cross between a soup and stew, really. That being said, the leftovers from this are fantastic and it will thicken up significantly by day two. This was inspired by a blog favourite, this red lentil and carrot soup, and my oma’s lentil potato soup.
Need some more soup and stew inspiration? Check out this collection of cozy cold weather soup recipes!
Scroll to the bottom of the post or click “skip to recipe” above to see the recipe card with full ingredient measurements and instructions.
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- Onion
- Potatoes
- Carrot(s)
- Garlic
- Rosemary
- Sea salt
- Black pepper
- Sweet paprika
- Cayenne pepper (optional, see notes)
- Apple cider vinegar
- Vegetable broth
- Brown lentils (or black or green, see substitutions)
- Coconut sugar or honey (see notes)
- Dijon mustard
- Thyme
- Spinach, rucola, or other hardy greens (see substitutions)
Tips and Notes
You might be wondering about the honey (or coconut sugar, if vegan) listed in the recipe. This isn’t to sweeten the stew, but rather to round out the flavours. It’s fairly typical in (good) vegan recipes to ensure that there’s a proper depth of flavour in the dish and I don’t encourage leaving it out.
If you have cooked lentils on hand, you can use them instead of dried if you have to use them up. Dried lentils are preferable because they’re being cooked alongside everything else and pick up plenty of seasoning from the broth. To use cooked, reduce the amount of broth by a cup.
In the pictures I peeled the potatoes because they were a little green. I wouldn’t peel them otherwise, because the most nutritious part is the skin. Try to use organic if you can as potatoes are one of the most heavily sprayed crops in conventional agriculture but the skin is excellent.
Rosemary and thyme flavour the stew. Both are good go-to herbs just about year round depending on where you live as 1. they probably over-winter, and 2. unlike basil, both are excellent options dried.
Mustard is key. It’s a tiny amount, just half a teaspoon, but is very important in this recipe.
Substitutions
You can leave the herbs out if you don’t have any or don’t want to buy a whole bundle for such a small amount. I have made it without herbs when I haven’t wanted to go out in the rain to cut any, but they really do improve the dish and I don’t really recommend ditching them.
Alternatively, try subbing in a tablespoon of herbes de Provence – the recipe includes a note on how to use it instead of fresh herbs. Here are some good substitutes for thyme.
I have had some comments that this recipe is too spicy despite just a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper for flavour. If you have a hard time with any spiciness, you can leave it out or just add a tiny pinch. Make sure you’re not using hot paprika.
An earlier iteration used water interchangeably with stock and let me tell you that there were some very grumpy readers. I use water all the time and just up the salt a bit to make up for it (if you’re using store-bought stock, it’s really just salt anyway). So if you don’t have vegetable broth please feel free to use water and then season to taste.
If you’re not too keen on eating so many potatoes, you can switch the carrot/potato amounts and use more carrots and less potatoes.
More Lentil Recipes
Roasted Carrot Salad with Lentils
Lentil Rice Soup with Butternut Squash
Curried Potato Salad
Lentil Bolognese
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Lentil and Potato Stew
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped
- 500 grams potatoes cut into 2cm pieces
- 250 grams carrots cut into 1 cm slices
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves finely chopped*
- 1 teaspoon sea salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 750 ml vegetable stock
- 150 grams brown lentils soaked if possible**
- 1 teaspoon coconut sugar or honey***
- ½ teaspoon dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons thyme finely chopped
- 70 grams rucola arugula or other greens****
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the oil over medium. Add the onion and sauté for a couple of minutes or until softened and fragrant. Stir in the potatoes and carrots and cook for another five minutes, stirring occasionally, to brown slightly.
- Add the garlic and rosemary, cook for an additional minute, then add the spices and stir for about 30 seconds. Pour the apple cider vinegar into the pot and stir, then the stock.
- Increase the heat to high and bring the stew to a rolling boil. Add the lentils and reduce the heat to medium-low, then simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until the carrots and potatoes are tender.
- Take the pot off the heat and stir in the coconut sugar, mustard, thyme, and greens. Serve hot and keep leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days. The stew will thicken slightly as it sits.
Video
Notes
* For American cup measurements, please click the pink link text above the ingredient list that says ‘American’.
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
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This post was originally published in October 2017. It has been last updated with improvements to the text and recipe as of October 2020.
Lisa B says
Delicious, affordable and simple to prepare. I used agave syrup instead of honey, and dried herbs instead of fresh (1:3 ratio). It made a wonderful almost-fall supper.
Iliana says
Looking forward to making this! I’m going to make this for 6 people. Do you suggest doubling the recipe so I have some leftovers? Can leftovers be frozen? Thank you!
Alexandra Daum says
The recipe can definitely be doubled and it freezes well! I usually freeze a jar or two every time I make it.
Alma I Reed- Herrera says
Pretty easy and tasty . I added a sweet potato 😅
Dana says
This is the deep umami flavor lentil soup of my dreams. It’s so delicious and so easy. My only quibble is that by the time the soup was done, a lot of the liquid had boiled out. Maybe it should have simmered covered? Will absolutely make this again.
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Dana, that liquid reduction is what makes this into a ‘stew’ without any need for added starch or flour to thicken. If you want it to be more soupy, you can add some more broth or cook with the lid on the whole time. Hope this helps!