One Pot Recipe: Healthy Moroccan-Style Vegan Lentil Stew

This stew is thick, hearty, warming, and comforting – perfect for colder days. It’s packed with protein-rich lentils, nutritious veggies, and flavorful, aromatic spices that make your kitchen smell wonderful.

Affordable, Easy to Store

This lentil and chickpea stew makes an awesome budget-friendly weeknight dinner, and the leftovers make a great lunch as well. So feel free to double or triple this recipe, then freeze the rest. It’s best to divide the leftovers into smaller portions, then just pop them in the microwave whenever you need a quick dinner.

Make it Your Way

The recipe is totally customizable: You can give or take the veggies, depending on what you like or have at home. You can also play around with the spicing and flavors here. Add more vegetable broth for a soupier finish, or make your stew extra thick and chunky by using less broth. Lentil stew is satiating and filling on its own, but you can also serve it with rice, quinoa, pita bread, or green salad.

How to Make this Recipe Even More Affordable

• Double or triple the recipe, and freeze the extra portions. You will always have a delicious and nutritious meal at home, so you don’t have to go for expensive food delivery.
• Choose ingredients that are cheap and in season in your area. Broccoli, spinach, red lentils, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, pumpkin, or cauliflower works great in this recipe.
• Omit spices you don’t have in your pantry, and use whatever you have at home. Paprika powder, garlic powder, onion powder, turmeric, and many more can be used here.
• Serve the stew with rice, bulgur, or couscous on the side.
• Skip the fancy toppings and use simply soy yogurt instead.

How to Make this Recipe Even Healthier

• Omit the oil, and sauté the onion in a non-stick skillet with vegetable broth.
• Double or triple your kale in the recipe. Or try spinach, swiss chard, or broccoli here.
• Choose whole-wheat pita or flatbread.
• Or skip the bread completely, and serve the stew with a big bowl of green salad.

How to Make This Stew Extra Special

• Dry toast your whole coriander seeds, cumin, cinnamon sticks, and dried chili, then grind them yourself.
• Add extra flavor to your stew with a few drops of argan oil, soy sauce, or liquid smoke.
• Top the stew with chopped nuts like almonds or pistachio, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, or microgreens.
• Make your own pita bread, and serve them hot and fresh out of the oven.

Lentil and Chickpea Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Kale

Serves 4-6

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1.5 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 3/4 tsp ras el hanout (Spice mix )
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1.5 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 cup of dry lentils
• 1.5 cups diced sweet potato (1 medium sweet potato)
• 1 can of crushed or diced tomatoes
• 3-3.5 cups of low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups of chopped kale
• salt, pepper

To serve:

• warmed pita bread
• coconut yogurt
• pomegranate seeds
• fresh parsley or cilantro
• lemon juice

Instructions

1. Heat up oil in a pot, then add onion, and sauté over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until translucent.
2. Add garlic, curry powder, ras el hanout, coriander, cumin, chili powder and flakes, and cinnamon, and cook for about 30 minutes, or until fragrant. Stir to make sure they don’t burn.
3. Add tomato puree, lentils, diced sweet potatoes, crushed tomatoes, 3 cups of broth, and a good pinch of salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer the stew for about 20 minutes, or until vegetables are cooked. Stir occasionally, and add more broth, if needed.
4. In the last minute of cooking add chickpeas and kale. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed, with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
5. Serve stew warm topped with coconut yogurt, pomegranate, and fresh herbs.

Nutritionals 

Calories 557 | Total Fat 9.1g | Saturated Fat 1.1g | Sodium 1175g | Total Carbohydrate 94.9g | Dietary Fiber 30.6g | Total Sugars 19.2g | Protein 27.8g | Calcium 197mg | Iron 12mg | Potassium 1517mg |