3 lentil stews with vegetables

Lentils are one of the basic foods of the Mediterranean diet, an essential in our kitchen. They not only contribute essential proteins and good quality carbohydratesbut they are an excellent source of fiber and rich in minerals such as iron or zincvitamins A, E and group B.

Apart from offering us their magnificent nutritional contribution, lentils are very practical due to their versatility when preparing cold and salty disheslike salads. But at this cold time of year, they shine above all in stews, stews and soups.

In this post I am going to propose three lentil stews with vegetables that result much lighter than traditional stews, so you can even have them for dinner. This is what we propose in this week’s vegan menu, a winter weekly menu with which you can enjoy lentil stews and seasonal vegetables in a healthy and balanced way.

You can download the weekly menu below, but first let’s see some tricks to prepare lentil stews no ingredients of animal origin, but just as tasty and much lighter. I will also offer you three vegan recipes of lentil stew, which you will find included in the downloadable menu.

Tricks to prepare healthy and tasty lentil stews

We know that lentils are not considered a complete protein, since they do not have enough of some essential amino acids. However, they are easy-to-get amino acids from whole grainssuch as brown rice.

That is why lentils or other legumes are often combined in the same dish with cereals in the same dish, although in reality it is not necessary to consume all the essential amino acids in the same meal to get the proteins we need; we can do it in different meals throughout the day: eat legumes and have cereal for dinner, for example.

We can also add to our daily menu primary sources of protein, such as hemp seeds or tofu.

This is what we have done in the weekly vegan menu that you can download below: include cereals or protein foods such as hemp, tofu or textured soybeans in other meals of the day.

How to cook lentils

Although lentils are much more digestible than chickpeas or beans, we must not dodge soaking. This is not done only to soften them and shorten cooking, but to reduce their lectin and phytic acid content as much as possible. These antinutrients make it difficult for absorption of nutrients such as ironso it is important that we soak them for 12 to 24 hours.

The long cooking It is another of the strategies to reduce antinutrients, something very common in stews and spoon dishes. For this, they can also be sprouted, and in that case we could use them to finish the dish and give it a fresh and crunchy touch.

If you are going to cook the lentils with a cerealcheck the cooking time of the cereal of your choice, especially if you are going to cook them at the same time in the same pot, and do the same with the cooking time of the variety of lentils that you are going to use. A Castilian lentil is not the same as a pardina, much smaller, or the peeled and split red lentil, which does not keep the skin.

Although most lentil stews are, in themselves, gluten-free, we can make the variations of cereals that we wantso as not to always depend on rice or the well-known potato.

remember that you can always add more seasonal vegetables and that this will also make the dish more complete.

3 recipes for lentil stew with vegetables for your weekly menu

Here are three very different vegan lentil stews.

The first is a delicious lentil stew with pumpkin.Later I propose a quick stew with red lentil that is made at the moment. And finally a third stew, also fast, in which we will use the already cooked lentil. Only this third recipe calls for cereal, in this case millet.

1. Lentil stew with pumpkin

One of my must-haves for the fall-winter season. This stew is very comforting and nutritious, combining the nutritional power of lentils with the properties of pumpkin. You can accompany it with brown rice, another cereal or potato, although it is not essential.

Ingredients for 4-6 servings:

250 g of dry lentils½ kilo of pumpkin200 g of carrots200 ml of crushed tomato200 g of red pepper1 large white onion2 cloves of garlic1 teaspoon of ground cumin1 teaspoon of oregano2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegarWater or vegetable broth3 tablespoons of virgin olive oilsalt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Soak the lentils for at least 12 hours, changing the water. Then we drain the lentils, discarding the soaking water, and rinse them.Peel the pumpkin, removing the seeds and the threads, and we cut it into small dice. Wash and remove the stem and seeds from the peppers, cutting them very thin. Peel the onions and garlic, cutting everything very fine. And the same with the carrot.In a pot, Add the olive oil and brown the onion and garlic with a little salt.Add the rest of the vegetables and fry them for a few minutes.Add the lentils, spices and water, which should cover about four fingers, and we leave cook over low heat with lid for about 45 minutes if they are Castilian lentils (a little less if they are brown lentils).Turn off and let restadding the apple cider vinegar and seasoning to taste.

It can be served hot or allowed to warm and freeze in individual servings.

2. Orange lentil stew with vegetables

The red or orange lentil it is done very easily and it may not be completely complete. It is a type of lentil that we usually find peeled, so it is more digestiveand its flavor is milder.

in this recipe we will not need such a long soak and, since it is a quick stew, potatoes or sweet potatoes can be added at the end of cooking, steamed the day before.

Ingredients for 4-6 servings:

250 g red lentils 2 carrots 1 zucchini 1 large white onion 1 leek 1 bunch chard 1 level tablespoon curry 1 level tablespoon paprika 1 teaspoon cumin 1 handful parsley ½ teaspoon ground black pepper 3 tablespoons olive oil salt to taste water for cooking 250 g sweet potato, potato or already steamed rice (optional)

Preparation:

Soak the lentils for 4 hours, so that they are done in just 10-15 minutes.We wash all the vegetables well. After cleaning, peeling and removing stems, we cut them separately into very small cubes.Chop the chard very finely, like parsley.In a pot, Brown the white part of the leek and the onion with a little olive oil. When they have taken on color, add the rest of the vegetables. Sauté everything together for a few minutes and add water with the spices. The water has to cover everything. We let them cook over low heat with the lid onwithout becoming undone.To give body to the stew, we can take out a couple of ladles and crush it; then he rejoins.Add the lentils which are usually ready in less than 15 minutes (check package directions).Add the potato, sweet potato or optional rice in the last few minutes if we are going to consume our stew at the moment. We let the stew rest with the pot covered and serve hot.

If we are going to freeze the stew, it is better to do it without the optional potato, sweet potato or rice.

3. Lentil stew with millet

The millet will give a different texture to this stew, also ideal for making with rice or potatoes. This cereal provides us with magnesium, potassium and group B vitamins. In addition, it has more protein than rice or potato.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

200 g of millet 200 g of lentils already cooked 2 tablespoons of concentrated tomato 1 leek, the white part 1 red pepper 1 green pepper 1 clove of garlic 2 tablespoons of olive oil water or mild vegetable broth salt and pepper

Preparation:

Chop the garlic and the leek as fine as possible. Brown the garlic and leek in a pot with the olive oil.Also chop the peppers and add them to the pan. Sauté the vegetables. Meanwhile, in another panwithout oil, we toast the millet a little.Add the millet to the pot, adding water with the concentrated tomato. Season with salt and pepper and let it cook for 10 minutes. Watch that the water is not consumed and cook over low-medium heat with a lid.Add the cooked lentils drained and let it cook for another 10 minutes.Before serving, let it rest with the pot closed.

Winter vegan weekly menu

In it Vegan weekly menu for today you will find these lentil stew for dinner. It is common to think that they are too strong dishes for the night, but in the case of legume stews without sausages or meat, this is not true. Especially if they have a high percentage of vegetables.

Download your menu winter healthy weekly here.

So that this week based on stews is lighter and more complete, we recommend that the stars of breakfasts and snacks between meals are whole grains and fresh fruit. Do not rule out rice in your breakfasts: as we have mentioned, it is a good complement to lentil proteins and we can take advantage of it at any time.

Also remember that, although in winter we feel like eating warm and from a spoon much more, a portion of the vegetables must be raw, so at least once a day we must include a salad. We also use vegetable sticks or spiralized vegetables, which can be eaten raw in many different ways.

The fruit with vitamin C it helps us metabolize non-heme iron, so they are the ideal dessert, or a good complement to our salads.