Creamy Vegetable Stew with Lentils (One Pot)
Creamy Vegetable Stew with Lentils
All recipes developed by Becca Heyes.
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I’ll take just about any excuse to get my enormous casserole pot out of the cupboard, and this creamy vegetable stew is a very good one! It’s an easy one pot dinner that’s packed with colourful vegetables and hearty lentils, all simmered together in a wonderfully creamy, flavour-packed sauce.
This is the kind of meal that makes a pile of vegetables feel seriously irresistible, especially when you serve it with plenty of crusty bread and butter for dipping into that delicious sauce. Perfect comfort food!
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🥗 Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this creamy vegetable stew recipe.
Detailed ingredient quantities (in both US and UK recipe formats) can be found in the printable recipe card.
I’ll admit, the ingredients list for this veggie stew is a little longer than the majority of my recipes – but when one of the recipe steps is essentially ‘add all of the ingredients to the pot’, it doesn’t feel like too much of a hardship.
- potatoes – I left mine unpeeled because I enjoy the skins (and because it’s easier!). Any potato will work, although a floury potato will break down into the sauce more than a waxy potato will do, so choose depending on your preference.
- vegetables – I used leek, carrots, runner beans (stringless beans), frozen peas, and frozen sweetcorn.
- dried lentils – brown or green. Red lentils will also be tasty, although as they break down a lot more when cooking than brown or green lentils do, you’ll end up with quite a different end result. Read more about different kinds of lentils.
- flour, milk, butter and vegetable stock – to create the creamy base of the sauce.
- dried herbs, mustard and garlic – to give it lots of flavour.
- fresh dill – not a herb I use very often! But its fresh flavour works so well to liven up this creamy stew.
🔄 Substitutions
Feel free to swap the vegetables to any others that you prefer – to be honest I’d happily chuck in whatever veggies I have in the fridge. Some ideas:
- red or white onion
- parsnips
- cabbage
- green beans
- mushrooms
- sweet potato
- celery
- edamame
etc! Just avoid anything that doesn’t work well with a long cooking time (broccoli or zucchini will turn to mush!)
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🔪 Equipment You’ll Need
When I’m making a big casserole like this veggie stew (and lots of my other one pot dinners, like my vegetable potato bake or my shepherd’s pie gnocchi), I love to use my huge Le Creuset pot. Any similar oven-safe pot will do, but I do love my big cast iron pot.
As you might know already, Le Creuset casserole dishes are really rather expensive – mine was a very generous gift many years ago, otherwise I don’t think I would have been able to justify spending so much on a pot. Luckily, you can also buy very similar pots that are a much more budget-friendly and have great reviews:
You could also try…
Caribbean Sweet Potato Stew
Cheesy Vegetable Potato Bake
Creamy Three Bean Stew
📝 How to Make Creamy Vegetable Stew
Creamy Vegetable Stew with Lentils
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Print Pin Share Comment(please double check all allergens before eating)
Ingredients
- 30 g (~ 2 Tablespoons) butter
- 1 leek, sliced
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 Tablespoons plain flour
- 700 g (~ 1 1/2 lb) potatoes, cut into bitesized pieces (I left mine unpeeled)
- 3 medium carrots, cut into bitesized pieces
- 225 g (~ 1/2 lb) runner beans (stringless beans), cut into bitesized pieces
- 200 g (~ 1 cup) dried green or brown lentils
- 130 g (~ 1 cup) frozen peas
- 130 g (~ 1 cup) frozen sweetcorn
- 1 litre (~ 4 cups) vegetable stock
- 500 ml (~ 2 cups) milk
- 1 teaspoon dried herbs (I used mixed herbs)
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Small handful fresh dill, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large casserole dish, and add the sliced leek. Sauté for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Add the garlic, and cook for 1 more minute.
- Add the flour, and mix well to coat the leek.
- Add all of the remaining ingredients, except for the dill. Mix well to combine.
- Cover the pan with a lid, and bring to a simmer. Allow to cook for around 45 minutes to an hour, stirring a few times during cooking. For a thicker stew, you can remove the lid for the second half of the cooking time.
- To complete the stew, season to taste – I like plenty of black pepper, and if you used low sodium stock, you may also need to add a dash of salt. If you like, you can give the stew a few presses with a potato masher, to help break down the softer vegetables (or leave it chunky if you prefer!).
- Serve hot, topped with a good scattering of fresh dill. I love to serve this vegetable stew with some bread and butter.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
