Vegetable Stew Recipe – Vegan gluten free stew with lentils and cauliflower

This vegetable stew recipe with lentils is gluten free, delicious and very easy to make. It has a medley of taste and can be enjoyed as a whole meal.

Festivals in India are synonymous with food. People enjoy various kinds of food and completely forget to watch what they are eating. This Durga Puja season, I obviously was out enjoying all kinds of street foods of Kolkata that I miss in Bangalore. But now after the pujas are over, it’s time to detox. I am getting to have healthy and light food to compensate for the entire binge eating during the festival. This light vegetable stew recipe has every bit of nutrition and taste to bring me back to the healthy lifestyle.

One of the key ingredients for a healthy lifestyle is that you make your own food or at least know what’s going into your food. I wanted to have a vegan soup, for a change, and I also wanted it to be protein rich. So why not make a lentil soup? But then I figured out I had a few vegetables in the refrigerator, so I ended up making this vegetable stew recipe with lentils.

What do you need for this vegetable stew recipe?

The best part of this stew is you can add vegetables of your choice. I am using some very regular vegetables that are found lying in your kitchen.

In using carrot, French beans, green peas, onion, cauliflower and orange lentil or masoor dal. You can use moong dal for this vegetable stew recipe too. Since we are not going to pressure cook it, try to use lentils that are easy and faster to cook.

How to make this vegetable stew recipe?

I can’t even tell you how easy this vegetable stew recipe is. It’s almost like sautéing everything together and letting it all mix together! Nevertheless, here’s how you can make this detox vegetable stew recipe and have a healthy meal today!

In a pan or kadhai, heat vegetable oil and temper it with little cumin seeds and a few crushed cloves of garlic. I like the aroma that garlic gives, it makes this really fragrant. If you are someone who doesn’t take garlic or onions – you can skip both from this recipe. Once the oil is tempered sauté onion, till they turn translucent. Once the onion is cooked add half a teaspoon of ginger paste.

Now add the vegetables and sauté them. Add washed lentils in it and keep sautéing for 4-5 minutes.

In a small bowl add turmeric powder, red chili powder and jeera powder, or cumin powder and mix them with water to make a paste-like consistency. Add this spice mix to the lentils and mix well. Let it cook till oil is released from the sides.

Add the washed cauliflower florets and keep sautéing for 5-6 minutes,

Add warm water, seasoning to your stew. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes over low flame or till the lentil has melted and cauliflower is cooked.

Serve it warm. I sometimes like having a bowlful of it – just like that without any other portion of carbs.

Read: Old Fashioned Chicken Stew

Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup

This is a fairly easy recipe to create and you can add as many vegetables of your choice. My son, Bluey is very fond of peas so I have to invariably add them in most of my recipes these days. You could even add some mushrooms for all you know! It’s all up to you.

Now wasn’t that easy? Let me know in the comments how you enjoyed it.

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Problogger October 2017 Blogging Challenge