Vegan Curry Lentil Stew with Chickpeas

A delicious, hearty, and filling vegan dish chock full of tomatoes, lentils, chickpeas, and warm spices with your choice of vegetables – all for about 3 bucks!

Fall is in full swing, so I’ve been craving something warm.

I’m not saying I’m putting away the salad or smoothie recipes. No sir/ma’am. I just want something warm and preferably a bit spicy to fill me up on these crisp autumn evenings.

This curry lentil stew is a super easy and inexpensive meal that takes a little over 30 minutes to cook. The idea for this recipe came to me – as they usually do – on an evening when I didn’t have much left in my kitchen but I didn’t feel like shopping. I had a couple tomatoes, some dry lentils, a can of chickpeas, some vegetables, and spices.

I’ll write a post soon on great things to keep stocked in your kitchen, but consider this recipe to be a good place to start. You can’t go wrong with these ingredients:

INGREDIENTS

Exact amounts are in the recipe at the end of this post.

These ingredients make up the base of the stew. Vegetables are optional but highly recommended.

• lentils
• chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• tomatoes
• yellow onion
• garlic
• ginger
• curry
• cumin
• salt
• olive oil

Onion, garlic, and ginger: the magical flavor trifecta. Yes, you could leave one of these out and still make a great dish. But each adds its own special flavor that makes this stew come alive. I know ginger isn’t too common an item to have on hand, but it’s such a nice addition to so many dishes – it’s worth the extra effort.

Curry, cumin, salt are essential spices for this dish. I mean, maybe you could leave out the cumin. But I don’t recommend it.

INSTRUCTIONS

Additional instructions are in the recipe at the end of this post.

Chop the onion, garlic, and ginger and toss it into a large frying pan with olive oil. After it’s heated up and started to sizzle, add the spices.

Yes, I know I used a risotto spoon to stir this, despite this not being risotto. Moving on.

Once the onions start to turn translucent and before the garlic can brown, add the tomato, lentils, chickpeas, and water (or broth).

Allow it to come to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for 30 minutes.

At this point, you can add any vegetables you’d like. For this particular recipe, I added carrots, cauliflower, green beans, and spinach. I let the first three vegetables cook for a few minutes before adding the spinach – once that wilts, it’s done.

You can add anything else you want: tofu, tempeh, meat, other veggies. And, of course, this would be great on rice, quinoa, pasta, or with a hunk of bread.

A great topping idea: avocado! The coolness of the avocado balances so nicely with the spices.

The amount I made for this recipe would be sufficient for one person’s dinner, but if there are other parts to the meal such as rice, bread, or another course, it could easily serve two.

TIPS

• Optional: remove the chickpea skin. This isn’t necessary, but I like to remove the skin from each one before cooking. There’s something soothing and meditative about it. Also, I just like the cleanliness of them without the skin.
• Use either fresh or canned diced tomatoes in this recipe. I’ve used both. I happened to have a whole tomato when I made this, and it came out great. Just note that canned diced tomatoes have a bit more liquid.

SUBSTITUTIONS

Instead of…

• brown lentils, use any type. There are actually several different types of lentils, and it probably doesn’t matter which ones you use for this dish as long as you cook them long enough.
• chickpeas, use any beans or protein you want.
• chili garlic sauce, add a dash or two of cayenne pepper. (I know this isn’t a popular ingredient to have on hand. I love it and buy it at my local Korean supermarket.)
• water, use vegetable (or any type of) broth. (When I made this, I didn’t have broth and wanted to see what it would taste like with water. With all of the spices and flavors in the stew, it didn’t taste watery at all. Bonus: it’s cheap.)
• the vegetables I used, add whatever vegetables you want! There’s really no wrong vegetable to add to a stew.

COST BREAKDOWN

Like most vegan recipes involving legumes and beans, this recipe is a deal.

As usual, I’m listing the prices I paid for ingredients (sometimes I will include a price that’s cheaper if I know it’s out there but I couldn’t get my hands on it). I usually try to buy the least expensive brands: the lentils I used are Goya and $1.99 for a 16 oz. bag; the chickpeas are Whole Foods 365 where they are only $0.79 a can.

Olive oil can vary greatly in price, but I’ve been keeping my costs down buying Whole Foods 365 which is $6.99 for a large bottle. Vegetables are typically inexpensive, even here in NYC.

Here’s what I paid for the amounts in the recipe:

• olive oil: $0.23
• yellow onion: $0.44
• garlic: $0.06
• ginger: $0.10
• curry: $0.11
• cumin: $0.06
• salt: $0.02
• tomato: $1.00
• lentils: $0.19
• chickpeas: $0.23

Total stew base: $2.44

The vegetables I used added another $0.86.

Total dish with vegetables: $3.30

If you make this recipe, let me know in the comments!