Serves 8
Active time: 25 minutes || Total time: About 1 hour
I love that the addition of one word can turn a sloppy one-pot meal into something refined. The word, of course, being “rustic.” This is a hit-the-spot stew for wintertime, and the addition of a soft, simple and creamy polenta make it pure comfort. Even though there are lentils, I wouldn’t call it a “lentil stew.” The lentils are there to add extra body and some meatiness. Chopped plum tomatoes ensure a fresh tomato taste, as opposed to a heavy handed tomato-from-a-can flavor.
Go for yukon gold potatoes that are about the size of a misshapen golf ball, that way you only need to slice them in half to prep. Baby carrots are especially helpful, too., if you’re feeling too lazy to slice carrots.
Of course if you don’t want to use polenta you can use mashed potatoes, rice or any manner or yummy starches.
For the stew:
Olive oil (from 1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons, depending how much you feel like using)
1 small onion, diced medium
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
Several dashes fresh black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup green lentils
1 1/2 cups baby carrots
2 lbs plum tomatoes, chopped
4 cups vegetable broth
1 lb small yukon gold potatoes, sliced in half (if using large ones, cut into about 1 inch pieces)
2 bay leaves
3 leeks, white & light green parts only, in 1 inch chunks (and washed well)
Fresh rosemary or thyme, to serve (realistically, only if you’re taking food photos)
For the polenta:
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup dry polenta
To make the stew:
Preheat a 4 quart pot over medium heat. Saute the onion in olive oil, along with a dash of salt, for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, celery seed, pepper and salt and saute a minute more.
Add the lentils, baby carrots, tomatoes and vegetable broth. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Stir occasionally for about 20 minutes, until lentils are slightly softened (now is a good time to start the polenta.)
Add potatoes and leeks. Lower heat to simmer. Cover and cook for about 20 to 30 more minutes, until potatoes are fork tender and lentils are soft. Let sit for 10 minutes or so to allow the flavors to meld. Serve over polenta, garnished with fresh herbs, if you like.
To make the polenta:
Bring vegetable broth and salt to a boil in a 2 quart pot. Add oil. Lower heat to simmer. Add the polenta in a slow steady stream, stirring constantly with a whisk. Whisk for about 5 minutes, until polenta is thickened. Keeping heat low, cover and let cook for 20 more minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
Isa, I SO ♥ you!!
Yum, making this tonight. Have everything in the house but polenta.
I already have pretty much this exact stew in my slow cooker right now! Great minds think alike…
it looks delicious, but… fresh tomatoes in a winter stew?
This looks delicious! I’ve yet to try polenta at home. Added to my recipe list!
Go for whole grape tomatoes, if your grocer’s supply of fresh plum tomatoes are sharing a kinship with cardboard.
Or try compari tomatoes. They’re sort of a large cherry tomato, and delish at any time!
Perfect! I have massive quantities of local tomatoes in our chest freezer to get us through the winter, just for recipes like this:)
Mmmmm! I will be having this for Sunday lunch whilst reading The Observer and listening to The Church (Great band, check them out – Steve Kilbey is a vegan)
Wow, this looks diVINE! I cannot wait to try it! mmmm- polenta…
So… I made this yesterday… it was AMAZING. Seriously fantastic. A wonderful wintery-fresh brew of toothsomeness.
Loved by vegans and non-vegans alike: (direct quote) “If you cooked like this for me everyday I would never eat meat again.”
Match point, Vegans.
I made this for dinner earlier this evening – so tasty! There also happened to be two meat-eaters at the table who enjoyed it muchly. I couldn’t find dry polenta, so we had it with ready made polenta. Mmm.
This is going to be my xmas dinner!
Suze is right. seriously fantastic and wintery-fresh. stick to your ribs without being a leadweight of starch in the belly. smells like comfort, looks like comfort, tastes like comfort…well, it is. YAY!
Made this tonight for dinner and it was a huge hit. Not really winter-y down in South Florida hey we can still eat like it 20deg. outside. Sorry if this is stupid question but do the bay leaves go in with the lentils and carrots or with the potatoes and leeks? Or does it even matter? Thanks again Isa for another awesome dish.
You should throw the bay leaves in with the lentils and broth. It probably doesn’t really matter but since you don’t eat them, the longer they sit in there the better. I wouldn’t saute them with the other herbs but I don’t know if there’s any real reason not to, I just always add mine to liquid.
I made this for forty odd people and at least two of them loved it. I think maybe more. One of the two claimed it was the best soup he had ever had. What I mean to say is that it was a big hit. I think they all liked it. I used fresh thyme instead of
dried. I didnèt even have onion, veggie broth, or roma tomatoes (instead of them I used some terrible ones we had gotten – classification unknown….and still, voila. tres bien.
Delicious, warm and filling. I added fire roasted tomatoes along with diced plum tomatoes to add heat. I made the stew and polenta early in the day. I lightly greased a bread pan and poured in the hot polenta. Once cooled I refrigerated it. At meal time I sliced room temperature polenta into the bowls and ladled the hot stew over it.
This was great! Great comfort food. My three year old claimed, “yummy in my tummy”. Thank you.
I stuck to the recipe, which I rarely do (but, of course, that means putting in lots more garlic than called for). It was wonderful. I hosted a small dinner party with this as the main course. Guests were asking for second servings. I will make this again, or maybe not, because now I am curious to try other recipes on this site. Brava, Isa!
This is FAB-U-LOUS!!! I’m trying to get my husband to eat more vegan – NOT easy for a native Italian – but he can’t resist anything with polenta! Grazie mille Isa! This is officially in my “Sneaky Vegan” menu-rotation =)
This was great and so filling. Halved the recipe and still had leftovers.
For the person who said they couldn’t find polenta, just use cornmeal! You can get that anywhere!
greetings from germany 🙂
i just tried this recipe. it’s great, definitely one of my new favorites!
just one word: oberaffengeil! 🙂
Made this tonight and hubby and I give it two big thumbs up. The only thing I changed was to slice up the leeks so I could use most of the leaf instead of just the tender parts! Thanks so much for a wonderful dinner recipe!
Turned out great! I used boxed chopped tomatoes and rosemary instead of bay leaf (didn’t have any), which worked ok but I’ll use bay next time. I also increased the lentils. The polenta accompaniment worked very well. Next time, I’m going to add kale at the start of the simmer. A keeper!
I tried this recipe tonight for the first time. PERFECTION. It’s exactly what I wanted on a dreary winter night in. Isa, you’re the greatest! (PS – My sisters and I have been vegan for over 60 days now, and your recipes and books have been invaluable to our success and excitement!)
Isa I think you are a genius, and you have revolutionized vegan and vegetarian cooking and baking. I have been lovin’ the cupcake and cookie cookbooks for a while now (made the applesause softies just the other day – such a perfectly mellow cookie!), and recently discovered your blog. I made this stew tonight and it was great! Thank you for your creativity, your easy-to-follow instructions, and for sharing your passion and talents with all of us. I am pretty new to cooking, and with your recipes I feel empowered and confident to dive in and cook, and it always turns out yummy! Thank you!
Thank you so much, that is so good to hear!
Loved this!
This looks like a good autumn dish. I am looking forward to making this when it starts to get cold outside! Thanks, Isa! I love your recipes!!!
just got leeks in my csa this week and i have everything else in the fridge…you make menu planning so easy!
Is there a substitute for the lentils? Maybe a white bean or kidney bean? My daughter is allergic to lentils and chickpeas. Thanks!
Lentils cook much faster than either of those, but sure, it’s pretty flexible!
I tried this with winter squash and sweet potatoes I’d baked in the oven instead of the polenta and it was delicious. I just mashed the squash and potatoes with a bit of salt and cracked black pepper and added it to the bowls of stew. That really contributed to the flavor. Next time I may have to try it with the polenta, though, to see how that tastes. It looks good and creamy.
YUM! I made this for dinner tonight and it was a hit. Neither of us had ever had polenta before and I have major texture issues so I was a little concerned, but, it was totally delicious! We are just getting our toes wet with this vegan idea.. We watched ‘Forks Over Knifes’ and decided we better give it a shot. Anyway, your blog has been very helpful.. thanks for all your great recipes and ideas.
‘Forks Over Knives’ also brought me and my husband to this diet and a friend lent me Veganomicon. After cooking mostly Isa’s vegan recipes for almost two months now I can say we have always left the table feeling happy and full. This recipe is no exception. I cooked it tonight and it was perfect for a November evening. My husband was really on to something when he suggested we add some Trader Joe’s vegan soy chorizo to our hot bowls of stew. Come January I imagine we’ll be eating this every week. Thanks, Isa!
I have been vegan since March, but this week was the first time I tried a vegan recipe out on my (non vegan) husband. And it was my first exposure to PPK. This dish is absolutely delicious!!! And my husband also loved it!
This was sooo good! Added some tempeh, used sweet potato instead of regular potato. Went back for seconds and thought about thirds. So glad there are lots of leftovers!
This is definitely my favourite fall/winter recipe of yours! My roommates and I love it and have been cooking it on Sunday nights. So cozy. 🙂
This made my day–perfect treatment for sniffles and a sore throat. Trader Joes made things a bit simpler for us with their cooked lentils (which I forgot to add) and pre made polenta (which I sliced and panfried). Such a tasty broth–amazing how good simplicity can taste. I added fresh cilantro to the finished soup for serving as cilantro rocks my world. I will definitely make this for years to come!
I found your site through Feed Yr Skull!!! (another yummy veggie/vegan-ish/raw webby)….I just finish making this dish though substituting leeks for eggplant and white navy beans for lentils and instead of veggie broth I used red miso paste……TTTTTTAAAASTTTTTTYYYYY!!! Thank you!!! SO HAPPY to discover yr site! My husband and I were in heaven!!!! Perfect dish for the winter season….so hearty, deeeelish and healthy…VERY SATISFYING…CANT RAVE ENUFF!!!!
I have made this several times now. We really love the flavors. I wound up adjusting the spices to our likes using basil, sage and a little thyme. The polenta makes this so comfy and filling.
I used chopped canned tomatoes in juice, adding less broth to compensate, as well as added a bit of fresh parsley and extra thyme instead of celery salt. Even with my modifications, it was like pure comfort on a plate.
Thanks for creating such foolproof (adaptable!) recipes that never disappoint.
This was dinner tonight and it turned out great!!! I’ve never cooked polenta before and could only find precooked stuff, so we just used rice but it was still amazing! Hubby agreed too, and he’s definitely having a harder time than me at giving up meat 🙂
Yum! Pour anything over polenta and I am totally on board! Thanks for sharing this tasty recipe that I can force meat-eating family members to eat. We’re all big polenta fans as it is. I’m making this for dinner tomorro!