Yellow soup with lentils topped with nasturtium flowers.

From Oh She Glows Every Day. Copyright © 2016, Glo Bakery Corporation. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited.

Golden French Lentil Stew

Serves 4, Print Recipe Here

½ cup raw cashews, or ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds
2 cups water
2 tablespoons  extra-virgin olive oil
1 large yellow or sweet onion, diced, or 2 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
4 large cloves garlic, minced (2 tablespoons)
1 to 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt, to taste, plus a couple pinches
2 medium carrots, diced (1 heaping cup)
2 stalks celery, diced (¾ cup)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 (14-ounce/398 mL) can of diced tomatoes, with juices
¾ cup  uncooked French green lentils, picked over and rinsed
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
3 cups stemmed and chopped Swiss chard or kale leaves
Freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar, to taste

1. Begin by placing the cashews or sunflower seeds in a bowl and cover with a couple of inches of water. Soak for 1 to 2 hours or overnight. I used the quick-soak method and covered the sunflower seeds with boiling water for about 1 hour. Once the seeds have soften, drain and rinse them and add to a high-speed blender along with ½ cup of the water. Blend on high until super smooth and creamy. Set the nut cream aside.

2.In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and a couple pinches of salt, and sauté until the onion is softened, 4 to 6 minutes.

3. Stir in the chopped carrots and celery, and cook for another few minutes or so. Stir in the cumin, thyme, and turmeric.

4. Add the diced tomatoes with their juices, along with the lentils, broth, and remaining water. Turn up the heat to high and bring the mixture to a low boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for 30 to 35 minutes, until the lentils have softened.

5. Once the lentils have cooked, stir in the nut cream and chard. Season with salt, pepper, and vinegar to taste. Cook for a couple of minutes over low-medium heat, until the chard is wilted. Serve alongside some crusty bread.

118 Comments

    1. This should last about 5 days in the fridge and could easily be frozen for longer (like a month). It would be perfect to make up early in the week and reheat for lunches or supper.<3

  1. I am so excited for this cookbook! Our favorite plant-based meal happens on the grill, and is a big mess of filling food. Summer squash with dill & lemon; tofu and/or eggplant with garlic, ginger, maple syrup, Bragg's liquid aminos, rice vinegar and sesame oil; baby eggplants slit almost through and stuffed with oregano, garlic, olive oil, salt; beets wrapped in foil with a slip of thyme or a slice of orange; chopped potatoes and onions wrapped in foil with olive oil, salt, and pepper...

  2. Our go to plant based meal is black bean tacos with garden heirlooms, bell peppers, red onions, cilantro, avocado, corn and whatever spicy peppers we have! I pair that with Mexican rice (brown rice cooked in veggie broth with diced tomatoes and chili powder, smoked paprika, oregano, cumin and cayenne). So good and even our two year old likes this dinner!

  3. My favorite plant-based dish to make is pasta! I love to add sauce, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, basil, etc. to it. It is easy and delicious!

  4. A meal that I make myself at least once a week is spiced roasted tofu with veggies and potatoes. Simple but satisfying!

  5. Thai coconut curry with all the veggies!. Or avocado smashed on GF toast with tomatoes, basil, nutritional yeast and sea salt. The best.

  6. eeeeep! this stew is speakin' to my heart. lovely post, and beautiful words!
    my favorite throw-together meal slightly echoes this recipe - a quick lentil curry or stew of some kind, with all the kitchen sink vegetables. yum yum.

    1. Yay Joanna!!!! You're number was chosen at random as the winner of the OSG book! Please send me your address and details to sophie@wholeheartedeats.com and they publisher will send it out to you soon <3 I love quick curries and stews too. They're just perfect for this time of year.

      1. Hey Joanna, since I have not heard from you I am going to pick another winner for this specific prize. But PLEASE contact me at any time and I'll send something special your way <3 xox Much love

  7. So resonating with your perfect words here Sophie, I love this time of year during the shifting of the seasons! Currently drinking a green smoothie while wrapped in a sweater. Happy happy girl. And this cookbook is exactly as you describe. I'm mega enjoying it too, and am right there with you on those high-rise pumpkin cupcakes <3.

  8. Recently I've been obsessed with tempeh tacos! Its not quite "quick" but I'll keep ingredients in the fridge for quick meals for a few days. I'll make some vinegar red onions, throw on some avocado, romaine and a cashew chipotle sauce and some salsa!!! Leftovers get made into new tacos or bowls.

  9. My favorite fast plant based meal would be some sort of grain bowl, or if I'm feeling super lazy a hummus and veggie sandwich!

  10. Black bean burritos, with brown rice, fresh sweet corn, juicy tomatoes, and allll the guac 🙂

    Beautiful recipe! Would love a copy of this book!

  11. I'll bask in late summer with you! This bowl of stew sounds so delicious and what I wouldn't give to get my hands on a copy of that book! My favorite plant-based dinner right now is some quick veggie tacos!

  12. The stew looks great. I love lentils. My favorite thing to make is a red lentil and cauliflower curry. Lentils are so tasty and quick to make.

  13. Green, yellow and patty pan squash, sauteed on the grill with olive oil and garlic and fresh tomatoes, Makes enough to enjoy that evening and enough to have to put in homemade tortilla later in the week with some black beans. Delightful.

  14. Oh, beautiful photos/site! Would love to win this. One of my favorite quick and simple dinners is potato-leek soup. So simple, yet so delicious!

  15. I love soups and making them! And the upside is my husband and kids love them too. The family favorite is roasted tomato soup, with tomatoes from our own garden 🙂

  16. Hmm, that's a hard to decide... I really like making veggie bowls for myself, but when I'm cooking for my family, probably falafels or pasta dishes.

  17. New quick dinner is roasted eggplant strips with z'atar seasoning and cashew cream on flatbread. So simple. Love the seasonings Angela has in this soup. Exciting!

  18. I absolutely love whipping up stirfries on busy weeknights because I find chopping soothing, the process very speedy, and clean-up easy! I usually throw in tofu or chickpeas, my favourite veggies, lots of ginger and some brown or jasmine rice.

  19. I keep a stash of homemade veggie burgers - my favorite is my black bean burgers! - in my freezer and can just pull out and add any fixin's I may have. on hand! Easy peasy. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed!

  20. Can't wait to make this as we get into "soup season!" My favorite plant bases meal is a "bowl," customized with whatever raw and roasted veggies I have in the fridge, usually with quinoa base. Don't forget the beans or hummus! ?

    1. Hello Sarah!!!! Your number was chosen at random as the winner of the OSG cookbook!! Yay! Please send your address to sophie@wholeheartedeats.com and the publisher will send you your copy! I am so in love with bowl food too. We have one at least three times a week. And yes to that hummus (so crucial) <3

  21. Such a beautiful post! My favourite, quick and easy plant-based meal is the Roasted Broccoli, Kale, and Chickpeas with Ricotta from Sarah Copeland's book Feast, It's tasty, easy, and healthy. Win! Win! Win!

  22. This looks amazing! I basically live on bowls - I just pick a grain (rice, quinoa or millet usually), a protein (beans, tofu, tempeh), a ton of veggies, and add sauce (my favourites are tahini sauces, miso sauces, or balsamic dressings!). I also make red lentil soup a lot, with canned tomatoes, Italian spices, and whatever veggies I have around. It's a great meal for throwing everything in a pot and having dinner ready 20 minutes later! Thanks for the giveaway!

  23. That Golden French Lentil Stew looks amazing! Right now, I guess my favorite plant-based meal is a classic salad. This sounds odd, but I am more-or-less a newbie when it comes to eating plant-based. I grew up with the typical SAD (Standard American Diet) and then progressed to more of a Paleo-style diet. Now I am reading How Not To Die and am becoming convinced that a vegan diet is probably the most healthy diet one can follow.

  24. I love a big bowl of leafy greens, quinoa, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, sunflower seeds and raisins. Olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper on top!

  25. I never get tired of mixing some kind of beans (mostly lentils!) with rice, raw veggies, spices, and alll the apple cider vinegar

  26. Soup is my favourite go to plant based meal. Fresh vegies and herbs from my garden combined with a few pantry staples always creates a hearty, delicious meal! Yum!

  27. My go-to veggie meal is an easy, use up all your leftover veggies, stir-fry. With a quick miso-ginger sauce. I never get tired of it because I can always change up the veggies or play with different variations of the sauce.

  28. I really found “Oh She Glows” refreshing through her many (easy to make) recipes and user friendly website. As a matter of fact, I’m making her Glowing Spiced Lentil Soup tonight.

  29. I've bookmarked this recipe and am soaking my lentils. Looks lovely, can't wait to try and teste it! Really sorry the giveaway is not open worldwide 🙁

  30. Wow, Sophie, once again your words are beautiful and your photography is STUNNING! I love the word-image of the sky opening up, and I adore the pictures of the vegetables- my mouth is watering!! My favorite quick meal is a bunch of veggies roasted in olive oil and salt over a bed of quinoa. It's so simple but so so healthy and comforting. I also love simple and easy to make burrito bowls with rice, beans, lettuce, salsa, cilantro, tomatoes, and guac.

    xx Ellie // https://peanutbutterandle.wordpress.com

  31. I love making Angela's 10-spice vegetable soup. I keep a jar of her 10-spice mix available so I can whip up this soup pretty quickly. The flavors are spot-on and the soup tastes even better the second day 🙂

  32. Beautiful photos! I'm excited to look through more of your recipes as I just found your site. Thanks for sharing!

    Favorite meals lately are dinner sized salads with lots of veggies, nutritional yeast and homemade dressing.

  33. Bowls bowls bowls, I can't get enough of them. Most nutritious, filling and easiest meals to create. Also, easiest to use seasonal produce!

  34. What a stunner of a recipe! Loving these photos and the flavouring of this stew. With the days getting shorter and likely colder, I'm all about a veggie thai curry - loaded with warm flavours, subtle heat and all the veg and peanuts.

  35. My current favorite is roasted asparagus, garlic and grape tomatoes served over brown rice noodles with balsamic glaze drizzled over it. My non-vegan family loves this one!

  36. I love making Quinoa Chile or a veggie only Chile with butternut squash and kale (+many more!). Thanks for the chance 🙂

  37. Wow, that lentil soup is such a beautiful color! My fave easy vegetarian dish right now is pasta with sautéed corn and grated zucchini. It's what I ate tonight!

  38. That stew looks amazing but dare I say it -- I'm not quite ready for that kind of fall feel! Right now, I'm loving quick tomato salads with grains, chickpeas, and harissa.

  39. My current favourite plant based meal is my eggplant chickpea curry. So good with fresh tomatoes and eggplant from my garden!

  40. Oh, this looks delicious and I will definitely be making it soon. I made your Unbelievable Buckwheat Bread a couple of weeks ago, and I think a couple slices would be great with this stew! Time to get my (slimy, eek) buckwheat game on again 🙂

    I'd say my favorite quick meal would just be a pile of roasted veggies with some homemade hummus and crackers. You also can't go wrong with a humble bowl of rice and beans!

  41. This looks wonderful! It could join some of my favorite quick meals for fall--split pea soup or red lentil chili made in the pressure cooker! Six minutes and done!

  42. Thank you, Sophie, for not saying the F word. Like you, I'm still savoring these days of Late Summer!

    My quick and easy meal: roasted, curried sweet potato slices with steamed broccoli, green beans, and chickpeas.

    I coat the sweet potato slices in coconut oil, then sprinkle with curry powder, garlic powder, and a little black pepper, then I put them in to roast for about 15 mins. While the potato roasts, I chop the veggies and put them in the steamer on the oven. When the potato timer goes off, I start the veggie water boiling. Then, while the water boils, I flip the potato slices and put them back into the oven. I steam the veggies for about 3 mins. Then I put them on a plate (maybe add a little coconut oil), add the potato slices, sprinkle it all with a little tamari and dig in.

  43. Thanks for the chance to win!! This is a hard one, Lately the kids have been asking for vegan mac and cheese with trees basically boil the noodles midway through toss in the broccoli strain and in a separate pot make a white sauce flour, oil, cook a couple min add garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast and salt add water simmer till thick and creamy and stir into the strained pasta and broccoli mix fast, cheap, and easy. 🙂 Can't wait to try this soup!!!

  44. I was just talking to my partner about how much I want this book. I make her veggie burgers regularly, served with a side of quinoa salad with whatever veggies I have lying around. So good.

  45. I like to make just a quick salad with some black beans for protein and LOTS of veggies...cukes, tomatoes, peas, shredded carrots, avocado, onions, zucchini, asparagus, or whatever suites your fancy! Nutritious and Delicious!!!

  46. I grew up on lentil soup, Italian style, Just lentils, macaroni, garlic, olive oil and hot peppers. Now it's my comfort food.

  47. This has been the summer of the grilled vegetable grain bowl for me. Grilled eggplant, zucchini, and peppers with farro and kale/arugula, and an herb pesto. I never get tired of it!

  48. Exciting! My absolute FAVORITE plant-based meal is throwing together some type of pasta with a cauliflower ricotta. It takes a little bit of planning to make a batch, but it's so so so worth it! Plus, then I can keep a big ol' jar of of it for the week to add to meals 🙂

  49. A tofu scramble atop sweet potatoes, toasted bread, leftover grains or corn tortillas is super quick and easy, plus satisfying and healthy -- win! This is much lovelier, though, as the scrambles tend to look a little haphazard...

  50. Nom nom! Looks delicious! A new throw-together plant-based recipe I've been enjoying is diced marinated veggies (usually red peppers and artichokes), prepared baked tofu, and quinoa with some herbs to make it feel a little fresher 🙂

  51. In Indian cuisine there are simple dishes called poriyals- which are basically just different types and preparations of vegetables. I love to make a few different vegetable poriyals and eat them with rice. It's a great way to get variety in a plant-based meal.

  52. I love making the crowd pleasing tex mex casserole from the OSG first cookbook! Always a hit for vegans and non vegans and delish!

  53. Having a baby has given me a new appreciation for quick and easy food. Right now, I am kind of living off peanut butter and coconut bacon sandwiches!

  54. My favourite recipe to make for meal times this summer has been a "Summer Squash Bake"... can be done in the slow cooker or the oven, and a great way to use up any left-over produce in my fridge before it spoils! And, so tasty! Love the first 'Oh She Glows' cookbook... can't wait to check out the second one!

  55. I always have cooked grains/beans in the freezer, so when I don't have energy or time to cook, I defrost and season it and serve with sauteed greens and toasted nuts.

  56. This stew looks delicious! You can't ever go wrong with an Oh She Glows recipe. My favourite simple meal is a giant salad loaded with raw or roasted vegetables, such as broccoli, sweet potato, beets, etc., drizzled with a tahini sauce.

  57. I have a thing about roasting cauliflower or broccoli in the oven with nothing more than a a little drizzle of olive oil, a couple pinches of salt, pepper, paprika, and chili flakes. So good and it brings out such a delicious flavour when they're nice a crispy! Paired with some quinoa, sliced cherry tomatoes, and a couple small wedges of roasted sweet potato, it's all set to go!

  58. One of my favorite go-to plant based meals is a thai peanut sauce over rice noodles and veggies. My comfort food. This stew looks amazing!

  59. Yum. My favorite these days is steamed rice with grated carrot and zucchini (steamed right in!) I'll top with roasted sweet potatoes or black beans and sliced avocado. So good.

  60. Actually, my favourite go to is the African peanut stew from the Oh She Glows cookbook The chick peas and sweet potatoes make for a filling and delicious quick meal.

  61. I love making a tofu scramble. Usually with as many veggies as possible and whatever I have on hand. I sometimes even throw canned asparagus. So filling, easy, and I'm using all my veggies from market.

  62. This looks so good! Angela's book sounds wonderful.

    Favourite meals lately have been steamed beets, sprouts and French lentils with a tangy dressing. Last week when it felt like fall it was a simple green lentil dal.

  63. This looks so yummy and comforting!! So in need of some healthy hearty soup right now to cure me :O

  64. Some of my favourite meals are just an everything but the kitchen sink bowl - grain, bean, and lots of fresh produce topped with some kind of delicious sauce (especially if it is a nut butter sauce!!)

  65. With a new baby, quick meals are my new thing! One recent meal has been pita bread or tortilla loaded with hummus, olives, tomatos, sauerkraut, olives, lettuce, sprouts and more. Easy to make, yummy to eat!

  66. I love making bowls loaded with veggies, grains, and sweet potatoes and beets. I usually put a tahini dressing on top 🙂

  67. Think I just found what I am going to be making for dinner this evening! This soup looks absolutely delicious!! One of my favourite go-to plant based meals around this time of year would have to be spelt pasta with marinara sauce, peas & hemp hearts! Ridiculously easy & super comforting!

  68. I am especially loving the cashew base and the green lentils in here- this soup looks so hearty and comforting 🙂 Pinning!

  69. Man, I crave cooler days and that soup looks so cozy and delicious! I like a simple bowl of quinoa, roasted cauliflower & brussel sprouts, chickpeas and a tahini dressing.

  70. This looks amazing! I loved her first book and I just know this one will be indispensable too. My favorite weeknight dinner is sweet potatoes with almond or coconut butter and steamed greens. Simple but so satisfying!

  71. For summer, I love making a quick gazpacho to pack in tons of fresh garden veggies! Depending on how we're feeling, I'll serve it with some variation of avocado toast, or a simple greens salad with leftover grains and/or legumes (usually chickpeas).

  72. This stew is so perfect for these grey gloomy days we've been having! Ultimate comfort food! My go to meal is usually rice, steamed veggies, chickpeas, and tons of romaine lettuce piled on to. So simple, so good!

  73. Burrito bowls! Avocado salsa, marinated kale, black beans, rice, cherry tomatoes and sometimes baked yam if I'm feeling fancy :).

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