Moroccan Lentil Stew with beans, carrots, red lentils, garlic and warm Moroccan spices in less than an hour.
 Moroccan Lentil Stew
 Moroccan Lentil StewOne of my favorite old Cooking Light Magazine recipe was for a Moroccan chickpea stew that ended up being my first post on my other blog. You know how it goes, you always make your favorite recipes first.
Well, Chickpea stew became a favorite of ours, we’d eat it ALL the time. Over time I started moving away from just using chickpeas to using other filling options too.
Health Benefits of Red Lentils:
Red Lentils are full of health benefits including helping to lower cholesterol by containing high levels of soluble fiber. Lentils help to reduce blood cholesterol since it contains high levels of soluble fiber. They help stabilize blood sugar, promote weight loss and are a source of low cost protein.
Creating flavor without fat:
We use one tablespoon of olive oil here to cook the vegetables and bloom the spices. This allows for great flavors in just 12 calories per serving of fat.
We could have just jumped the ingredients into a pot together and simmered until cooked through but cooking with spices and adding a small amount of fat helps to bring out the flavors a lot more.
How to Make Creamy Soups without Cream:
We also add in cannelini beans into this soup. One of the best creamy soup tricks without using cream is to puree a can of cannelini beans and add it to your soup. The texture is creamy and no added smart points!
Finally, I use a base instead of a regular broth or stock. This allows me to control the strength of the broth to my tastes. When cooking with so many vegetables that are going to soak up flavor (like the lentils and the beans) I make my vegetable broth twice the strength by adding additional vegetable base. I live for this brand and have all the varieties at all times.
Additional non-vegetarian Moroccan Lentil Stew options:
For a point free variation you can 2 cups of add chopped turkey or chicken breast into the soup, just add in an additional ¼ teaspoon of Kosher salt with it to be sure it is seasoned appropriately.
Tools used in the making of this Lentil Stew:
Vegetable Base: I almost never buy boxes of broth because I keep the beef, chicken and vegetable version of this Better Than Bouillon.
Dutch Oven: I love this cast iron dutch oven and the top of it doubles as a pan.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion diced finely
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 can diced tomatoes 14 ounce
- 2 cans cannelini beans drained and rinsed
- 4 carrots peeled and diced
- 1 1/2 cups red lentils picked and rinsed
- 8 cups vegetable broth
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a dutch oven on medium-high heat.
- Add the onions and garlic to the pot and cook for 3-4 minutes until translucent.
- Add in the ginger, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, salt and pepper and stir for 30 seconds.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil.
- Lower the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes.
Nutrition
Do you need an 3rd can of cannelini beans to puree ?
Thanks!
You can add a third can pureed if you want the stew to be creamier. If you puree one of the two cans already in the recipe, it might feel like there’s not a lot of beans in the stew.
Looks delicious and very flavorful!
I don’t cook enough with lentils, and I’ll definitely be trying this stew!!
I just adore Moroccan flavors! This stew would be perfect for a cold winter day. 🙂
Agreed!
Do you not soak the red lentils in water before adding them to the stew?
Red lentils cook faster than other lentils and don’t need to pre-soak. You can find more information on cooking red lentils here.
I love lentils and this stew sounds fabulous!
Love this healthier twist! Can’t wait to try this!
This is warming me up inside! Great way to warm up on a cold night!
It’s helped on many a cold night for me!
This stew is terrific! Combo of warm spices and creaminess is so good and comforting. This is definately make again and again! So easy and quick! Thank you!
So glad you liked it!
This is delicious. I was a little skeptical about adding the cinnamon but that made it!! Thank you!!
It’s one of my family’s favorites for a reason!
I’m buying the ingredients to make this tomorrow. What is your favorite side with this? Â
This would go great with a salad like my Greek Chickpea Salad or grilled vegetables like my Balsamic Grilled Vegetables.
Amazing flavor! This is a keeper.Â
Thanks for the recipes.
Even the hubby liked it.
Thanks, Ann! My husband’s a fan too!
Used 8 cups of broth & the consistency seems much thinner than that pictured (or expected). Have you heard this before? Will try reducing the amount of liquid next time (I also puréed one of the cannelloni cans.)
Hmm, it’s hard to troubleshoot that from afar but the veggies could have had a lot of liquid to release. You can also always add a bit of cornstarch slurry to it or simmer uncovered. Hopefully it tasted good though!
Delicious and hearty, though did need to add extra salt
So glad you liked it!
I made this stew and it was delicious.
Are the diced tomatoes supposed to be drained, because there was extra liquid in the stew?
Recipe looks amazing. If I only have brown lentils on hand, does it change the flavor up?
So delicious! Thank you! and now I got a potful for the rest the week! Bonus with my schedule! Thank you so much for sharing. Will be one of my new favorites!
This was delicious!
Looking forward to trying this recipe! Does this soup freeze well!
yes!