Hearty Old Fashioned Stew
I make this in my crockpot. You can do it on the stovetop and it would be faster, but would require more attention. I like the set-it-and-forget-it convenience of the crockpot.
This recipe is entirely whole food, plant-based.
Look at the photo. This is not a few veggies floating in broth, this is mostly veggies! Fill that pot with produce.
Let’s go!
Ingredients
3-4 quarts low sodium veggie broth*
3 medium or 5 small russet potatoes, diced
3 to 5 carrots, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
4-5 stalks of celery, diced
5 white button mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups baby spinach, chopped (or Swiss chard)
1 & 1/2 cups fresh or frozen peas
1 cup black eyed peas
1/2 cup pearl barley
1/2 cup brown rice
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons reduced sodium tamari
2 heaping teaspoons sage
1 heaping teaspoon rosemary
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp curry powder
Method
Wash the living hell out of your veggies, especially the greens. Wash it leaf by leaf. Do not just rinse it. Rub each leaf with your fingers to physically remove any bacteria. If you doubt this is necessary, hop your hiney over to Netflix and watch POISONED before you cook another crumb of food.
Dice all those nice clean veggies (except frozen peas) and pour into your crockpot. If using frozen peas, thaw them first.
Pour in the lentils and barley. Add all other ingredients. Stir everything in. Be sure there’s enough broth to cover the veggies by an inch or two. You might have to add more as it cooks, because the grains will expand to double their size.
Cook on high for about 5 hours, until the carrots are fork tender, and the rice and barely are tender. Add more broth if needed to keep the veggies covered.
You won’t need to thicken this. Elements from your whole grains, and the nutritional yeast, are natural thickeners. It thickens further overnight. Might need to add more broth and heat through the next day to thin it out.
Scatter with fresh ground black pepper right before serving.
Option: Leave out the barley and rice, increase the broth-to-veggie ratio, and add soba or udon noodles just before serving. (It’s a good idea to add noodles only to the soup you plan to eat right away. They will dissolve by the next day.)
Notes
To make your own veggie broth, save veggie scraps, washed and refrigerated, for a few days max. You can even use the ones you chopped up for the soup, all the celery leaves, onion skins, potato peels — if you have washed them thoroughly. Throw them into a big pot full of good water. Add a few whole veggies too, in chunks. Season it with rosemary, sage, celery seed, parsley, whatever you like. Simmer slowly as many hours as it takes to infuse the water with flavor. Then strain out the veggies and voila! Broth.
*Alternative to broth you can just cover the vegetables in your crockpot with water instead of veggie broth. I mean, water cooking in a potful of veggies turns into broth, plus you have all the seasonings in there.
Add any vegetables you like! I’ve added kidney beans or cannellini beans or black beans, kale, summer squash, etc.
Enjoy!