This Vegetable Stew is the perfect recipe to make when the weather starts to cool down. It’s jam-packed with veggies, and tastes like my mom’s classic beef stew– only without the meat!
How Do You Make Vegetable Stew from Scratch?
The key to a good vegetable stew is using lots of fresh vegetables, so the hardest part of this recipe is simply chopping up all of the veggies before you get started.
Once the vegetables are chopped, you’ll sauté the aromatic veggies, like onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms, until they are soft. Then, add in the rest of the veggies and herbs, and sprinkle in a little bit of flour. (I use a gluten-free blend to keep this soup gluten-free, but any type of flour should work.)
How to Thicken Vegan Stew
Adding flour is traditional in stew recipes, as it helps to thicken the broth.
If you’d rather keep this soup grain-free, try using an immersion blender at the end of the cooking cycle, to puree the soup slightly instead. That should offer a similar thickened result, but be careful not to over-blend! A good stew should definitely have lots of texture.
What are the Best Vegetables to Put in Soup?
Soups are a great way to clean out the veggies from your fridge, so you can add in practically anything you have on hand.
Here’s what I suggest using:
- Onion
- Carrots
- Celery
- Mushrooms
- Garlic
- Potatoes (Yukon gold or sweet potatoes)
- Canned jackfruit (optional, but adds a meat-like texture)
- Plenty of seasonings
If you’re not a huge fan of mushrooms (like me) try chopping them very small, so that their texture won’t be as noticeable. They really blend into this veggie stew, and add extra antioxidants to each bite.
Is Vegetable Stew Good for You?
Vegetable stew is a comforting way to eat an entire bowl of vegetables, so you’ll be flooding your body with vitamins and minerals with each bite.
Here’s what I love about the ingredients:
- Mushrooms. Mushrooms are loaded with antioxidants, which may help protect your brain as you age. (Researchers at Penn State recommend eating 5 button mushrooms each day.) Mushrooms are also rich in B vitamins, which help the body produce red blood cells, and carry oxygen throughout the body.
- Onion. Onions are also high in antioxidants, including quercetin. In one study, quercetin-rich onion skin extract was shown to significantly reduce systolic blood pressure. Regularly eating onions may also promote heart health by reducing high triglyceride levels and lowering inflammation.
- Jackfruit. Jackfruit is rich in antioxidants, and and is a good source of fiber. Jackfruit may help to balance blood sugar levels, possibly because of the flavanoids it contains. It’s also high in vitamin C and carotenoids, which may help to lower inflammation.
- Yukon Gold Potatoes. Did you know one medium Yukon gold potato meets almost half of your daily Vitamin C needs? (According to the USDA database.) This variety of potato is also a good source of potassium, which may help to lower blood pressure.
- Garlic. In one large study, garlic supplementation was shown to reduce the number of colds by 63% compared to a placebo. (The length of cold symptoms was also reduced by 70% in this study!)
If you have more vegetables to use up, I think bell peppers, zucchini, and even winter squash would be delicious in this soup. And if you don’t like something, feel free to leave it out!
Best Vegetable Stew (Vegan!)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 yellow onion , chopped (1.5 cups)
- 5 carrots , chopped (2 cups)
- 3 celery ribs , chopped (1 cup)
- 8 ounces mushrooms , chopped (3 cups)
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose gluten-free flour (see notes)
- 8 ounces Yukon gold or red potatoes , cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2 cups)
- 4 cups water
- 1 (14 oz.) can green jackfruit , drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (optional)
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Saute the onion, carrots, celery, and mushrooms until they start to soften, about 8 minutes.
- Add in the garlic, thyme, and tomato paste, and stir for 1 minute. Add in the flour, and stir to coat the vegetables.
- Add in the potatoes and water, and bring the liquid to a boil. While you wait for the water to boil, shred the jackfruit with your fingers, to create a shredded meat texture. Rinse again, to make sure you remove as much brine as possible, then add it to the pot, along with the salt and tamari. Add the balsamic vinegar if you want more of a "wine" flavor, or leave it out. (You can also add this at the end, if you'd rather taste it without the vinegar, first.)
- Once the soup is boiling, lower the heat and cover. Simmer until the potatoes are very tender, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the frozen peas, which will thaw quickly.
- Adjust the seasonings to taste, adding salt and pepper as needed, then serve warm. Leftover stew can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week, or you can freeze it for up to 3 months.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
More Vegan Soup Recipes
Need some more cold weather soup ideas? Here are some of my favorites!
- Creamy Red Lentil Soup
- Ultimate Detox Soup
- Easy Butternut Squash Soup
- Slow Cooker Pumpkin Soup
- Miso Soup
- Tomato Pumpkin Soup
- Creamy Arugula Soup
If you try this vegetable stew recipe, please leave a comment below letting me know how you like it! And if you make any modifications, I’d love to hear about those, too. We can all benefit from your experience.
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite cold-weather comfort food?
I’m so excited to try this. Can you use coconut or almond flour? And how long to cook if you use the instant pot? Thanks!
I haven’t tested this with almond flour or coconut flour, but my guess is that they won’t thicken well. For grain-free recipes, I usually use arrowroot or tapioca starch to thicken instead. You’d need to mix 1-2 T of the starch with 2 T of cold water first, to make a slurry, then you can add it to the hot soup to thicken it up. Don’t add a thickener to the Instant Pot until after the soup is cooking, or you could trigger a burn error. My guess is 15 minutes at high pressure, with a 10-minute natural release would work.
Hi there, I’d like to add beans instead of jackfruit. What do you think would go best?
Hey Stephanie,
I’m making this recipe right now and I added in the northern white beans in stead of jackfruit and its amazing!! Happy cooking to you all!
Thank you Megan for the constant inspiration and support!
Thanks for sharing, Sasha! I’m glad to hear it worked well with the white beans, too.
I made this tonight and thought it was VERY good! My only modification was to use Kettle Fire Beef Bone Broth + 2 teaspoons of Better than Bouillon instead of just “water.” The stew was very good and would serve more than 4 people, I would say more like 7-8.
Saw this post just this morning and it was perfect to make for a “last dinner before I MUST go to the store” meal! 🙂 I had everything. Except tomato paste… who doesn’t have a can of that? Oh well–I subbed some organic ketchup. The whole family including the just recently picky 8 year old enjoyed it. THANK YOU for the tip on chopping the mushrooms small (he didn’t even notice)
Oh, yay! I love the mushroom trick. 🙂 Glad it was a hit!!
Can you omit the peas from the Vegan Stew?
Yes, you can definitely leave out the peas if you want to!
This was so easy and good. Is it just as good without the jackfruit?
I made this last night and it taste pretty good but it is almost all stuff and very little liquid. I added the amount in the recipe. Any question what I did wrong? Or more importantly ideas on how to fix it? I know I could just add more water but then that would reduce the flavorings. But I wasn’t sure how much more spices/tomato paste to add per water added. (I don’t cook can you tell)
Stews are typically pretty thick, so there’s not a ton of broth like there is with a typically soup recipe. If you need to add more water, the most important thing to add is extra salt, so you don’t lose the flavor. A squeeze of lemon juice can brighten up the flavor, too. Just keep seasoning it to your taste!
Best vegetable stew indeed! I love how thick and hearty this stew is! Thank you for another outta-the-ballpark recipe, Megan. 🙂 I made two little tweaks:
– Sautéed the onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms in water instead of oil
– Added a tsp of vegetable Better Than Bouillon with the water (and reduced salt accordingly)
Next time, I think I might stick a bay leaf in there, too!
Question: I loved this soup as-is, but I was thinking it would be fun to add a spicy kick in the next batch. Megan, what kind of spice would you recommend for a recipe like this? The things I can think of feel soundly housed in other types of dishes (chilli flakes in something more Italian, chipotle chilli pepper in Mexican, etc.), but maybe I’m limiting myself! Thank you so much in advance! 🙂
What about East Indian style, adding curry powder (your choice how spicy), with diced apple or chutney, and serving over rice?
I added green haberno sauce to mine and it was delicious!!!!
This was really tasty! It was a cold, windy, snowy day here, perfect for a hot stew! This recipe did not disappoint! Didn’t have any jackfriut, so added an assortment of beans for protein. Very delish! The broth was really tasty! Thanks!
Hi Megan! I made this stew and turned out so delicious!!! I just omitted the jackfruit because didn’t have any but the result was so great! Even my kids enjoyed it. Thanks a lot for these amazing recipes 🙂
This was amazing!!!!
I didnt’ have the jackfruit and made it once without and then another version with lentils.This is one of my favourite recipes.:)
Hi!
Any suggestions if we don’t like mushrooms?
Hi Megan! I have to say that I was quite skeptical about this recipe. I was seriously blown away by the stew. The flavors and textures were perfect. I haven’t had a stew this good since I stopped eating meat eight years ago.
The only subs I used were coconut aminos instead of tamari and rice flour to thicken. Thank you so much for this recipe!!!! It will be in regular rotation.
Thoroughly enjoyable and simple recipe. Adjusted for three servings (I don’t like leftovers). Served with a warm crusty baguette. Made some minor adjustments, ie, used veg broth instead of water, but basically kept true to recipe.
Simple to make and delicious!
We’re in the middle of a kitchen remodel and I am cooking everything in my basement using my instant pot. How long would I cook this in my instant pot? Thanks!
I believe someone in my Instagram comments just mentioned they cooked this for 20 minutes in their pressure cooker. I would probably try 15 minutes at high pressure with a 10-minute natural release. Please come back and let me know how it goes!
I made this tonight in the instant pot (15 min high pressure, 10 min natural release) and it was delicious. Definitely a keeper of a recipe. Thank you!
This recipe is a must! I’m slowly stepping into my veganhood and this is a great recipe for people starting out. I just used regular flour in mine because that’s what I had and I had plenty (from Christmas baking). I did everything as stated in the recipe except I added green haberno sauce to mine for spice. I also seasoned it with extra thyme, ancho chile pepper, and tony’s creole seasoning (my go-to)
My hubby didn’t even realize it was jackfruit 🙂 Highly recommended!
This is absolutely delicious! I added a tbsp of fresh sage and cut the salt in half. I didn’t have jackfruit so I just chopped my mushrooms into very large chunks. As a new vegetarian I didn’t miss the meat at all!
Very delish! And I love the touch of flour.
Delish, thank you. Left out jack fruit and made in instapot as you suggested.
Great Recipe. I used shredded chicken instead of Jackfruit. I put it together on the stove top then emptied it all into the instant pot and set on slow cook for the day! This one is a keeper.
This turned out great. I love that it’s easy and versatile. I used regular all-purpose flour, which worked fine. To cut down on sodium content I just used 1 teaspoon of salt, and added a teaspoon of salt-free seasoning (Spike).Also used low-sodium tamari. I’m not a fan of jackfruit, so I substituted a couple of Fieldroast Italian Sausages (vegan), chopped & sauteed a bit before adding them in toward the end of the cooking time for the stew. I love balsamic vinegar, so I definitely added it in. All in all, a thick, hearty stew–and a perfect way to get your veggies in on a cold day.
This stew is really good! I added a tablespoon and a half of vegan Worcestershire to make it taste a little more like what I thought my husband would expect stew to taste like and he loved it. My mom really liked it and she usually passes on anything with jackfruit in it. I will say that even though I rinsed the jackfruit twice I could still taste a little bit of the brine, so I think I’ll go for a third rinse (or two very, very thorough rinses)the next time I make it. So yummy! Thank you!
Made this for dinner last night and everyone loved it. I did add beef broth but other than that followed recipe. It was so delicious. Will be making it regularly. Thanks for another great recipe!
I have made this stew twice one to eat right away and one to freeze for later. This is an amazing stew but I did make a few adjustments. I used frozen beans to substitute the vegetables I didn’t have. I also used Yves ground round to replace the jackfruit. Turned out thick even my picky husband loved it.
Thank you so much this recipe. Keep up the great work.
Hi Megan, to make it properly combined, would I omit the jackfruit to this and anything else that isn’t a fruit? I’ve wanted to make several recipes with jackfruit but concerned with combining it.
This recipe uses green jackfruit which isn’t sweet, so it doesn’t feel like it combines as a fruit (despite the name). It reminds me more of an artichoke heart, which is neutral! But feel free to experiment with it to see how you feel.
This was delicious! I added 1/4 cup of red wine instead of balsamic vinegar and dropped dumplings on top. So good😋
Fantastic soup! First time using and even trying jack fruit. I was pleasantly surprised. I made it according to the recipe except I used my instant pot on high pressure for 15 min with a 10 min natural release as recommended in the previous comments. Perfect! 🤌🏼
Can you make this in the crockpot or instant pot?
I made this last night and it was so flavorful! Easy to prepare and so yummy. I didn’t have any jackfruit on hand, but it was a great veggie stew none the less. Will definitely make again and highly recommend!
This stew is amazing! I had never heard of jackfruit before this recipe and I am so glad to you introduced me to it. Even my husband, the meat eater, loves this stew.
This is the BEST stew I’ve ever made!! Thank you for sharing this recipe!! It’s the first time I’ve tried jackfruit and it really tasted lovely. Will definitely be trying this again x
I made this without the jackfruit and it was delicious! Real beef stew flavor!
lOVE this recipe. My question is…it says you can freeze for up to 3 months, but whenever I freeze anything with potatoes in it, they come out tasting mealy.