This has to be one of the easiest, Hearty Cooked Fibre Meals (HCFM – see my book) that I have created. It’s so simple, quick, cheap, nutritious and filling and your whole family will enjoy it, or it’s great if you have friends over and need to do something manageable, tasty and won’t break the bank or your sanity with all the cooking!
I made it in my wonderful Instant Pot 7-in-1 pressure cooker and slow cooker. If you don’t have a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, I highly recommend that you check it out and get yourself one – it’s an amazing kitchen appliance that will save you hours of time, cooking, burnt saucepans and produces amazing fluffy rice, soups, stews, yoghurt(!), curries and much more. Seriously, it’s revolutionised my cooking since I got one with our wedding present money!
This veg stew has a nice chew to it from the barley and is thick due to the lentils. It is full of healthy plant protein as well as carbs from the veg but is low fat and high fibre – this make it naturally low calorie and very filling. I can eat a lot yet I found a smallish bowl was more than enough for me, which was less than 400 cals – that’s a great amount for a main meal! If you’re looking to lose weight, having this meal and similar as your main one each day will enable you to drop pounds effortlessly without feeling hungry or that you’re going lower cal.
The last things I’ll say about this great little stew is that it tastes like baby food! I used to really like the little jars of baby food that we used to get for my brother when he was young and I used to love the food my Mum used to purée up for us as kids (yes, I liked it that much, I can remember it from when I was probably 3 or 4 years old!) It is more flavourful than baby food but has that kind of healthy, vegetabley taste. If you skip the chilli flakes, ACV and some of the spices, you could make this for infants and toddlers to give them a great nutritious hit.
Anyway, enough of the talking, go try this humble but delicious plant-based stew and let me know how you got on in the comments below.
Laura 🙂
This is a low fat and low calorie but very hearty and nutritious stew that will be a hit with people young and old alike. It's not very spicy, so children will enjoy it but it's still very tasty because of the wonderful flavours of the vegetables and mild spices.
You can serve on its own or with rice or pasta.
Ingredients
- 100g pearl barley
- 100g dried green puy lentils
- 1 can chopped tomatoes
- 1 large courgette (zucchini), diced
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 medium potatoes, diced
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 4 mushrooms, sliced
- 400ml vegetable stock
- 1tsp garlic powder (or 2 finely chopped fresh garlic cloves)
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp rock salt or tamari soy sauce
- 1 tsp brown sugar or agave nectar
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Put all ingredients into your Instant Pot or pressure cooker
- Mix well so all the vegetables, lentils and barley are combined with the liquid
- Cook under pressure for 15 minutes (set your Instant Pot to manual mode 15 minutes, with the lid sealed)
- Let it cool and the pressure release naturally serve and enjoy!
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