If you love cholent but don’t want meat in it, you have to try this vegetarian cholent. The slow-cooked beans, lentils, and sweet potatoes have the most delicious flavors. You won’t even notice the missing meat!
What is cholent?
Cholent is a European Jewish dish that consists of beans, meat, and potatoes. It’s cooked in a slow cooker and eaten on Shabbos because of the law that forbids cooking on Shabbos.
There are many different variations of cholent and every family has their twist. One of the variations is a vegetarian version. Whether you’re vegetarian by choice or for medical reasons you’ll want a delicious cholent that you can eat.
Vegetarian cholent ingredient list:
- Cholent Beans
- Lentils
- Sweet Potatoes
- Onions
- Spices
- Olive Oil
- Ketchup
Lentils as a ground beef replacement:
We chose to use lentils as the “meat” for this recipe. It’s a great replacement for ground beef for a few reasons. When lentils are slow cooked they develop the most delicious flavor. They also get darker in color and thicker in texture which makes them resemble ground meat very closely.
How to make vegetarian cholent:
Soak the cholent beans and lentils overnight. Doing this is important because it reduces the fiber element which can cause bloating.
Place the beans, lentils, potatoes, and onions in a lined crockpot.
Season with spices and add the ketchup and olive oil.
Mix everything well and add enough water to cover the cholent.
Place your crockpot on low and cook overnight.
use crockpot liners for easy cleanup:
You’re probably familiar with the daunting task of cleaning a crockpot that had food in it for 24 hours. The food stubbornly sticks to the bottom and sides and no amount of scrubbing helps.
Crockpot liners are a simple trick that really helps. They’re made specifically to go in crockpots and make the cleanup take a minute.
Crockpot bags come in all sizes. You can use the small size which is for a 1-3 quart crockpot but there’s also a regular size that fits a 6-8 quart one.
You may have tried them and not been a fan but that’s probably because you’re not used to them and haven’t tried a few tricks with them.
how to use a crockpot liner bag:
Add around half a cup of water to the crockpot before placing the bag inside. (If you forget you can always pour it in once the bag is already in there.)
Add a good amount of water to the cholent once it’s in the bag. The cholent should be completely covered with water.
After a few hours and again right before Shabbos, mix the cholent well and add more water if needed.
Once you served the cholent you can throw out the entire bag. Your crockpot will be clean! The most you might need to do is wipe out the crockpot with a damp cloth.
what to serve this vegetarian cholent with:
This cholent will pair well with so many different things. Here are a few ideas:
Vegetarian Cholent
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cholent beans, soaked
- 1/4 cup red lentils, soaked
- 2 sweet potatoes, chopped into cubes
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
Instructions
- Soak the beans and lentils in water overnight.
- Pour water into your crockpot (enough to cover the bottom of the crockpot by around two inches).
- Place a crockpot liner bag into your crockpot.
- Drain the beans and lentils and add them to the crockpot.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the crockpot as well.
- Using a glove mix everything really well.
- Pour enough water into the crockpot to cover everything.
- Turn the crockpot to low and cook overnight for at least 14 hours.
- Check the cholent periodically, mix it and add water if needed.