It's time to take stock of veggie stews

To some, a vegetable stew summons thoughts of dishwater broth with mushy root vegetables and some white beans that refuse to soften. In fact, the choices for vegetarians are far more appealing , and top chefs are offering customers some fine food.

Patrick Connolly is one. He prefers to use dried peas or beans , and lentils are a favorite. The Radius chef says, "Lentils are so comforting." Connolly, who developed a curried lentil stew based on the traditional Indian dal, combines French Puy lentils, walnuts -- for their robust but not crunchy texture -- and pears or apples.

Unlike other pulses, lentils require no overnight soaking and cook quickly. They'll absorb whatever seasonings you add to the pot. Connolly starts with a fragrant vegetable stock that combines zucchini, yellow squash, fresh fennel, green apple, lemon grass, and orange juice. The stew contains jalapeno chili peppers and several spices: fennel seed, cumin seed, allspice berries, coriander, cloves, turmeric, and cayenne. The chef toasts and hand - grinds his own spices. "You can control the flavor better by creating your own," he advises, "but it's really a Madras curry blend."

For serving, he makes the yogurt-based Indian raita laced with lemon balm, when he can get it. Otherwise, he uses mint. "I like to add some orange zest, too."

In Cambridge, Peter Davis is using an array of mushrooms -- button, shiitake, oyster, and portobello -- to make a ragout. "You can use any variety," says the chef, who heads the kitchen at Henrietta's Table in the Charles Hotel. "But what I like about these is the different textures each gives the dish." He marinates the mushrooms overnight in thyme and olive oil, then sautes them with a little sweet sherry. Butter thickens the dish and lends it a creamy taste. Davis serves mushroom ragout over a grit cake topped with Vermont goat cheese and fresh chives.

Vegetarian cuisine is showing up in some unlikely places. It's not traditional in Iran, says Azita Bina-Seibel, the Iranian-born chef-owner of Beacon Hill's Lala Rokh restaurant. In her homeland, meat dishes and hunting for wild game are culturally dominant. "It's an affluent meat - eating society," she says. Still, she developed khoresht-e zemestan, which translates as winter stew, because customers kept asking for vegetarian options.

Khoresht-e zemestan is a thick, exquisitely spiced melange of vegetables -- cauliflower, potatoes, peas, string beans, eggplant, onions, and carrots -- cooked with saffron and a traditional Persian blend of cloves, cinnamon, cumin, paprika, and cardamom. Bina-Seibel serves it with basmati rice. "You don't really need anything else, it's a meal just like this."

Beans might seem like a dreary route for a chef. But Toby Hill's white bean and winter vegetable stew is smoky from cooking in The Fireplace's hearth. The gratin takes some forethought. First the chef of the Brookline restaurant soaks the beans overnight, then simmers them in a rosemary-flavored vegetable stock. Afterward , the beans are pureed and enough of the cooking liquid is added to the mixture to create a silky, bisque-like consistency. Caramelized celery root, rutabaga, golden beets, potatoes, and turnips are added to individual casseroles and topped with a mixture of brioche bread crumbs and grated cheese before the dish goes into the fireplace.

"One of the reasons I created this recipe was to utilize the hearth," says Hill. "It's so perfect for winter."