i always start a soup or stew with olive oil, onions and garlic. Some spices are bettor off fried or sauteed in oil before adding. Mushrooms, red pepper, and curry are best if sauteed before adding to
stuff. I learned this from making split pea soup/dahl .

When i think of stew i think of Mulligan or Irish Stew.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulligan_stew_%28food%29
Here are a bunch of recipes....the one with dumplings sounds interesting.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,mulligan_stew,FF.html

I accidentally looked up mulligatawny instead, which often contains rice . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulligatawny

any of these can be made without meat...if you want a vegetarian veggie dish..