With the hope to learn how to prepare more of this kind of dishes that you can eat with the spoon, here is the recipe for my vegeterain bean stew!
These kind of dishes are extremely tasty, fullfilling and nutririous, and most importantly easy to make.
When making stews and soups, the key to success it using lots of veggies and seasonings, so don't be overwhelmed once you see the ingredients list, it's not that bad, I promise.
Also, the quantity I made is really too much for 1-2 persons, so feel free to adjust the quantities as needed.
QUANTITY
COMPLEXITY
Simple
TIME
120
Minutes
Ingredients
- 500 g white beans
- about 250 g carrots
- about 150 g leeks
- 1 onion
- 5-6 cloves of garlic
- 1 celery sprig, about 20 g (only the green part)
- 1 sweet potato, a little over 100 g
- pelati tomatoes, about 100 g
- Himalayan salt
- pepper
- sweet paprika powder
- 3 dried bay leaves
- 1 small rosemary sprig
- 1,6 /1,7 l water
- olive oil
- cayenne pepper, optional (if you like to spice things up)
Additions
Feta cheese, olives for a finaly touch when serving or some sort of pickled food.
Soak the beans overnight in cold water mixed with a tsp of salt, until the volume increases, definitely over 12 hours.
You add the salt because it helps breaking the hard legume shell.
Drain the soaked beans and wash in a new cold water.
Chop the carrots into thicker rings, the onion and leeks as well and the garlic into smaller chunks.
Chop the celery, dice the sweet potato and set aside with the pelati.
You will add the sweet potato and pelati, later on, during the cooking process.
VERY IMPORTANT, do not add the salt and pelati at the beginning, because the beans won't soften and will be hard to eat.
On 2-3 tbsp of olive oil, stir the leeks, onion, garlic and carrots.
Cook for about 20 minutes on medium heat, until the veggies soften, stirring from time to time to avoid burning them.
Add the beans, bay leaves and the whole rosemary, pour over the water and cover the pot, letting it cook for about 45-50 minutes.
Add the sweet potato and continue cooking for 30-40 minutes more, depending on how hard are the beans.
Taste the beans, from time to time, during the process of cooking.
In the last 15 minutes, add the chopped pelati, a bit of red paprika and if the beans have soften nicely, you can add the salt and pepper as well, up to taste.
My stew was pretty thick, if you want it to resemble more to a soup, add a bit more water.
Serve with feta cheese, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
