Vegan Summer Bean Stew

 

Hey there!

 

The other day I was looking through the legume drawer in my kitchen and just then I realised that the variety has decreased drastically over the past months. The only thing I could find were o few packs of green lentils and chickpeas and in the darkest corner a lonely half full bag of kidney beans. This drawer definitely needs to be restocked, was the thought that crossed my mind while looking through the different packs of legumes. Borlotti beans, beluga and red lentils, mung beans and white kidney beans these are what this drawer is supposed to be filled with and not just this poor selection. Prior to my legume-shopping trip however I wanted to make sure that all the broken packs would be used up, so I wouldn’t accumulate numerous packs of one type.

The Kidney beans were the only package that was already opened hence they needed to be included into whatever I was making for dinner that day.

Not much to my liking the weather is terrible in Switzerland at the moment nevertheless this made my excuse to use up the kidney beans even more reasonable. A hearty and comforting stew that is all I want to eat when it is pouring rain and clouds are covering the sky keeping the sun away.

 

Beans tend to make a rather good base in any stew therefore I will kill two birds with one stone. I will get to eat a warming stew and meanwhile I am using up the little beans I have got left in my cupboard.

 

Although I decided to process beans into a stew I didn’t want to make this dish taste like winter. I wasn’t going to give up on summer so easily therefore I used vegetables, which were partly found in our backyard at that stage. Home-grown zucchini would be added, as well as some leek, red onions and mushrooms. To ensure that the stew didn’t end up tasting like it was going to snow soon I added lots and lots of fresh parsley prior to serving it. Additionally did I add oregano and some olives, I was still feeling the Italian vibe, it has actually only been five days since I was soaking up the Venetian sun strolling through narrow alleys and crossing bridge after bridge.

 

I also discovered an open bottle of white wine in the fridge that is why I decided to use this one up as well and I have to say I wouldn’t leave it out it actually adds a little something special to this dish. The combination of the white wine, olives and fresh parsley, which was added to my newly created summer bean stew conjured up a lovely fresh and interesting vibe in an otherwise rather basic stew. I find this to be the perfect dish on a day where summer is playing up on you and there is no chance for the sun to be seen. The dish is weather appropriate and yet it keeps the summer alive, well at least in our mouths.

 

So there you go the recipe to this delicious summer stew.

 

You will need:

 

• 200g kidney beans
• 2 red onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 leek
• 2 zucchini
• 250 g mushrooms
• 1tbs olive oil
• 2tbs oregano
• 200ml white wine
• 500ml water
• 60 g olives (pitted)
• a lot of fresh parsley ( approx. 20g)
• a pinch chilli flakes
• salt
• pepper

 

1. Soak the kidney beans over night, then when you start cutting up your vegetables add them into a pot with about a litre of water and start cooking them, do not add salt. You could also wait with cooking them until adding them to the rest of the ingredients, this way however you save yourself some time and they will already be slightly softened when adding them to the rest of the veggies.
2.Cut the onions and leek in half and slice them thinly, also mince up your garlic

3. Add onions, leek and garlic to a saucepan where a tablespoon of olive oil has been heated up, let them brown and soften on a medium heat, stir occasionally

4. Meanwhile cut your zucchini into quarters and then into rather thin slices, also slice your mushrooms

5. When the vegetables in the saucepan have softened add the zucchini and mushroom slices and let it cook over medium heat until the volume of the vegetables has decreased to about half its size, stir occasionally so nothing gets burnt, the whole process might take up to 20 minutes

 

6. Then transfer the beans and 500ml of the cooking water to the vegetables that have softened, add oregano and pepperoncino as well as the white wine

 

7. Let the mixture cook until the beans are soft enough to be eaten, this will probably take another 20 to 30 minutes depending on how long they have been on the stove beforehand
8. In the mean time you can already roughly mince your olives and parsley and set it aside for later

9. Just before serving your stew add the parsley and olives, then salt and pepper to taste, mix it well so the added ingredients are evenly distributed

 

Voila , a delicious summer stew. I can only stress again how truly delicious this is. If your summer is failing to let the sun out as well, this is the perfect meal, but to be honest I would even eat this if it were hotter outside. Adding all those summery flavours really make up for the prejudice of a stew only being eaten on a stormy winter day.

 

My next recipes will hopefully not be inspired by terrible weather conditions but rather from my time outside in the sun swimming in the lake.

 

Bisous

Fanny, the foodie