The Breathe Kitchen: Smokey-bean-stew

SMOKEY-BEAN-STEW

this little beauty of a dish is my new favourite way to do something special with a chilli.

Using a generous amount of smoked paprika in the stew makes it taste like there's bacon in it ... Only without the bacon!

I have been making this recipe for vegans and veggies, replacing the meat with grated carrots. (No-one ever notices) but the flavour remains incredible because of all the bits 'n bobs I throw in.

Here's roughly how it sings;

(This'll serve 8-ish. I think. I've forgotted how to cook for just a few!)

2 onions

4 cloves garlic

Chunky-chopped mushrooms, a couple yellow peppers, and green ones.

If you have a jar of those beautiful roasted red peppers (Lidl do them!) slice in a big one of those.

If not use a couple of red peppers.

A fresh red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped

Chop up a head of broccoli, thinly slicing up the stems and trunk - it's all so good for you. Never throw away those bits!

Add any left over celery sticks, sliced up. It's surprising what sweetness of flavour this adds.

I once added some roasted sweet potatoes that were hanging about from the previous evening, and a few sorry looking radishes ... You can use pretty much whatever you've got.

Gently pan fry this little lot in some olive oil.

Add your minced beef or lamb if using.

Add a can of chopped tomatoes and a box of passata.

Now for the fun.

Season it all up with salt, coarse ground black pepper, and about 4 teaspoons of SMOKED PAPRIKA.

More if you like.

A good pinch chilli flakes

A splash and dash of Worcestershire sauce. Of course.

A dessert spoon dark treacle. (Yes, that's right, dark treacle. Trust me.)

Some dried oregano is a good addition.

As is a splash of red wine - but not essential.

Let this jolly lot simmer for about 10 mins then add in a selection of beans. A couple of more.

This will depend on how many you are feeding, but always a good idea to make a stack of this stuff anyway as it freezes really well.

Choose from:

Kidney beans

Black beans

Borloti beans

Flageolet beans

Black-eye beans

- any really. 'Cept jelly beans. That won't work. (Although????)

Ok.

Just let that all simmer in the pan whilst you cook the rice and prep the topping.

Try a mixture of white rice/red quinoa/brown lentils. Such great texture and added whack of nutrition.

Put them all in together to cook with each other. I use a rice cooker. ( I used to make terrible rice til I got one of these.)

It's even really fun to let a handful of pearl barely in on the act occasionally.

Again, if you make more than you need with these grains, use them for lunch the next day and add chopped salad veggies/pumpkin seeds//watercress etc and a good balsamic dressing. Box them in little portions all lined up in the fridge and there's a ready-to-use-power-lunch in the making.

Back to the smokey bean stew.

Prep the topping.

Get a pot of natural Greek yogurt (or the DF equivalent for the special needs ones)

Tip it into a glass jug/bowl and squeeze in a lemon, some s&p, 4 garlic cloves, crushed and a tsp dried mint. Or fresh if you've got some handy.

Roughly chop some fresh herbs up (I have loads of golden marjoram growing, so use that often, but parsley, coriander etc is great. ) and de-seed a pomegranate for the fancy flourish at the end.

(Cut a pomegranate around the circumference, hold it seeds down in your hand and whack it with a wooden rolling pin. All the seeds should come out pretty easily. Careful though, it's splashy and tends to stain nice white T-shirts.) (voice of experience.)