BORLOTTI BEAN STEW with Tomatoes
THE BLURB:
Sometimes simple really is the best.
This recipe features in VLOG 30 at timestamp 22.13. Click here to view it VIEW
This is just about as simple as it gets but its an absolute gem. Its rich but tastes clean at the sma etime, do you know what i mean? I make this as an accompaniment rather than a dish in its own right to have with roasted pumpkin (so good) or meat. Its also excellent on toast!
INGREDIENTS
I’m a bit vague with the quantities here because it kind of depends, but as a rule you want about the same amount of Celery, Onion, Carrots and Borlotti beans.
- A cup of Borlotti Beans (fresh or soaked over night if dried)
- An Onion
- Two Carrots
- A stick of Celery
- Streaky Bacon (optional)
- Two cloves of Garlic
- About 400ml of Tomatoes, tinned or fresh.
- Same again of Chicken or Vegetable stock
- A couple of Bay Leaves
- A Green pepper/jalapeno
- Some hotter chilli, either fresh or dried.
- Chopped Parsley
METHOD
Firstly, if you’re using dried Borlotti they will need to be soaked. Just put the amount you’re going to use in a bowl and cover them with water for a minimum of 6hrs and up to 24hrs.
Dice the onion, celery and carrot to roughly equal size and put them in the pan with a generous glug of olive oil. Sweat them down. If you are using the bacon, dice that too and put it in just as the onions start to become transparent.
Keep the heat quite high so that a little bit of the onion catches. It all adds to the flavour!
Then drain and throw in the beans. Followed by the sliced garlic, bay leaves, tomatoes and stock. Turn the heat down so its at a gentle simmer.
The length of time this takes to cook will depend on the beans. How old they are and how long they soaked for but around 1hr is about standard. Keep stirring occasionally and checking that there’s enough liquid. You want them to not be in a soup, more a thick sauce.
Whilst that is cooking, finely dice the green pepper/jalapeno/chili combination that you’ve decided to go with and the parsley.
When the beans are soft and the liquid is adequately reduced throw in the parsley/pepper combo and salt to taste. You want to only really salt at the end because it can hamper the softening of the beans if done too early.
And then that’s it really! Ready to eat.
They can be cooked in advance and just heated through and keep well for a couple of days in the fridge.
So yeah, dead simple and damn delicious!
Let me know below if you try this recipe. I can tell you that when this was featuerd on the vlog all but the bacon and the onion was home grown and yeah… just so good!!
