This is a hearty and protein filled stew, perfect for a cold day, a cheap dinner and using leftover vegetables. It’s a simple recipe that you’ll love and make over and over again. This is all you need to know to make your own vegan cannellini bean stew.
The Simple Ingredients:
Cannellini beans’ flavour is brought out with onion and seasonings. The other vegetables I add into the stew are just complimentary. I love adding carrots since I always seem to have a couple lying around in the vegetable drawer of my fridge!
You can also add tomatoes or celery to this recipe – they work great!
The Key Techniques:
1. Soften the beans.
Letting the beans sit in water will soften them as they absorb the water. This is a vital step before the beans are boiled, as it prevents them from breaking apart. Fill up with cold water until water generously covers the beans – the water level will decrease after a few hours as the beans soak up the water.
2. Remove any bad beans.
After letting the beans soak overnight, they should expand in size as they absorb the water. If there are some beans that haven’t absorbed, or have a creased texture, they are most likely rotten. It’s best to throw those out. Hopefully there’ll only be a couple of beans like this and not too many.
Vegan White Bean Stew
Ingredients
- 275 g cannellini beans (white kidney beans)
- 1 pepper about 150g
- 3 carrots about 115g
- 1 onion about 95g
- 9 cups boiling water
- 1 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste heaped
- 4 tsp oil
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp cumin
To Serve:
- 1 pinch fresh parsley
Instructions
- Put the beans in a large mixing bowl and fill up with cold water until covered. Leave the beans to soak in the water overnight, or for at least 8 hours.
- Afterwards, drain the water and wash the beans. Put the beans in a large pot and add 5 cups of the boiling water. Boil for 25-30 minutes, or until beans have softened slightly.
- Drain the beans again and put to the side. Fry the onion in the olive oil until softened. Next add the carrots and pepper, and cook until softened. Add the tomato paste, salt, black pepper and cumin and mix through.
- Add the beans and the remaining 4 cups of water. Let it simmer for 15 minutes with the lid on. Enjoy!