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This Spicy White Bean Stew is such a life saver when you’re short on time and the kids want feeding. You can have this on the table in 20 minutes from start to finish. Using mostly store cupboard ingredients this stew’s just the thing for cold evenings or meatless Mondays and makes an awesome lunch the following day.

Also see: White Bean Cheese Sauce & Chickpea Blondies

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Spicy White Bean Stew

White beans (so that’s Cannellini, haricot beans) among others have proved themselves to be one of those foods that seems to lend itself to lots and lots of dishes. Because they’re very mild they can be cooked into lots of meals and they’ll take on the flavor of whatever it is they’re cooked in, which I love.

Blend them for burgers, use them in baking or in stews and casseroles, they make one of the best meat replacement foods around. There have been numerous recipes that I’ve simply replaced the meat with beans and the result’s been yummy. Once you get the kids used to beans and eating them in their various forms, it’s pretty easy to adapt recipes to use them.

Why might you want to introduce more beans into your diet? There’s a few reasons:

They’re super good for you – Beans (Legumes) have good quantities of: Zinc, Fibre, Potassium, Iron and B Vitamins and protein. And no saturated fat
Beans are rich in antioxidants
Stable blood sugar
They keep you full up and full of energy!

Those are the health reasons and of course they’re the most important ones. But.. there is also another good reason to bring these beans into your life. And that’s MONEY!

When we started eating this way, we ate a lot of meat. Like, loads. And we still eat meat: We eat less, but the meat we eat is better quality meat. And that’s thanks to the beans.

Why? Beans are cheap. I buy them in tins which are slightly pricier than buying them dried and soaking them, but we’re talking very very little more. They allow me to spend that bit extra on better meat. Buying Organic meat os obviously more expensive than regular non Organic meat. And sometimes it’s much more, but because we’re eating less meat overall, I feel it’s a good trade off.

I like to buy locally where I can, Organic where I can and simply eat less to offset the extra cost.

More Clean Eating Stews and Casseroles

What’s In This Stew?

Good things! Beans are the main event and for this recipe I used tinned, drained Cannellini beans.

For the veggie part of this, I’ve used zucchini and carrots, grated. You can chop and dice them up into small pieces but I prefer to grate them. In all honesty it’s easier, and the kids prefer it when the veggie kinda melt into the sauce. It’s far harder for a picky eater to pick out diced veg than it is to take out each piece of a grated vegetable. That’s my reasoning and I’m sticking to it :)

Red Chillis

Red chillis are of course spicy and so it’s easy to adjust the amount you out in this stew, or indeed leave them out all together if you want to. I love chillis, as do a couple of the kids but not everyone does and so I use one small red chilli for this recipe. It adds some heat but it’s not hot.

Natoora chillis are the ones I tend to buy. They’re mild enough for kids if you use them sparingly.

I know some people love chilli and some don’t and while I like the kids to try lots of new foods and so I make a point of cooking new recipes all the time, I just don’t feel chilli falls under this category and so I don’t push it.

My compromise is that I make this very mild and then for those of us who want extra chilli, there are flakes available to sprinkle on top as liberally as you want!

The Spice

The spices (and herbs) I use in this stew is a selection of everyday spices that I have in the kitchen already. The last thing I want to do is traipse to the shops to buy a jar of spice I’m hardly ever going to use and so these are common spices you’ll likely have in your pantry already.

Cumin – Cumin gives this stew a warm earth flavor
Paprika – Paprika has a lovely smoky flavor
Oregano – This warms up anything and adds a rustic touch

What To Serve With This Stew

I serve either some chunky slices of Whole grain bread with this, it mops up the sauce perfectly, or spoon the stew onto the bread. The kids like to help themselves and will often tear off chunks of bread to use instead of cutlery. Hey, I’m not about to stop them when they start tucking in :)

You could also serve this with tortilla, rice or anything else that could be used as a sauce mopper!

Additions

Nothing here’s set in stone, that’s the beauty of a stew. I’ve used carrot and zucchini as the veg, but some diced peppers would work well as well.

If your kids like spinach, you could add a few handfuls of fresh spinach right at the end and let it wilt into the heat. It will look like a whole load of spinach, but it wilts to next to nothing once the heat gets to it, so 3 handfuls is about right.

Feel free to play about with the spices. I love the paprika and the smokiness it gives this recipe, but you can add more or less depending on your tastes.

Leftovers

This keeps for 2 days, covered, in the fridge. We have this for lunch the day after we have it for dinner, packed into lunch boxes. When it comes to reheating this I make use of the microwave. Pop it in for 3 minutes taking it out half way through to give it a stir. Make sure it’s piping hot before serving and it’s then good as new!

Freezing

You can also freeze this stew. I have a great way to freeze stews that saves freezer room. I use to use Tupperware boxes to freeze things, and stack them up. They took up so much room. Then I started to use large Ziploc bags to freeze dinners.

Grab yourself some large bags and put your leftovers into the bag. Get as much air out of the bag as you can and zip it up. Then flatten it out so it becomes a sheet kind of thing. You can then store the bag flat in the freezer and it takes up loads less room.

You can keep this stew in the freezer for up to a month. Leave the bag out to defrost and then put it into a large microwavable dish to reheat it.

How To Make Spicy White Bean Stew

Ingredients

1 Can Cannellini beans Or Haricot beans, drained and rinsed
1 Can Chopped tomatoes
1 Large Zucchini Washed and grated
1 Large Carrot Washed and grated
1 Onion Peeled and diced
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 Clove Garlic Peeled and crushed
½ Red chilli Deseeded and diced into very small pieces
1 tsp Sweet paprika
1 tsp Oregano
½ tsp Cumin
Salt & Pepper To season
Chilli flakes Optional
Water

Instructions

In a large pan heat the olive oil on a medium heat
Add the onion, chilli and garlic and cook until starting to soften
Add the spices and cook them for 2 minutes. If the pan is dry add 2 tablespoons of water to loosen the mix
Put the grated carrot and zucchini into the pan and combine well with the other ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 4-5 minutes
Pour the chopped tomatoes into the pan, and fill the empty can with water and add to the pan. Combine well with the Cannellini drained beans and let the casserole simmer until the sauce reduces, about 5-6 minutes
Serve with chilli flakes (optional)