White beans stew

Beans are a great source of protein. In this hard period we encounter in 2020 with the pandemic, one of the interesting pieces of advice I saw on the internet was” learn how to cook beans”.

I always ate the beans ready made from the can. However, they are a lot cheaper and easier to preserve in their dry form. The only trick is how to make them boil fast: soak them for min 12 hours in water with bicarbonate soda in the fridge.

Beans stew (0.35 eur/portion)
Servings: 3-4
Waiting time: 12 hours
Cooking time beans: 1-2 hours
Cooking time stew: 30 min
Difficulty: medium

Ingredients

  • 1 carrot + 1 onion for the boiling the beans (0.15 eur)
  • 1 onion (0.1 eur)
  • 200 g of beans (0.5 eur)
  • 1/2 can of chopped tomatoes (or the grated pulp from 2 tomatoes) (0.5 eur)
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp of sweet paprika
  • 1 tbsp of olive oil
  • parsley (optional)
  • 1 tsp of bicarbonate soda

Directions

  1. Wash well the beans. Place them in a pot and pour over the cold water (500 ml should be enough) and a teaspoon on bicarbonate soda.
  2. Keep them in the fridge min 12 hours. They will soak in most of the water.
  3. Wash them well. Place them in a big pot with an onion and a carrot and with 800 ml of water.
  4. Bring to a boil and then add a teaspoon of salt.
  5. Let it boil on small fire until they become very soft. Mine took surprisingly little, 1 hour, but it greatly depends on the beans.
  6. You can take out the veggies you don’t want to use further.
  7. In a cast iron skillet, cook the cut onion on small fire in the olive oil.
  8. Add the cooked beans together with some liquid.
  9. Add the tomatoes and let them cook 15 min on small to medium fire.
  10. You can now add the pepper and paprika and, optionally, the parsley.
  11. Serve with some pulled meat or next to some roasted pepper. You can sprinkle on it some extra olive oil, if you wish.