Beans with Vegetables
Beans with vegetables is a wonderfully simple dish. Ordinary, affordable vegetables (potatoes, carrots, onion), dried beans and a little time, and you get a lovely meal.
At my grandmother’s, beans were usually not sown in a separate plot but around the edge of the vegetable garden. Once ripe, they were shelled, always sorted through, and kept in a sack hung from the ceiling, otherwise the mice would feast on them all winter. Beans may be one of the oldest plants grown by people. South America is considered their homeland, although beans were also grown in Ancient Egypt, in Asia and in the Roman Empire.
Beans are remarkably healthy thanks to their high content of plant protein and micronutrients. The human body absorbs about two thirds of the protein in beans, and the micronutrients help the body recover and even rejuvenate.
How do you cook beans with vegetables? A friend of mine used to say that boiling dried beans is pure pleasure. If you throw dry beans into boiling water, you can cook them practically forever. That is a joke. Of course, sooner or later the beans will cook, and most likely turn to mush. Dried beans must be soaked before cooking. As a rule, beans are soaked the evening before and cooked the next day, so they soak for at least 6 hours. Soaking saturates the beans with water and makes them soft. It cuts the cooking time considerably, but most importantly it lets you cook the beans evenly without overcooking them. Besides, as the literature says, soaking breaks down the substances in beans that cause the well-known digestive effects.
In Georgia there are plenty of bean dishes (green beans, pod beans, shelled beans) with the common name lobio: stewed beans. Mexican cuisine has many dishes with beans, the most famous being chili con carne, known simply as chili. Although in that dish the beans are more of an addition.
Beans can be cooked much more simply. For example, beans with meat or beans with vegetables is an easy recipe that doesn’t take much cooking experience. The dish is hearty and tasty, just like bean soup, even without potatoes.
Ingredients
1 serving
- Dried beans 0.5 cup
(85 g) - Ripe tomatoes 2-3
- Onion 1
- Potatoes 1
- Carrots 1
- Garlic 1 clove
- Celery root 50 g
- Olive oil 3-4 tbsp
- Salt, freshly ground black pepper, dried aromatic herbs, sugar to taste
Step-by-step recipe
We usually buy mottled beans. When buying, make sure the beans are not spoiled and have no weevils. Weevils in beans are pure evil. Once a pest gets into a container of beans, a chain reaction begins. So we buy beans in amounts of 2-3 cups at most and keep them in the refrigerator.
As I said, dried beans must be soaked first. The evening before, cover half a cup of mottled (or any other) beans with cold water. I’ve noticed that if there is a weevil in the beans, the damaged ones may float up, or an air bubble sticks to the damaged spot. Pick such beans out by hand right away and throw them away.
To make beans with vegetables, boil the soaked beans until done. Well-soaked mottled beans cook in plenty of water over medium heat for 20-40 minutes. If the beans are slightly underdone, that’s fine, they will finish cooking while the whole dish is prepared. It is important that the bean skins don’t burst during cooking, or you will end up with mush.
Drain the boiled beans in a colander, transfer them to a bowl and cover with a cloth so they don’t dry out.
Peel the vegetables. Cut the celery root and carrots into large cubes. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Fry the celery root and carrots for 5 mins over high heat, stirring constantly.
Dice the onion. I’ve always wondered whether you can dice an onion so that the pieces don’t fall apart. Anyway, cut the onion roughly the same size as the carrot and celery. Add the onion to the pan and keep frying everything.
Cut the peeled potatoes the same way as the other vegetables. Fry the potatoes with the vegetables for 6-7 mins. Season with salt and pepper to taste, add a couple of pinches of dried aromatic herbs (basil, savory, oregano) and a finely chopped garlic clove.
Fry all the vegetables until lightly browned and add the boiled beans right away. Stir everything and add 1 cup of hot water (200 ml). Once it boils, cover the pan with a lid and simmer the beans with vegetables over low heat for 15 mins.
Scald the tomatoes with boiling water. Remove the skin and seeds. Mash the tomato flesh to a puree, adding a little water if needed. If for some reason using tomatoes is difficult, you can dilute a little tomato paste. But I don’t like tomato paste. I usually always have homemade tomato sauce, put up in summer. 2-3 tbsp of homemade sauce is enough. In the very last resort you can use half a cup of good tomato juice (100 ml). Choose your own option. By the way, you can add 0.5-1 tsp of sugar (2–5 g), which improves the flavor of the dish a lot.
15 mins after simmering begins, add the tomato puree to the beans with vegetables. If needed, add a little more water. Keep simmering the beans for 10 mins, then take the lid off the pan and let the excess water boil away.
Beans with vegetables can be thick or quite thin, strictly to your taste. You can leave a lot of water and the dish will resemble a very thick soup. I make my beans thicker, closer to a stew or a roast.
Serve the beans with vegetables in a deep plate or bowl. If you like, sprinkle a pinch of finely chopped dill on top.
Beans with vegetables should be served hot only, without reheating. They are very good with white bread.
Calories and macros
965 kcal
Serving ≈ 800 g
- Protein28 g13% of kcal
- Fat50 g52% of kcal
- Carbs76 g35% of kcal
100 g121 kcalProtein 3.5 gFat 6.3 gCarbs 9.5 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
Adjustable mandoline slicerAliExpress
Peeler with wooden handleAliExpress
Pull chopper for garlic and onionAliExpress
Oil sprayerAliExpress
Kitchen scale up to 5 kgAliExpress
Vegetable chopper with handleAliExpress