Beef with Beans: Homemade Beef and Bean Stew

Name: Beef with Beans Recipe: Slow-Braised Beef and Bean Stew
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Beef 400 g; Dry beans 1 cup (170 g); Dry white wine 1 cup (200 ml); Water 1 cup hot (for both soaking and boiling the beans) (200 ml); Carrot 1; Onion 1; Garlic 2-3 cloves; Celery root 1 piece; Hot pepper 1-2; Butter 50 g; Sweet paprika 0.5 tsp; Salt, black pepper to taste; Wheat flour 1-2 tsp (optional, for thickness) (3–7 g); Herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro) optional

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2 h 30 mins

At home we often cook meat with vegetables, grains or legumes for dinner. Often, especially when work is heavy, dinner dishes are cooked in the morning and just reheated in the evening. Beef with beans is one of our favorites, very filling and tasty. Even though beef takes a long time to cook, there is always enough time in the morning to stew the meat and boil the beans.

Homemade beef stew needs no complicated techniques or exotic ingredients. Interestingly, dishes like this turn out completely different with veal. Probably because veal cooks much faster, the dish doesn’t have time to soak up the juices and flavor of the meat. And the nutritional and protein value of “older” meat is higher too.

Usually, to make meat tender, you have to stew or boil it for a long time. You can make a hearty meat soup, using the rib part of the carcass, and an excellent broth is guaranteed. But a meat stew with beans is not much harder, and takes the same amount of time, if you plan ahead and soak the dry beans.

Beef with beans is similar to the traditional British stew, a kind of ragu of meat simmered in sauce, for example braised beef with vegetables. Stews often include legumes, and wine is used instead of water. Tough meat becomes incredibly tender and tasty as it cooks. As a result, all the aromas and flavors of simple ingredients blend together into a delightful combination.

Braised beef with beans is cooked over low heat. The beans are soaked and then boiled separately. The boiled beans are mixed with the almost finished braised beef, and the sauce is cooked down to the right thickness.

To make this stew, you should know that tough meat can simmer for up to two hours. Be prepared for a long cooking time. In Italian cuisine, the classic beef ragu is used as a pasta sauce: Bolognese. Such a ragu isn’t cooked quickly, because the meat must be tender. Adding beans improves the flavor and turns the stew into a complete main course for a good lunch or dinner.

More with beef and beans

Chili con Carne with Beef Chunks

2 h 20 min

Marinated Beef Tenderloin Steak with Fried Egg

1 h

Beans in Tomato Sauce with Meat and Vegetables

Ingredients

2 servings

Beef 400 g
Dry beans 1 cup (170 g)
Dry white wine 1 cup (200 ml)
Water 1 cup hot (for both soaking and boiling the beans) (200 ml)
Carrot 1
Onion 1
Garlic 2-3 cloves
Celery root 1 piece
Hot pepper 1-2
Butter 50 g
Sweet paprika 0.5 tsp
Salt, black pepper to taste
Wheat flour 1-2 tsp (optional, for thickness) (3–7 g)
Herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro) optional

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the beans

It is best to take fairly “old” and tough beef, which makes an excellent stew. Any beans that cook well will do. The dish looks beautiful if the beans are dark, black or red.
Soak the beans in cold water ahead of time, preferably overnight. This makes the beans softer, and they cook better.
Before you start the stew, boil the beans until tender in plenty of water at a gentle simmer, so the bean skins don’t burst.

Braising the beef

Brown the meat. Melt the butter in a deep skillet. Trim the beef of bones, visible fat and membranes. Cut the meat into large pieces that are easy to pick up with a fork in the finished dish. Put the meat in the hot butter and brown over medium heat, turning from time to time, until nicely golden.
Fry the meat with carrot and celery. Peel the carrot and celery root and cut them into medium-sized sticks. Add the vegetables and 1-2 whole unpeeled hot peppers to the browned meat. Fry the meat and vegetables for 4-5 mins, until the carrot softens a little.
Add the onion, garlic and spices. Peel the onion and garlic. Cut the onion into large sticks or cubes and chop the garlic with a knife. Add the onion to the meat and fry for a few minutes over medium heat. Then add the garlic, season with salt and ground black pepper, add 1/2 tsp of sweet red paprika and stir everything.
Braise the meat with wine. Pour a full glass of dry white wine and a glass of hot water from the kettle over the meat and vegetables. Bring the liquid to a boil.
Cover the skillet with a lid and reduce the heat to the minimum at which you can still see simmering. Leave the beef and vegetables to braise. This is a long process, usually 1 hour at the very least, and tough meat can simmer for up to two hours. Test the meat for toughness, and as soon as it is acceptable, the meat is ready.
While the beef braises, the onion blends with the liquid and makes a tasty sauce. The vegetables stay as they were cut.

Combining with the beans

Add the boiled beans to the meat and stir. After the beans are added, the dish simmers in an open skillet, without a lid, over above-medium heat until the sauce reaches the right thickness. To avoid damaging the bean skins, don’t stir the stew too vigorously.
Thicken the sauce with flour if you like, to make the beef and beans thicker. Depending on how much liquid sauce there is, mix 1-2 tsp of flour (3–7 g) with a little water and pour it into the stew, stirring constantly. The flour quickly “cooks” and thickens. The sauce is ready when it suits your taste.

Serving

Serve the dish hot. It is best to use deep plates so the sauce doesn’t spill. If you like, sprinkle the stew with chopped herbs: dill, parsley, cilantro. I recommend eating beef stew with fresh bread.

Calories and macros

975 kcal

Serving ≈ 410 g

Protein63 g28% of kcal
Fat50 g51% of kcal
Carbs45 g21% of kcal

100 g237 kcalProtein 15.3 gFat 12.2 gCarbs 11.1 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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