The basic lentil stew can be made in 40 minutes from dried green lentils, brought to the boil and left to simmer. Onions and carrots can be kept large and added at the start or sliced and added later. A bit of shoyu or tamari (soya sauce) to serve with is delicious but even better is a bit of miso added at the end of simmering. Macrobiotics add seaweed in the cooking and non-macros may like a few mushrooms or potatoes, or virtually any other veg can be added including peppers, but the basic lentil, onion and carrot version is a sensation of pure nourishment. Putting whole grain rice on to boil at the same time as the stew makes this a not overly labour-intensive meal. A super quick version is to put sliced carrots/other veg on to boil first and add a tin of (drained) lentils at the end.
The possibilities for bean and veg stews is virtually endless but there’s no doubt that some combinations are more sumptuous than others and are worth remembering such as: Kidney Bean, Walnut and Spinach. Aduki beans are recommended for the benefit of kidney functioning but I have found them more suited to substituting for mincemeat in ’shepherdess pie’ and such, rather than for stews. Butter beans make interesting flavour combinations with Mediterranean veg and strong flavoured veg such as fennel. Borlotti beans are nice and ‘meaty’ with a solid texture and slightly savoury taste, which make hearty winter stews with root veg.
Cannelloni beans can be quite hard to the bite but along with flageolet beans (always a pretty sight on the plate) make a fine stew with most veg and are the basis for cerba di fasoli or fasola, an east european soup made (I think) with pork stock and bacon fat a bit like the english pea and ham soup but there the similarity ends – the flavours in pea and ham soup are overwhleming whereas fasola is subtle and only slightly spicy. With the arrival of many Polish people, supermarkets have started stocking a range of Polish foods, Pudliszki Fasola amongst them and at £1.27 for a large jar it is good value, and a valued discovery – and I think one version is vegetarian. Pudliski also do delicious stuffed cabbage in a jar.
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