Hey cutieeees, what delicious things have you been eating lately? 😊 A few days ago I made pea stew, a super simple, plain pea stew with absolutely nothing extra in it, basically a fasting version. Literally just a few ingredients, one of them being water :), so nothing complicated at all. Of course, you can add any meat you like. Chicken goes best with it, especially chicken breast, but recently I made pea stew with smoked pork and bacon and it honestly turned out amazinggg, like a completely new dish. If smoked meat goes well with beans, why wouldn't it work with peas too? They're both legumes, so similar combinations really shouldn't seem strange.
But, as I mentioned, this time I decided to go with the most classic version possible. These are the ingredients you'll need:
700 g of peas
5 smaller onions
7 small carrots
3 larger cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 full teaspoons of salt (I used Himalayan salt)
A small teaspoon of black pepper
A little turmeric as well
2 teaspoons of ground red paprika
around 1.2 l of water plus 300ml
2 full tablespoons of white wheat flour
Preparation:
After peeling the onions, garlic and carrots, I set 4 carrots aside and diced them into smaller cubes, while I put everything else into a food chopper and finely chopped it. I tried not to overdo it so it wouldn't turn into a paste. Then I sautéed everything in 3 tablespoons of olive oil until it got a nice golden color and added the black pepper, turmeric, ground red paprika and the chopped carrots.
I placed the peas in a strainer and rinsed them under running water, then added everything into the pot. After that, I poured in around 1.2 litres of water, covered it with a lid and left it on high heat until it started boiling. Then I reduced it to medium heat so it could simmer gently.
After it had been simmering for a while, I add the two full teaspoons of salt. It's probably not important with peas, but I remembered hearing somewhere that beans should be salted near the end so they don't fall apart while cooking. Whether that actually makes a difference, I honestly don't know, but I decided to add all the other seasonings right away and leave the salt for closer to the end of cooking. Then I put the lid back on and let it cook a little longer.
Then I mixed two full tablespoons of white wheat flour with around 300 ml of water to make a "cold roux" that I would pour into the pea stew to thicken it a little.
How do you usually do it?
I remembered that I also love potatoes in pea stew, but I didn't have a single potato at home this time, so I left them out. Also, if I had celery root, parsley root or fresh green pepper, I probably would have added all of that while the peas were cooking and later either removed it, blended it and returned it to the pot or simply taken it out without putting it back in. Even just cooking it like that releases the most wonderful flavors.
By the way, the reason I do all that is because when I cook, I don't use "Vegeta", the very well-known seasoning mix here in Serbia that contains monosodium glutamate. That's why, no matter what I'm making, I usually add pretty much the same fresh ingredients, spices and root vegetables so they can release all the necessary flavors that enrich every dish.
After pouring the cold roux into the pea stew, I left it on the stove for just a few more minutes, stirring occasionally, and that was it, voila, our pea stew was readyyy. I ate it with an arugula salad seasoned with olive oil and homemade apple cider vinegar.
Since I forgot to take a photo the day I made it, to be precise the day before yesterday, I decided to quickly snap one this morning instead. A little selfie with my pea stew in my room in front of the laptop. Don't ask me why I'm eating pea stew for breakfast and please ignore the mess in the background that I failed to hide with my hands. 😆
But that's not important right nowww.
Tell me, are you generally fans of legumes and how do you usually like to prepare them? I really love them, beans, peas, green beans, chickpeas.... although they almost always feel a bit heavy on my stomach.
Thank you all for reading. Sending hugs and greetings to everyone! ♡
