=) What do Beans and Turkish Coffee have in common? /plant-based bean stew recipe/

Hello dear people! <3 With this cold autumn weather, the appetite and the desire for some hot, soupy lunches naturally wake up. So today, without thinking too much, I decided to make the simplest meatless version of beans. And yes, without any hidden and bad ingredients, meaning a maximally healthy plant-based meal.

Everything I used for this meal:

~ beans (around 400g of white beans)
~ water (I will explain how much in the text)
~ 1 larger onion
~ 2 medium carrots
~ 3 large cloves of garlic
~ 1 smaller green pepper
~ 1 bay leaf
~ 2 tablespoons of olive oil
~ half a tablespoon of sweet red paprika
~ a little bit of ground black pepper, on the tip of a small teaspoon
~ the same amount of turmeric
~ 3 dried parsley leaves
~ 3 dried nettle leaves
~ cumin
~salt to taste

Preparation method:

Since I did not soak the beans the previous night, which is recommended for all legumes, I had to discard the first three waters. So, I washed the beans and put them in a larger pot, added enough water to cover them, and put them on the stove on the highest heat. As soon as it boiled, I poured out all the water, added fresh water and repeated this process 3 times. I left the beans to cook with the fourth water on a low heat and added finely chopped onion and carrots cut into smaller cubes.

I also added one dried bay leaf, 3 cloves of garlic (unpeeled!) because we will need a puree made from them later, one green pepper cleaned of its stem and seeds and cumin. You can see in the first photo above approximately how much I used. You can't really go wrong with the amount if you like the taste of cumin. Although you can't taste it too much when it is cooked with the beans for a long time, it helps a lot to prevent possible bloating later.

You also decide how much water to use. Somewhere around halfway through cooking, I had to add at least another half a liter of water because the beans "drank" it all up.

After about 1 hour and 20 minutes of cooking (when every single bean was nicely cooked and softened), I took out the bay leaf (and threw it away), the pepper and the garlic. I squeezed out the "flesh" from them and threw away the skins, then mashed everything nicely with a fork into a puree and returned it to the pot with the beans.

Oh yes, I also added salt at that point. I can't tell you the exact amount of salt because I always do it according to taste. I keep adding a little salt at a time and tasting it, and if needed, I add just a tiny bit more, taste again, and keep doing that until I get the taste just right.

I made the roux using only oil and paprika. I didn't want to use flour because I wanted this to be a gluten-free meal as well. I briefly fried half a tablespoon of sweet red paprika in two tablespoons of olive oil over low heat, literally just a few seconds of stirring. It must not be left any longer so it doesn't burn. I poured the roux into the beans and left everything to simmer so the flavours could combine nicely.

Then came black pepper, followed by a little turmeric, very little of both, so I wouldn't overdo it because this mild vegan bean dish without meat and heavy fat "doesn't tolerate" too many spices.

Then I blended one ladle of beans with two or three ladles of water in the NutriBullet and returned it to the pot to get the thickness of the soup that flour would normally create, but I didn't want to use flour this time. Aaaand, I can tell you that it turned out great this way, even better than with the classic roux.

If you are coffee lovers, this part of preparing beans or any other dish, dessert, or whenever you spend a certain amount of time in the kitchen, is something you must not forget! You simply muuuust not! 😁

5 minutes of time and enjoyment! So, for whatever you are preparing to turn out nice and tasty, besides good cooking skills, a little imagination and lots of love, you also need to drink at least one good Turkish #coffee (sweetened with honey). 😍

If you are wondering what that green thing in the corner of the camera is when it comes to selfies, it is basil and some other greenery from the vase I leaned my phone against while taking the photos. xD

For a little more magic, I also added a few dried parsley and nettle leaves. They certainly won't take over the taste of the beans, they will only improve and complete it even more, and they are also very healthy. I mean the nettle, parsley is a classic. (:

This was a very tasty but simple, healthy, nutritionally rich, meatless, vegan meal. Since I ate without bread only with a few pickles as a salad, I have served myself and eaten two more bowls of it since lunch, hihi.

And how do you usually eat beans, in what form, what do you prepare them with, which meat do you use most often, and what do you like to eat alongside them?

I have never tried that English combination of beans, eggs and sausage, I must put that on my list! 🥰