This kidney beans stew is super easy to make. Only bean broth, meatballs and some vegetables cook all together for 20 mins. How come it’s so tasty?
Key Ingredients: Bean Broth and Meatball
I used to cook beans by myself instead of buying tinned ones. Besides, it’s more budget friendly, and the bean broth is super tasty!
How to Make Bean Broth?
Usually, I soak the beans a night before, to shorten the cooking time and save energy.
The next day, rinse the beans and pressure cook it with 4-5 times salted water for 10 minutes. Release pressure naturally. Like this time, I needed 300 g of kidney beans, so I used 1500 ml of water and 1 tbsp salt(1 tbsp = 15 g, you don’t have to really measure the salt). This 1% salt thing is a rule of thumb, cooking pasta is also the same.
Frozen meatball is a Good Ingredient, even to Mostly Plant-Based Eaters, Like Us
Nowadays, many people adapt to different diets and rule out many foods like meat, dairy products or gluten. For us, we are still eating meat, but at a lower frequency.
And I found this kind of frozen meatball really convenient and helpful.
For example, IKEA meatball. Its ingredients look OK to me – no E-number food additives, use pepper and spice as seasonings, not too salty.
Like this dish, I still use a lot of legumes and vegetables, proportion-wise, it is way bigger than the meatballs. BUT, these little pieces of meatballs offer a richer flavour to the broth, which is a BIG plus to the dish, and you can intake some more protein and micronutrients also!
Crusty Bread with the Broth, Yummy!
This kind of stew is quite flexible with any wholegrain you like, such as rice, pasta(put some short pasta inside), couscous, quinoa, or any flatbread/crusty bread. I usually have some frozen wholemeal buns in the freezer, so I just heat them up in 10 mins, then I can enjoy this beautiful stew!
A Few Notes Before You Cook
Bean Broth Quantity
Because I wanted to make more than one dish, so in this case, I soaked and cooked 300 g of kidney beans with 1.5 L water, and end up I had more than 1 L of broth. I used around 700 ml of broth in the stew. If you want to cook a smaller portion, maybe you won’t have enough broth for the stew, and need to substitute it with other broth.
If Using Chicken Broth not Bean Broth
If you use tinned beans and swap the bean broth with chicken broth, maybe celery/fennel can be added to bring more flavour to the broth.
Ingredients
Serves：2-3
- 100 g dried kidney beans
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 bay leaf
- 12 IKEA meatballs
- 2 potatoes, chunked (250 g)
- 2 carrots, chunked
- 2 mushrooms, sliced
- ½ tomato, chunked
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- salt and pepper
- fresh parsley leaves for garnish
How to Make Kidney Beans Stew with IKEA Meatball
- Soak the kidney beans for 8 to 12 hours. In a pressure cooker, add 4-5 times water and 1% salt. Pressure cook them for 10 mins, release pressure naturally. Set aside the tasty bean broth.
- Heat the oil in a pot/pan, fry onion, garlic and bay leaf until fragrant. Add the potato, carrot and mushroom. Add some salt and pepper for seasonings.
- Add the IKEA meatball, tomato, tomato paste and cooked kidney beans, pour in the bean broth(I use 700 ml), put the lid on, cook for about 20 mins at low heat.
- Finally, smash part of the potatoes and beans if you want the sauce to be thicker. Garnish with parsley, and serve with crusty bread.
More East Stew Recipes
- 【One Pot】Smoky Paprika Sausage and Lentils Stew
- Borlotti Beans and Sausages Stew in One Pot
- A Humble Miso Stew with Pork and Potato
