How to make a perfect vegetable stew

The stews are varied stews based on a mixture, generally, of legumes and vegetables, which become popular at certain times of the year such as winter and Lent, which meant that the stews were once vegetarian dishes or almost (sometimes cod is added, as in the “lenten stew” as a source of protein, ignoring those of the legumes themselves).

Today we preserve the tradition of making mainly chickpea stews, although we have been introducing new ingredients to vary them and make them part of our culinary routine.

How to make a vegetable stew with legumes in 4 easy steps

The stir-fry, the cooking of the legumes, the preparation of the vegetables and the choice of good complements and condiments are the basis for preparing a tasty and nutritious stew.

1. A perfect stir-fry

It is very convenient to cook a good stew start with a classic stir-frywhich can include onion and tomato, but also paprika and other spices whose aromatic compounds are fat-soluble or can withstand this type of cooking well, such as cumin, bay leaf, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, etc.

Ingredients

1 large white onion 2 shallots 1 garlic clove ¼ teaspoon cumin (whole seed) 2 bay leaves ¼ teaspoon thyme 1 sprig rosemary 4 very ripe plum tomatoes, preferably peeled A pinch of salt 4 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation

Heat the oil in a saucepan or nonstick skillet over medium heat.Peel and finely chop the onion and put it in the pan.Peel and finely chop the shallots as well and add them.Peel the garlic clove, discard the nerve, mince the garlic and add it Also add the spices and stir well. Chop or cut the tomatoes and add them to the pan or saucepan along with the salt. Stir it well and reduce the heat to a simmer. Let it all cook together until it is sweet.

You can too add or change ingredients: leeks, chives, spring onion, cherry tomatoes, vine tomatoes, carrots, celery, red onion, sweet or smoked paprika, coriander (whole or ground seeds), etc.

With a sweet and very fragrant sauce we can start any stew we have in mind or improvise it.

2. Cook the legumes to the right point

You can choose the “usual” legumes such as chickpeas, lentils or beans, or try new varieties: black beans, beluga lentils, red lentils, adzuki, soybeans, mung beans, etc. Red lentils do not require soaking, they can be cooked directly.

Most legumes require a few 8 hour soak or overnight. So first, leave the legumes to soak for the necessary hours. This has several purposes:

soften the legumes so that they cook well. Improve the nutrient bioavailability.Discard part of the gas-causing compounds.

To cook them in the pressure cooker you must first cook the legumes halfway through. So follow these steps:

Once you have put the legumes in the water, close and put on a high heat. When it starts to “beep”, turn it down to medium-low. Halfway through cooking, turn off the heat. If, for example, the package indicates 20 minutes of cooking, turn it off when it takes 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and wait for it to cool down (when it stops steaming). Open the pot and add the sauce and the vegetables. If necessary, you can remove some of the water when you open the pot (if you see that it is going to be soupy).

3. Prepare the vegetables for the stew

These are the basic vegetables and their preparation:

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes2 medium carrots½ zucchini1 turnip

Preparation

Wash and peel the vegetables and cut them into medium cubes. You can leave the zucchini unpeeled if you want. You can stick a couple of nails in some of the potato pieces to flavor the stew and then be able to remove them easily.To give the broth more consistency, You can add a few pieces of bread from the day before at this point. It will be much better if it is whole grain bread and with seeds. You can also add a splash of wine vinegar, sherry vinegar or Modena vinegar.Once the vegetables and the sauce have been added, close the pot again, put it on the heat, the same as at the beginning, when it starts to boil, put it on low heat and leave it for another 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, let it temperopen it, try the stew and correct the salt. Serve it hot.

You can change the vegetables for others perfectly, for example parsnip, kohlrabi, beetroot (remember that it will dye all the broth), celeriac, fennel, plantain (yes, I know it is a fruit), cassava, yams or taro, bamboo, shiitake mushrooms, daikon radish, sweet potato , gourd, lotus root, etc.

If you want to add more delicate vegetables or with less cooking time, do it at the end. When you open the pot, add them and simmer, half covered, until done. It is especially useful if we want textured chard, tender cabbage, or cooked but crunchy asparagus.

4. Add your favorite ingredients

If we want to take our dish a little further, we can add tofu, tempeh, seitan or any other similar ingredient. For my taste, they are better if we add them to the sauce and let it cook with it before adding them to the pot. So I suggest you add these ingredients:

Tofu: We can cut hard tofu into cubes, add it with the onion, add the rest of the ingredients and assemble the sauce with the tofu. Then it will be added exactly the same, halfway through cooking the legume.Tempeh: I prefer to brown the tempeh separately and add it at the end of cooking the stew.Seitan: The homemade seitan is great whether we do it with the sauce, if we do it separately or if we add it freshly cut when opening the pot.

If we feel like getting creative With the stew we can add 1 teaspoon of miso to the broth, or some cereal that is made in 10 minutes in the pressure cooker, such as brown rice, quinoa, millet, spelt, etc.