This hearty, delicious Easy Vegetable Stew with Beans loosely based on ratatouille makes an ideal vegetarian/vegan, gluten free mid-week meal.
EASY VEGETABLE STEW WITH BEANS
This hearty Easy Vegetable Stew with Beans is loosely based on ratatouille, a classic French vegetable stew, with a few extra ingredients thrown in for a more satisfying meal and seasonal character. This healthy dish is very easy to make and can feed a crowd, which makes it a great mid-week dinner idea.
Although this is a stew I think it’s a good idea to briefly fry the vegetables before adding them into the stew. 5 minutes in a large frying pan over a high heat will brown them nicely and they’ll keep their shape better in cooking. It’s really worth doing this step especially as this dish requires very little effort. Once all the ingredients are in the pot your work is pretty much done (though you will need to give it a stir once or twice) and the stew is ready to serve about 30 minutes later. There’ll be enough to feed a family of 6.
In this easy vegetable casserole recipe I used a combination of popular Mediterranean herbs, such as thyme, oregano and basil. But it’s entirely up to you whether you want to use all or just one of these herbs. Or perhaps create your own herb combination if you prefer. This easy vegetable stew lends itself to a variety of herbs and spices so mix and match and make this dish your own.
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Enjoy this easy vegetable stew with herbs with pasta, baked potato or a slice of fresh crusty bread. Alternatively serve with grilled chicken as a non-vegetarian main meal idea.
This hearty, delicious Easy Vegetable Stew with Beans, loosely based on ratatouille makes a fantastic vegetarian/vegan, gluten free meal.
- 1 small/medium eggplant aubergine, cubed
- 1 large zucchini cubed/cut into chunks
- 1 red/green bell pepper roughly chopped
- 300 g butternut squash peeled, cubed
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 x 400 g tin tomatoes
- 1 x 400 g tin white kidney beans or other white bean variety
- 4 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, finely chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon each oregano and thyme
- 1.5 teaspoon coarse sea salt plus pepper to taste
- 6 tablespoons white wine
- 5 tablespoons olive oil plus 3 more if you are working in batches
- 2/3 cup hot water a little less than a cup
- Serve with freshly chopped basil
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In a large pot heat up 2 tablespoons of the oil, add the garlic, onion and bay leaf and fry slowly for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add the wine, beans, stir and continue cooking for 2-3 more minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano and thyme, stir and remove from the heat.
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In a large frying pan heat up 3 tablespoons of the oil and fry the rest of the vegetables over a high heat for 5-6 minutes until lightly browned, stirring often (you may want to do this in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan - use 3 tablespoons of oil per batch).
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Add the vegetables along with the hot water into the tomato mixture, stir, cover, bring to boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 30-35 minutes (until the eggplant and butternut squash are tender), stirring occasionally. Adjust the seasoning if necessary, scatter the fresh basil and serve (goes well with pasta, grilled chicken, bread or simply on its own).
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RECIPE LINK PARTIES
I am bringing this hearty Easy Vegetable Stew with Beans to #CookBlogShare, hosted this week by Jacqui@Recipes Made Easy. Join the party and check out all the delicious recipes others have linked up! Also sharing with Cook Once Eat Twice, and Fiesta Friday.
That’s absolutely my type of stew. It looks and sounds delicious. Love the flavours and the colours! x
Thank you, glad you like it:)
This looks delicious, I adore med veg!
Yum! This recipe is right up my street. I love the flavours in ratatouille and I love your additions to make it extra hearty – perfect for a more wintery dish. Eb x
Thank you Kat:)
Thanks Eb, glad you like my hearty version of ratatouille:)
I saw the title of your dish and immediately thought, “ratatouille!” I think that the vegetable-frying step is absolutely essential for developing flavor: this must be such a delicious dish! I can’t wait to try it.
Thank you Michelle, glad you like my ratatouille with a twist:)