10 servings

The simplest dish it was, some say… It is, indeed, but not quite. For excellent results, one should have a suitable and rich set of pot-herbs!

Products you need:

1 kg of butter beans

1 big-sized onion

1 big-sized sweet red pepper

2 medium-sized carrots

1 tbsp. of salt

1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

1 tbsp. of savory

1 tbsp. of smoked red paprika

1 tbsp. of dry seasoning for beans (pictured in a small bowl, optionally)

1 tbsp. of dry spearmint

1/2 cup of tomato purée

1 bunch of parsley

1/3 cup of sunflower oil

largely crushed red chili pepper

2-3 pinches of baking soda (to soak the beans)

Preparation:

From the previous evening, soak it the beans in water with a few pinches of baking soda.

I rinse it in the morning.

Put it to boil for a short time in a pot (in new clean hot water). Then drain the beans.

Add new hot water. Again, it boils, and I drain the beans for a second time.

After I changed the bean water twice, I add for a third time hot water to cover the contents and a little above. I put it to boil up.

Add the onion, the carrots and the pepper, finely chopped.

Add spices – salt, smoked red paprika, black pepper, dry spearmint, savory, bean savory.

Boil about an hour on low temperature.

Finally, when the beans and vegetables are boiled, add the tomato puree with finely chopped parsley. It boils for max. 5 minutes.

After removing the stew from the hob, then add the sunflower oil and stir.

When serving, sprinkle with largely crushed red pepper.

Tips:

Pre-soaking with soda and changing water twice prevents stomach bloating later.

In some cases, despite pre-soaking, more cooking time is required (if the beans are old).

If the stew is too thick, add water during cooking.

The dry seasoning for beans enriches the taste. It contains dried peppers, dried parsnips, etc. If you do not have a ready one, do improvise.

There are recipes that allow the oil to be added at the end of cooking. This one is just such a recipe. I prefer, whenever possible, to avoid boiling of oil. It does not affect the taste in any way.

Sometimes I make a thickening (there are some options but mine is quick and easy). Do every step of the recipe, but do not put onion and red paprika at the beginning. Once the stew is ready, make the brown sauce separately, frying the finely chopped onions in a pan with sunflower oil. Shortly before it is ready, add the red paprika and stir for some seconds. This mixture is added to the beans in the saucepan.