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Bohnen-Tomaten-Eintopf (bean and tomato stew)
A vegan bean stew built on canned tomatoes and smoked paprika rather than meat for its depth, with bell pepper and kidney beans doing the heavy lifting. It comes together in under an hour and reheats better on day two than it tastes on day one.
Prep15 min
Cook35 min
Servings4
Christoph's vegan pantry stew, built around smoked paprika standing in for the smoked meat that gives this style of dish its usual backbone.
Ingredients
Written for a 4 L pot
Units
Temperature
Servings
Stew
- 30 ml olive oil rounded
- 150 g onion, chopped rounded
- 10 g garlic, finely chopped rounded
- 250 g red bell pepper, in 2 cm pieces rounded
- 7 g smoked paprika, sweet, not hot rounded
- 800 g canned chopped tomatoes rounded
- 500 g cooked kidney beans, drained, from a can is fine rounded
- 300 ml vegetable broth rounded
- 1 bay leaf rounded
- 1 g chili flakes, optional, for a little heat (optional) rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
- to taste freshly ground black pepper rounded
To serve
- 15 g flat-leaf parsley, chopped rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Heat the oil in a 4 litre pot over medium heat and sweat the onion, garlic and pepper with a pinch of salt for 6 minutes, until the onion is translucent.
- Stir in the smoked paprika and cook it for 30 seconds, just until it smells toasted. It burns fast and turns bitter if you leave it any longer.
- Tomatoes, beans, broth, bay leaf and chili flakes in. Bring to a simmer, then turn down until it barely bubbles.
- Simmer uncovered 15 minutes, until the pepper is tender and the sauce has thickened enough to coat a spoon.
- Fish out the bay leaf, then season with salt and pepper. This dish takes more salt than seems reasonable; canned tomatoes need it.
- Parsley goes on at the table, not in the pot.
Method in the Thermomix
Written for a TM5 or TM6, 2.2 litre bowl.
- Garlic into the dry bowl. Chop 3 sec / speed 6. Add the onion and pepper, roughly chopped, and chop 4 sec / speed 5.
- Add the oil. Sauté 6 min / 120 °C / speed 1, measuring cup off, until the onion is translucent.
- Add the smoked paprika. Sauté 30 sec / 100 °C / speed 1, measuring cup off, just until fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes, beans, broth, bay leaf and chili flakes. Cook 15 min / 100 °C / speed 1, measuring cup off so the sauce reduces properly.
- Remove the bay leaf, then season with salt and pepper. Mix 10 sec / reverse / speed 1 to combine without breaking the beans up. Taste through the lid and correct.
Notes
- Do not skip toasting the paprika. Thirty seconds in hot fat wakes up the smoky flavour that makes this stew taste like something other than tinned tomatoes and beans. Adding it cold, straight into the liquid, is a flatter dish.
- This is better the next day, once the paprika and tomato have had time to settle into each other. It also freezes well for up to three months.
- The heat is adjustable with the chili flakes and is entirely optional; the smoked paprika carries the dish either way.
- Do not let it simmer covered. The lid traps the water that needs to cook off, and the sauce stays thin no matter how long it sits on the heat.
Ingredient substitutions
- Kidney beans can be black beans or a mix of kidney and white beans. Cannellini beans work too, though the stew loses some of its colour.
- Bell pepper can be a mix of red and yellow for sweetness, or add a diced carrot alongside it for a more traditional Eintopf base.
- Canned tomatoes as whole peeled, crushed by hand, give a chunkier stew than chopped tomatoes if that is preferred.
- For a heartier, non-vegan version, add 100 g diced chorizo with the onion; it renders its own oil, so cut the olive oil in half.
From Christoph Mayer