bacon, bean and kale winter stew
As the winter months hit, I crave bowls of warming stews to nourish me. This can easily be made vegetarian with the omission of the bacon - but it provides a lovely smoky finish. This pleases both the meat and the bean lovers in our house as it caters for all. Use less chilli if serving young children. For a note about lentils see the tip below.
ingredients
serves 4
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
10 rashes of smoked streaky bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon crushed chilli flakes
650g butternut squash, peeled and chopped into small squares
3 tablespoon lentils (I sometimes use puy and other times red lentils)
500ml vegetable stock
1 tin red kidney beans
1 tin black beans
1 tin chopped tomatoes
3 large handfuls of kale leaves, chopped
method
prep time: 45 mins
Heat the avocado oil in a large shallow pan and add the chopped onion.
Cook for about 8-10 minutes until soft and slightly golden and then add the garlic for a few minutes.
Add the chopped bacon and the spices and give everything a stir.
Add the lentils, butternut squash, stock and tomatoes and gently simmer away until the butternut squash is soft and the lentils are cooked about 20 minutes.
Add the beans and stir everything together and bubble away for 10 minutes.
Add the chopped kale and leave for 5 minutes for this to cook through.
Serve with either a tortilla wrap, some brown rice or on its own. It also makes great leftovers for lunch the next day.
the health boost tip
I have added lentils to this dish. If you have children that don’t like lentils then use the red ones as they disappear to nothing - the puy lentils are good if you have someone sensitive to lentils as less likely to cause bloating issues. Likewise with the beans choose your favourites - although the darker ones such as black, kidney and aduki work best.
