Red Pepper, Bean & Spinach Stew

As the colour of Autumn unfurls itself like a blanket, conkers and leaves falling from the trees and the fire just begs to be lit salads seem a distant memory and its bowls of comfort food we crave. I have been following a plant based diet for a year now, it was something that I came to having been suffering with chronic fatigue, anaemia and Vit D deficiency. A two year journey of gluten free, dairy free, no refined sugar.....and still an insurmountable fatigue. Having had a few big gastro issues with eggs sporadically over the years, they were removed from my diet as well. Within weeks I felt sunnier, my knuckles dragged less, the stairs didn't seem so much like Everest and as year on things have only got better. Gluten now features daily as that was never the issue, I take it or leave it. Meat and fish, well they were never a big part of my regime. I won't lie, as those who know my big passion is cheese, the size of my cheese counter would tell you everything, I miss cheese. But the truth is cheese hates me; at first just cow's milk cheese, but then goat's milk and ewe's milk cheese had the same ill effect so although I miss it, it is something I can live without because knowing how bad it made me feel is enough to know it just isn't worth it 😓

I'm sharing, what I consider to be an all time winning recipe. It ticks all my boxes. 

• I can eat it
• It takes minutes
• I have everything in the fridge/cupboard for it most days
• My husband will eat it!

RED PEPPER, BEAN & SPINACH STEW

Serves 4 (if you eat like a mouse) 2 hungry eaters like me 😋

Ingredients:

a good splosh of extra virgin rapeseed oil (or your preferred oil)

2 large red peppers, chunky cut (or if you have a jar of already roasted peppers that need using up they work brilliantly and it cuts cooking time)

3 garlic cloves sliced (fresh needed here so squeezy stuff)

2 teaspoons of ground cumin

1 70g tin of tomato puree

400ml vegetable stock (add hot)

1 400g can of tomatoes - I like whole but chopped is fine

1 Can Kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 Can of Black Eyed Beans (any bean will do, Cannellini, Borlotti, Haricot will be equally as good)

About 5 balls of frozen spinach or if you have fresh 2 big handsful.

Salt & Pepper (freshly ground - I use Himalayan Sea Salt)

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed casserole dish (Le Creuset, or equivalent, is perfect. Cook the peppers for about 5 minutes then add the garlic and cook through (should take about 2 minutes). Stir frequently to stop the garlic catching. 
2. Stir in the ground cumin and cook through for a minute. Add the tomato puree, hot stock, tomatoes and the beans. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes on a decent heat somewhere between a fast simmer and rolling boil until slightly thickened. Add the spinach. If using fresh you will only need to stir it through. With the frozen spinach it will defrost in the pot, usually taking about 5 minutes, once it has broken down, give it a good stir, allow it to heat through and then serve. I admit to liking this with a hunk of good bread.

Enjoy 😃