Tuscan Creamy Bean and Pepper Stew

 

Don't judge my bowls. They were cheap and they hold a lot of stew.

This recipe is a bunch of cans and bags, comes together in a snap, and tastes like you simmered it for hours. Plus, depending on the ingredients you use, it's vegetarian, but hearty enough to satisfy even meat lovers. Plenty of veggies involved too, and I can't stress enough the fact that we all need to eat more vegetables.

Tuscan? Well, the Tuscans eat lots of beans, and this is a hearty bean stew which uses plenty of rosemary, so I'm calling it Tuscan. If you changed the flavors a little, you could call it whatever you want, and we'll discuss those flavor alterations a little later.

You Will Need:

• Beans
• Cream soup
• Onions
• Peppers
• Tomatoes
  
• Garlic and Spices
• Salt and maybe Sugar
• Oil
  

Beans

Traditionally things called "Tuscan beans" usually are meant to be cannellini beans in the US. They're fine here, but I actually prefer Great Northern or other small white beans because the skins are less tough. Cannellini beans are just white kidney beans (yes, really, you heard it here first) and kidney beans tend to have thicker skins. In some applications the flavor is important, but this is a hearty enough stew that a mild bean is going to work whatever bean it is, and most white beans are quite mild and creamy.

You'll want the equivalent of three cans of beans for this recipe. If you cook them yourself, by all means use them, but cans are easy.

Can you use another type of bean? It'll affect the flavor, certainly, but as we'll discuss when we talk variations that may not be an issue. Chickpeas are a decent fallback, but pinto or black beans are definitely going to change things up a little.

Cream Soup

I used cream of roasted red pepper from Campbell's, and if you can get that, it's delicious. But the reason I didn't just say, "Use only that," is that any "cream of" soup will do. Mushroom will keep things vegetarian, as would celery (though cream of celery is strongly celery so keep that in mind, obviously). But cream of chicken would work great. Heck, cream of shrimp or some sort of seafood bisque would make for a great variation. You'll need one small can, condensed.

If you don't have cream soup, you can add a little flour when you sauté the onions. Canned cream soup is easier, but flour will work too. Try a tablespoon. Or, as we'll discuss, add more bean canning liquid.

Onions

1 pound diced, or just buy a pound bag of frozen diced. There's nothing you'll be doing with them that requires fresh.

Peppers

1 pound, either fresh or frozen. Again, nothing you're doing here requires fresh.

Tomatoes

1 can, diced. If you use fresh tomatoes you'll have to cook them longer, plus most of the time fresh tomatoes aren't that good. Buy a can. I like smaller chunks of tomato and it doesn't cook long enough to really break down, so I used petite diced, but you could also use whole tomatoes in juice and dice them up a little. You could also add more tomatoes and cut back on the peppers, or just add more tomatoes anyway. These are just guidelines. Don't sweat it.

Garlic and Spices

I used both garlic paste and garlic powder because fresh garlic is bright and acidic whereas dried garlic has an earthier punch. Use some garlic. A head? Sure, why not? Seriously, use your best judgment on the garlic because some people don't think any amount of garlic is enough. Just remember that it won't be cooked as long as in some recipes.

The other major flavor of the stew is rosemary. If you've got fresh, feel free, but dried works totally fine here. Rosemary dries really well too; it doesn't lose much from the fresh and it keeps forever. Then I added pinches of oregano, thyme, sage, and basil, as well as some chili flakes. I didn't add fennel seed and I should have, so learn from my mistake and add a pinch or two of fennel seed too.

In a pinch (or more than a pinch) feel free to use some Italian seasoning or herbs de Provence, if that's what you've got. Or use whatever of the above you do have. It's not an exact thing, but if you can use rosemary and garlic, all the rest is just icing on the cake.

Salt and maybe Sugar

I say "maybe" because if you use roasted red pepper soup or something similarly sweet naturally, I don't think you need any sugar. But use your best judgment on it, as you always should. If you use a more savory cream soup, you might want a dash of sweetness at the end.

I also didn't use salt because I have mushroom seasoning, which is a blend of salt and dried mushroom that adds both salty and umami flavors to things. If you use cream of mushroom soup, you're getting some of this. If you don't have mushroom seasoning, salt will be fine, but if you've got some dried mushrooms, particularly ones which are a little long in the tooth, grind them up and add them to this and other things.

Oil

A little to sauté the onions in. Cooking spray will work, but a whisper of extra-virgin olive oil brings out the flavors.

You Will Also Need:

A Pot

You'll need a large pot. I used a large wok because I'm odd like that, but basically any large pot or dutch oven will do.

Let's Get Our Butts to Tuscany

To start, heat your oil and sauté your onions. You don't need color, but you're looking for them to soften and turn translucent. Add your garlic, pepper flakes, and fennel seeds now so they'll bloom. Sauté those until the raw smell of the garlic cooks off. Do not burn your spices. Then add your other herbs, whichever you're using.

This is the time to address your beans. If you've got decent beans, and you'll know by the smell when you open the can, you can add them without draining. If you're using chickpeas, don't do this because the water they come in isn't creamy in the same way, but if you're using any kind of white bean, add that liquid. It makes everything richer.

If you open your bean cans and they smell... for want of a better word, fart-y, you might not want to use the liquid. In that case, you'll want to add a cup of water to the mix when you add the beans to preserve the balance. You can sometimes cook out the funkiness of sub-par beans, but don't sweat it too much. Drain some or all of them.

Add your peppers, stir, but don't worry about cooking. Peppers go from under- to over-done in a heartbeat, and if this were a long-simmered stew I wouldn't have you add them until the end, but adding them now works because they'll hopefully be done without falling apart once everything comes up to temp. Then just open the can and chuck in the tomatoes, juice and all. While you've got your can opener handy (or while you're opening cans, if your cans have pop tops as all right-thinking cans should) open the cream soup can and add that. Fill the can with water to get out all the soup, and add that too. 

Add your beans here too. Told you this came together quickly. Either with or without their liquid, add those beans. Stir everything to combine, then cover and simmer over medium low. How long? That depends on your beans. You want to cook them until they're creamy and don't taste like the can anymore. If you made your own from dried, that means that really all you have to do is cook this for about 10 minutes to let all the flavors marry. Anything beyond 10 minutes is just to get your beans done.

And that's it. You can drizzle with a little olive oil, serve with a crusty loaf, or just spoon it into bowls. It makes 4 hearty servings. Which means, and I'll whisper here, that if you added some additional water, you could thin it out to 6 equally-hearty or 8 still-substantial servings. Soup's great like that.

Variations

If you want some meat in this, chicken or pork would absolutely work here. If you use a lean cut, breast meat or a lean chop, you can cook the meat in small pieces until just done, then take it out of the pot and cook everything else exactly the same way. Add the meat back at the end, with any juices.

Shrimp is also a fine addition, and with cream of shrimp or shrimp bisque, this takes on a much more seafood-forward taste palette. I'd recommend amping up the thyme and down the rosemary, but shrimp and rosemary is good too. Serve with some lemon wedges.

I promised a different taste palette completely, and here it is: ignore all my spices except garlic and use pinto beans instead. Then use chili powder, cumin, adobo, or any other spices that go with Mexican or South American food, and you'll have a chili rather than a stew.

Or cut the tomatoes and peppers. Go with herbs de Provence as a seasoning. Add carrots and celery to the onions at the beginning (that's called a mirepoix if you're fancy), and add some sausage (veggie sausage is a surprisingly good substitute for the real thing) to make a quick cassoulet.

See, this is why I don't have a million recipes: every one of these recipes is the basis for a bunch of different variations.

Whatever you do, eat your veggies. But that's easy with this dish. You've got this. This is cookable.