Hearty, filling, & easy to make with lots of ways to change it up! This kidney bean bowl is perfect for veggies that need using up, helping you make sure nothing goes to waste.
The only thing that is a constant ingredient in this kidney bean bowl is the tomato sugo (aka passata), which brings it all together. Anything else, you can change to suit yourself. I love these kind of recipes which contain lots of vegetables- as well as veggies that need using up. So it’s a win win in my book. Nothing goes to waste in my kitchen, not if I can help it!
This time I used a Middle Eastern spice mix called “shoarma” to give it that middle eastern taste profile. But I’ve also made it with Italian herb mix and a Mexican spice mix. You can pick and choose which one you like and use those herb/spice mixes. If you want to use different beans, you totally can. Brown beans or chickpeas for example, work well too.
Beans are such an underrated food, but they are packed with nutrients and fibre. So why not put them on your plate more often? Here I used dried beans (soaked them for at least 10 hours first), drained, cooked then very-shallow fried them. Pre-cooked beans work just as well here, but make sure you rinse them well before shallow frying them.
This recipe is vegan, but if you want to add a cooked or fried egg to ramp up the protein, do so. You can also add in meat, but it makes this particular combination harder to digest. To me it feels like I have a brick in my stomach, so I don’t use meat or fish in this dish.
And that’s it, so let’s go into the kitchen and make this kidney bean bowl.
Gather your ingredients and start by cooking your veggies in some (olive) oil.
Shallow fry the cooked kidney beans until they crack, sizzle and pop. You can see the difference in texture in these pictures
Scoop the veggies and kidney beans into a bowl and serve straight away!
Kidney Bean Bowl
Equipment
- Knife
- Cutting board
- Big pan/pot (for the veggies)
- large frying pan (for the beans)
- Grater
Ingredients
- 2 large carrots (grated)
- 2 leeks (cut into rings)
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 courgette (zucchini) (cut into cubes)
- 2 pointy paprika or bell peppers (cut into half rings)
- 2 spring onions (cut into rings)
- 250 grams chestnut mushrooms (cut into slices)
- 200 grams tomato sugo (passata) (you can add more if needed)
- 2 large tsp shoarma spice mix (Or Italian or Mexican spice mix)
- ¼ tsp salt (¼ tsp with the veggies and ¼ tsp with the beans)
- (olive) oil
- 400 grams dried kidney beans (soaked, rinsed and cooked as per instructions on the packet)
Instructions
- Cut up all your veggies and start by frying them in some (olive) oil until everything is lightly browned and cooked
- Add the tomato sugo until the veggies are blended. They shouldn't be swimming in the sugo, just add a little so everything comes together
- Add in the salt and spices and leave that to simmer on very low heat, while you shallow fry the beans
- Rinse your cooked (kidney) beans and shallow fry them in a small layer of (olive) oil on pretty high heat and stirring often so nothing burns
- When they start to crack, sizzle, and pop and you see the change in texture, stir in the salt
- Taste and add in more salt if you like
- Scoop the veggies into a bowl, add in a good amount of beans and top it off with some spring onions.Enjoy!
