A little Spanish inspiration for the great bean recipe search

The search for another good bean recipe to add to the 33 collection goes on. I’ve decided to abandon the quinoa-based Mujaddarh as it’s just too complicated to cook in the campervan, though I will try it again at home soon. This week I made Catalan and Potato Stew for the second time and it is now part of the regular repertoire. This tasty, one-pot stew was inspired by a BBC Food recipe that typically contained no spices. I’ve added a pinch of chilli flakes and dash of red wine to give it a bit more ‘poke’. The lemon juice and fresh parsley are key to the clean, spicy flavour, and the base of breadcrumbs gives a rich, thick sauce that can be enhanced by using haricot beans in tomato sauce although this is not essential. There's usually a bit of stale baguette left over from breakfast, which can easily be turned into breadcrumbs with the box grater, so this makes an ideal campervan one-pot recipe. It certainly has that unique Spanish flavour - a reminder of our summer holiday in northern Spain, tapas, and numerous dishes of patas bravas.

Another thing I have been working on this week is more menu planning, or rather recipe pairing. I’ve been trying to devise another one-week menu plan utilising in the main the store cupboard ingredients, but also looking at ways that any surplus from extra ingredients can be incorporated into another recipe. So, you need to buy lemon and parsley for the Catalan Stew, but the remaining half of the lemon and fresh parsley can be used the next day for Simple Lemon Pasta.

 

Catalan Potato and Bean Stew