Tuscan White Bean Stew

Well, soup and stew and chili season is already upon us in Vancouver!  It's amazing how fast it happens. One week we still needed the fan to sleep at night, then one week we didn't need it, then the following week I'm seriously threatening to turn on the heat.  If you know Vancouver, you know "winter" for us means RAIN for about 5 or 6 months straight, and oh, the rain has arrived.  We made a lentil soup with grilled cheese sandwiches on Sunday night (recipe earlier in this blog), and this Tuscan white bean stew last night - mmm it was GOOD.

All credit to VeganYumYum http://veganyumyum.com/2007/03/tuscan-white-bean-stew/ , but we changed the ingredients *just a little bit* to suit.

This recipe makes two large bowls or three small-ish, so you might want to increase everything for leftovers, which I wish we'd done!

1/2 Onion, finely chopped
2 Medium Carrots, sliced into very thin coins
1 Medium Potato, cut into a 1/4″ dice
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 Cups Veg stock (or chicken-flavoured stock)
1 Can White Beans
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbs Tomato Paste
2-3 Large Kale Leaves, roughly chopped (remember to remove the inner rib!)
2-3 tsp Lemon Juice
Fresh herbs for garnish, optional

Saute the onions over medium-low heat in a medium sized, heavy pot that has a lid. Slice the carrots into 1/8″ coins and add to pot along with chopped celery. Cut potato into 1/4″ dice and add to pot, stirring occasionally. Add stock and loosen any stuff that has stuck to the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Add salt, oregano, tomato paste and stir.  (Update - I didn't have any tomato paste the last time I made this so I used canned tomato soup - worked just fine!) Cover and turn head down to a low boil.
Slice kale, drain and rinse the beans. Add beans to pot and stir. The stew should be quite thick. Add kale and lemon juice. Taste and season if necessary. Simmer for a few minutes until kale is tender. Carrots should be tender, and the potato should be soft but still hold its shape. Serve and garnish with fresh herbs if you like.

We served this with some crusty french bread and it hit the spot!  See? Winter isn't so bad.