Thursday, March 12, 2009

Indonesian Curried Bean Stew

Look, I warned you about the ugly pictures. This meal looks so...brown, but I promise that's just from the peanut butter and curry powder. It was actually really good. I was afraid it would be slightly lacking in flavor, but it was truly delicious. The peanut butter makes it so creamy while the curry powder and cumin make it smoky and complicated.

The other nice thing about this recipe is it makes for great leftovers. I think I could've eaten it for another few days and still not gotten sick of it. As for whether it's truly "Indonesian" or not, I have no idea, but it sure makes for a good title, right?

Just a slight warning however. Remember the song we used to sing in grade school? "Beans, beans, they're good for your heart. The more you eat, the more you fart." I'm just saying, you might only want to eat this around the ones you love.

Indonesian Curried Bean Stew
source: Cheap Healthy Good

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups brown rice, uncooked
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 large onion (for about 1 cup chopped)
1 large bell pepper (for about 1 ½ c. chopped)
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 15-oz. can light red kidney beans
1 14.5 oz. can stewed tomatoes
1 15-oz. can black beans, drained
1 15-oz.can chickpeas, drained
3 Tbs. peanut butter
1 tbsp curry powder
1 Tbs. ground cumin
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger root (or 1 tsp. bottled fresh) (I got lazy and used powdered.)
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

1) Begin cooking the rice according to the package directions.
2) While the rice cooks, heat oil over medium heat in an extra-deep, 12-inch nonstick skillet. Add onion, and sauté for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add pepper, and sauté for another 3 or 4 minutes. Add garlic, and cook 1 minute, stirring frequently.
3) Add the tomatoes and kidney beans with their juices to the skillet, breaking up any large tomato pieces with a spoon. Stir well.
4) Add drained chickpeas, drained black beans, peanut butter, curry powder, cumin, and ginger to the skillet. Stir thoroughly (but gently so as not to break up the beans), making sure the peanut butter is well blended. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, at least 10 more minutes or until rice is done. Just before serving, remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the cilantro. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve stew over rice.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price Per Serving
4 SERVINGS: 637 calories, 13.7 g fat, 18.7 g fiber
6 SERVINGS: 425 calories, 9.1 g fat, 12.4 g fiber

3 comments:

Daniel said...

Don't worry about the photographs... some meals just aren't terribly photogenic. :)

I really like the recipes you've been trying lately. Healthy, inexpensive and scalable so you have lots of leftovers.

Do you think you'll continue to make a lot of these recipes after you're finished with Lent?

Dan
Casual Kitchen

Kira said...

Dan,
I like that about these recipes too. I definitely hope to continue to make similar recipes even after Lent. I'm still toying with how going meatless for Lent will impact post-Lenten life (one meat dinner a week? no meat in our kitchen only when we go out?). But we've always liked curries and such so I imagine I'll make similar meals!

Sarah said...

Kira, I'm going to have to try this one! It looks amazing and is something everyone in my house can actually eat. Living with 4 other people, on $75 a week in NYC, and having lots of dietary restrictions (one community member doesn't eat corn, gluten, or dairy) means that we end up eating the same thing every week. So I'm very thankful to find both this and the recipe below. Please keep on posting your vegetarian experiments!