SILVERBEET, PUMPKIN & BLACK BEAN STEW

This recipe was inspired from a recipe on Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s online website, found in the ‘Dark Leafy Greens’ post. I have been wanting to try using silverbeet for a long time as I have never cooked it myself before. I will freely admit that I watched a 20 second video on how to prepare it (gosh I love the internet, there's just everything out there that you need or have ever wondered about). It was a bit of a rainy day in Brisbane on Monday, hence the warmer meal. As regular readers of this blog and of Soulful Sandwiches may know, I have been trying and trying to get my fiancé to eat hearty meals without any meat in them. Now I’m not a vegetarian myself but sometimes my body just does not feel like meat or does not need it. This meal was one of the most filling vegetarian meals I have had in a while and I’d definitely recommend this recipe (or Gwyneth’s; she uses sweet potato, white beans and kale).

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 white onion, roughly chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tablespoons lemon pepper
• 700g pumpkin, seeds & peel removed and chopped into even cubes
• 1 x tin of 400g diced tomatoes 
• 500ml (2 cups) vegetable stock 
• 1/3 - 1/2 bunch of silver beet (2 cups tightly packed), stem removed, chopped & washed 
• 1 x 400 tin of black beans, washed & drained

COOKING 

1. Heat coconut oil in a large saucepan over medium heat for 1 minute. Next add the onion and garlic and stir until the onion is soft and the garlic is fragrant. Add the lemon pepper and pumpkin and stir well until all ingredients are combined. Pour in the tomatoes and stir frequently for 5 minutes, until the pumpkin starts to soften. 

2. Add the stock, silver beet and black beans to the pan and stir to combine. Place the lid on the pan and reduce the heat to a low simmer for around 15 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft and tender but not mushy (to make sure mushiness does not happen, check on the stew around the 10-12 minute mark and spear a fork through the biggest cube of pumpkin you can find - if the fork goes in easier the stew is done, if there is some resistance give the stew a few more minutes on the stove). 

Serves / 4

Total Preparation time / 20 minutes 

Total Cooking time / 25-30 minutes 

x Emily