Get more organic #beansonthemenu with this delicious plant-based butterbean stew with chorizo substitute made from seitan, and topped with pesto, lovingly prepared and kindly provided by Rachel Lena, Head Chef at Stereo Cafe Bar.

Ingredients

Beans

  • 500g organic dried butterbeans

Stock for choriz-no

  • 1ltr water
  • 4 bay Leaves
  • 15g yeast extract
  • 25g organic red wine vinegar
  • 25g organic tamari/soya sauce

Choriz-no

  • 375g vital wheat gluten
  • 40g organic smoked paprika
  • 5g chipotle
  • 15g onion powder
  • 10g garlic powder
  • 15g organic black cracked pepper
  • 12g fine salt

Stew base

  • 3 bulbs of organic garlic
  • 3 medium/large organic red onions
  • 2 tins of 400g organic tomatoes
  • ½ tube organic tomato puree
  • 60ml organic red wine
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • 3 teaspoons of black cracked pepper
  • remaining stock
  • 75g olive oil

Method

Butterbeans

  1. Cover the butterbeans with plenty of water and allow to sit overnight
  2. The next day, drain and rinse the beans. Add to a pot, cover with water and bring to the boil. Once boiling turn down the heat and let the beans cook for 1.5hours or until soft. Stir regularly to ensure even cooking. Make sure to top the water up as you go if the beans become uncovered.
  3. While the beans are cooking you can make your choriz-no or if you would prefer use a shop bought alternative.

Choriz-no

  1. First make your stock, add the litre of water, bay leaves, yeast extract, red wine vinegar and tamari/soya sauce to a pot and bring to the boil, let simmer for a little while to extract the flavour from the bay leaves, and mix to make sure the yeast extract has melted.
  2. Add the vital wheat gluten, smoked paprika, chipotle, garlic & onion powders and salt and pepper to a bowl and stir with a whisk.
  3. Strain out the bay leaves and weigh out 500- 600g of your stock
  4. Make a well in the centre of your vital wheat gluten mix and use a wooden spoon to incorporate the hot stock, mix everything into a dough, then cover with a clean damp tea towel to rest for at least 20minutes. This allows the mix to cool and the gluten to relax.
  5. Once the dough has rested break into a few balls, make a sausage shape. Lay the sausage onto a piece of clingfilm, still attached to the clingfilm roll.
  6. Wrap the dough into the cling film and roll around a few times to make the dough longer and tighter, leave enough room to spin shut the edges.
  7. You can now either steam or boil the sausages. I steamed mine in the oven for 1 hour. If boiling or steaming in a pot, I would go for roughly the same time frame, but be sure to keep topping your water up with hot water as you go.
  8. Once they are cooked and cooled, remove the film and slice into pieces lengthways, you can fry these in a pan or roast in the oven with a little oil. I roasted mine at 170c for ten minutes then turned them and cooked for a further 10.

The Stew

  1. Cut the very end off your bulbs of garlic, cover with a little oil and roast at 170c for around 15-25minutes or until the cloves start to go golden brown.
  2. Slice your onions in half and then into thin slices, add this to a pot on a medium heat with a little oil, sauté the onions until they start to go soft – roughly 8 minutes.
  3. Add the beans, chorizo, remaining stock, roasted garlic, tins of tomato, tomato puree, wine, salt and pepper and stir through, warm everything and allow to stew for at least 20 minutes.
  4. The last thing to add after stewing is the olive oil.
  5. Season to taste and serve topped with green pesto, olive oil and flatbreads, or whatever you like!