Finally! Sheesh. White bean stew with biscuits. Asked for many times. And waited for even longer. Sorry. 😉 When I orginally attempted this, I used the recipe from: Veganomicon
 it came out… um, okay. I don’t know. Every step of the way I questioned the recipe and was like “this seems backwards. Why am I doing this? Next time I’m making my own”. So yeah, thats what I did. The basic idea was adapted from the book, but the cooking set up, directions, seasoning (and maybe the ingredients?) are different. I also used a completely different biscuit recipe than the one found in Veganomicon. I wanted a biscuit with more flavor and buttery goodness. Because there are the two parts to this recipe, you will have to multi-task quite a bit. You need to be pretty good at cooking with a baby (if you have one) or asking a friend to help is always nice 🙂 This is a really hearty and filling meal, great for cold days, or days where you just need a little extra comfort and loving inside your gut. I hope you enjoy it as much as Marlowe and I do 🙂
You’ll need: a dutch oven pot. With an oven safe pot you can transfer the whole stew into the oven and make this one of the easiest and heartiest meals ever. If you don’t have one, please feel free to use whatever stove top pot and transfer stew into an oven safe dish. I personally use a le creuset brand dutch oven. I’ve had it for years and year and years and I don’t think I’ll ever need to replace it. It’s an investment piece that you can pass down 🙂Ingredients (stew):
-onion, small chopped
-two carrots, small-medium chopped
-celery (one or two– depending on how much you love it), very small chopped
-mushrooms, small chopped. Optional, but recommended. I used crimini and button, but any variety is great.
– two small potatoes, small-medium chopped— it’d be preferable to cut to the size of your beans 🙂
-garlic: diced, sliced, chopped, whatever you prefer 🙂
-green onion: chopped
-beans: white or garbanzo. I prefer white beans, they blend best with the soup, but garbanzo is awesome. (not pictured)
-peas, about half a cup. (optional) (I use frozen, fresh or can is fine)
-butter or oil. (I use earth balance)
-vegetable stock or water.
-herbs, lots. fresh is better, dried is fine. (thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, parsley– any or all)
-flour, a few tablespoons
-salt &pepper
-nutritional yeast (optional)
For the biscuits:Â
I followed THIS RECIPE, until the last step. Super easy and delicious too.
How to:
-Wash and drain beans, clean and chop all the veggies, and grab some herbs.
-Add onion, green onion, mushrooms, and celery to a well buttered or oiled, heated pot.
-Saute and allow everything to cook down and caramelize a bit.
-Once everything has cooked down a bit and onions are translucent: add carrots. Stir, allow to cook for a minute or two.
-Add garlic. Stir.
-Add chopped herbs.
-Add potatoes. Stir. Salt and Pepper. Turn the heat to medium low and let everything cook for a while, stirring occasionally. You really want the flavors to blend together, all while allowing your potatoes to soften (not completely, but a bit). This might be a good time to start your biscuits, if you haven’t already done it.
-Make sure your veggies have a bit of moisture. They should still have some left from the oils and the mushrooms. If not, don’t be afraid to add a bit more oil or butter.
-Add about one and a half to two tablespoons of flour and blend well, into the vegetables. You are going to have some browning on the bottom of the pot, but this will come off later and give some extra flavor to the stew.
-Bring heat back up to medium/medium high and slowly start adding stock to your pot. Maybe a quarter cup at a time (at first). You want the stock to simmer on the bottom so that the brown goodness cooks off the bottom while you stir it in. Add more stock, stir, and scrape the bottom more. Add enough stock to cover vegetables. Add beans. Bring to simmer and allow to cook until potatoes and carrots are fully soft.
-(Work on your biscuits!)
-Taste and season. Feel free to add more herbs, spices, or nutritional yeast, and of course: salt and pepper.
-Add peas, turn off heat, and stir.
-So…. you’ve been working on your biscuit dough right? I mean, at this point your kitchen should either be spotlessly clean and you’re like *oh crap, I forgot the biscuits!* or your kitchen should be a mess and you’ve got a big lump of dough in front of you. Instead of rolling and cutting your dough into fancy, perfect biscuits, just pull chucks off the dough and roll them into one and a half inch balls.
-Plop (nicely place) your biscuit circles on top of the stew. The stew should be thick enough so that biscuits mostly sit on top with little sinking. If your stew is too brothy or the dough balls are too big and heavy, they will sink. If you need to, remove a bit of broth or thicken stew with more flour.
-Place the whole pot into pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes– depending on the size of your biscuits. You want the biscuits to be firm to the touch and slightly browning.
-Pull pot out of oven and serve!
Enjoy!
31 Comments
This is currently in the oven! Thank you for sharing your recipe, it smells delicious! Just curious, what kind of flour do you use for your biscuits? I made them with a gluten free blend and they didn't turn out right at all :/
always AP flour, unless otherwise stated. GF flour always requires different recipes.
Made this tonight. It was absolutely delicious! I didn't make the biscuits though, instead I opted for a slice of french bread.
I've never had biscuits before. I tried making some years ago, but it wasn't a vegan recipe and for some reason they never cooked properly or something like taht. I can't really remember. Anyway, I think I'm going to make this over the weekend.
Made this tonight after Rae from Say It Ain't So blogged about making it. It was soooo good. I didn't have an oven ready pot either so I just made biscuits on the side and plopped in. Totally yummy.
Made this tonight and oh my gosh – delish! Thank you for posting!!
Drea this is AMAZING!!! It's so filling and most definitely a new comfort food staple in this house!!
itsabigworldbaby.blogspot.com
I just wanted to say that I made this last night and my husband and I both LOVED it. So yummy. We split it into 2 meals so we have another meal for another night, I just need to throw some dough on top and put it in the oven.
YUM
I'm so glad you posted this! I made it the other night and it was amazing. My 16 month old devoured it so that made me very happy. Always love the recipes you post. Thanks!
it looks yummmmy!!
http://silentloveyou.blogspot.com
This looks wonderful! I'm going to try out the biscuit recipe tomorrow. I'm gluten free also so it will be with oat flour. Most gluten free recipes want you to use a mix of equal parts rice, oat, and garbanzo flour, but I prefer straight oat or with very little rice flour.
Thanks for sharing!
~Bee
What kind of pot/pan thing are you always using? I think I want one. It looks handy?
oh man, i just made this for dinner and it is so good! my leeks were bad so i couldn't use them, and i added red pepper flakes but other than that i followed your directions. so delicious!
@sharon: the bricks are alex's. It helps him with his bread baking and pizza making. I have zero motivation to move them out of the oven. It hardly affects my cooking anymore since I've gotten used to them. If you have them in there and turn the oven all the way… for a very long time the bricks create and hold A LOT of heat.
What kind of bricks are those? Maybe I am a novice but I do not know much about bricks in the oven. Would love for you to blog more about this!
@yellow finch designs: I am really not a big fan of the book AT ALL. I think the one recipe I like from it is the yuca quesadillas… and even that I had to add a shit ton more garlic and spices to give it more flavor.
@katie: I use that pot for EVERYTHING. I use that and occasionally my skillet… but thats mainly for quick sautes or frying. The pot is le crueset… on the pricer side… but long lasting, heavy, and great for everything. I have a few pictures of my kitchen on my home tour… it's super super small and it's currently JAM PACKED. When Alex and I combined forces it got ridiculous and his stuff is still here. We have about 7 cutting boards all together… 9 pots, 6 pairs of tongs… every appliance known to man… you get the idea. It's a kitchen made house.
@rosala: it's so easy. And one you make the switch and clear out your system of everything else.. theres no more cravings or anything.
@amber and scott: gah. my mom brain never thought about mentioning that…. haha *make sure your pot is oven safe* doh. but Fynn has the right idea! Def. something you can just combine 🙂
amber- i do not have a pot that can go in the oven either. i ended up just cooking it on the stove, and the biscuits separately on a baking stone. it still came out awesome!
I am definitely going to make this for my family.
We're gluten-free, not vegan, so I will make some adjustments.
I'm rooting for you, lady.
Ahhh! My only trouble is that I really don't think I have a pot that can go in the oven. I mean, I'm not SURE about that, but I know that I have zero dishes that look like that, all I have are regular pots & pans. I will have to do some research!
Made this today for cold sick self! Delicious! But I did swap the celery for some hearty kale! Awesome!
I have been between eating chicken/turkey to vegetarian for awhile, but you are inspiring me *BIG TIME* to become a vegan!!! 🙂
Oh praise sweet baby Jesus – thanks for posting this delish looking recipe. I'm going to eat the shit out of this.
this looks SO awesome. i'm going to have to try it SOON!
also, i have a question about your pot. i've noticed it in a lot of your recipe posts. what brand is it? do you use it alot- soups, sauteeing?
you should do a kitchen post 🙂
i have everything to make this tonight! can't wait!!
this looks delicious! AND, i have everything to make it for dinner tonight. yay!
that looks wonderful. i have actually been eyeing the veganomicon recipe, because white beans are my favorite food! i'm probably going to make this tonight.
Nom nom nom. What a great way to use up all those tiny bits of extra veggies. And perfect for this cold weather!
This is totally getting made by me, soon! Looks so yum!
yum! i am going to try this.
last night i made a soup from veganomicon and changed it too! for some reason i didn't like the mixture of flavors they used so i kept the basics and added my own flare 😉
can't wait to try the biscuits. i have a pretty simple recipe for them but they don't have a lot of flavor.
hope this comfort food helps with the healing 😉 thinking of you.