Spanish Black Bean Stew

Potaje de Alubias Negras is for dinner tonight. This is a Spanish Black Bean Stew. It’s a wonderful one-pot meal for a cold, snowy Colonial Beach evening.

2 tbsp extra virgin olive
1 medium onion
5 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper
2 carrots, peeled, sliced thin
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 tomatoes (grated) or a can of fire roasted diced.
2 medium potatoes, I used 4 small yellow
2-3 cups chicken bone broth, as needed
3 cans black beans, low sodium
1 bay leaf
sea salt & black pepper
fresh parsley for garnish

For protein, I half chopped a section of turkey kielbasa and fine chopped the other portion. I do this with most meals that have any kind of sausage. I want good bites, but I also want it to become part of the seasoning.

Heat a dutch oven or large pot with a medium heat and add in the olive oil

While the oil is heating, finely chop the onion, roughly chop the garlic, finely chop the green bell pepper, and cut the carrots (peeled) into thin pieces

Add the chopped ingredients into the stock pot, mix continuously, after 5 minutes and the ingredients are lightly sauteed, add in the red wine vinegar, smoked paprika, and ground cumin, quickly mix together, then add in the grated tomatoes and season with sea salt & black pepper, turn it up to a high heat, give it a mix and then simmer for a few minutes. Add the protein if you have one.

In the meantime, drain the cans of black beans into a colander and rinse under water, and cut the potatoes (peeled) into small bite-sized cubes

After simmering the grated tomatoes for about 5 minutes and they’ve slightly thickened, add in the chopped potatoes, drained black beans, bone broth, and bay leaf, give it a gentle mix, once it comes to a boil, place a lid on the stock pot and lower to a low-medium heat.

For seasoning I put in (what I thought) was a bit of my Flatiron 4-pepper seasoning, and my favorite Cajun seasoning, Chef Kevin Bolton’s Creole Kick. This is a low-sodium Creole seasoning I’ve used for years, and I finally brought back into my kitchen. You can find it on Amazon. Between these two, the heat on this jumped up quickly, but it was still perfect.

After 15 to 20 minutes and the potatoes are just cooked through, remove the lid, you can always pierce the potatoes to ensure they are done, using a potato masher, mash down on the stew for a few seconds, this is to help thicken the stew, then remove from the heat

Transfer into shallow bowls and garnish with parsley, enjoy!

We served ours with toasted rustic bread slices, brushed with Kerrygold butter.

This was a FANTASTIC new meal from the kitchen!