It’s our meat-free meal for this week and today is some Black Bean Stew. This is a hearty and healthy dish, full of fiber with the black beans and butternut squash.This is a vegetarian dish, so you don’t have to make any alterations if you are trying to keep it as a vegetarian meal. I am planning to make some biscuits to go along with this meal as well. I’ve made the biscuits before, so if you would like to see the recipe for them, you can check here.

Black Bean Stew

1 cup dried black beans

4 cups water

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound)

1 yellow pepper, seeded and diced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 cup lager beer, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon salt, or more, to taste

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Pick over the beans, discarding any misshapen beans and stones, and rinse well. In a large pot, combine the beans with cold water to cover by 3 inches. Soak for at least 4 hours or overnight. Alternatively, for a quick-soak method, bring the beans and water to a rapid simmer (but do not boil), then simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour.

Drain the beans, place in a large saucepan and add the 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer gently until almost tender but still quite firm, about 1 hour.

Add the onion and garlic to the beans, re-cover and continue to cook over low heat until the beans are tender, about 30 minutes more.

Cut the squash in half. Remove and discard the seeds, then peel the flesh. Cut the flesh into 1-inch cubes. Add the squash, pepper, oregano and beer to the pan. Raise the heat to medium and cook, uncovered, until the squash and beans are soft but still hold their shape, about 30 minutes. Stir in the salt and pepper. Ladle the stew into warmed soup bowls and serve immediately.

If you have the time to do the beans overnight, that’s probably the best way to go about it so they are ready to use the next day. This stew takes some time to cook, but I think it’s worth the effort for the taste you will get. It’s filling, tastes great, and makes the whole house smell good. Serving with the biscuits round out the meal nicely, but you could also serve this with a salad if you wanted to add something else to the meal.

There weren’t a lot of ingredients in today’s meal, but tomorrow has quite a few. I’ll be making Jambalaya tomorrow, and the recipe I use has 23 different ingredients in it, so I have my work cut out for me! It doesn’t take long to cook, it just has a lot of items in it so there is quite a bit of prep work involved. Check back tomorrow to see what’s in it. It is definitely worth it! Enjoy the rest of your day!