It’s bean season at the moment. There’s runner, French, broad and all manner of other beans popping up in the veg box, at the farmers’ markets and in friends’ gardens. I love a perfectly cooked and simply dressed bean salad; a little drizzle of oil, a squeeze of lemon and a little seasoning. However, from time to time it’s nice to do something different and this runner bean and tomato stew is a much slower way of cooking with green beans.
Ingredients
You will need (for four servings):
- 1 onion, sliced
- Olive oil for cooking
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp dried chilli
- 8 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
- Large handful runner beans, sliced into finger sized pieces (you can use other beans here, French beans would just need halving)
- 2 tins borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
- 150ml vegetable stock
- Salt and pepper
- Few sprigs fresh marjoram or oregano
Method
Get a large frying pan onto a low/medium heat, add a little oil and the onions and fry gently for 15-20 minutes until well softened and just starting to turn golden.
Add the garlic and the spices and cook for a few more minutes.
Tip the tomatoes into the pan, turn the heat up to medium and leave the tomatoes to break down and soften for around 15 minutes.
Add the runner beans and vegetable stock to the pan and continue simmering for another 10 minutes.
Stir the borlotti beans into the pan and cook for a further 10 minutes.
Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Pick the leaves from the oregano and stir these through just before serving.
Serve alongside some crusty bread.
The lightly spiced tomato sauce works so well with the softened runner beans and hearty Borlotti beans. Using fresh oregano makes such a difference to this dish as you get such a wonderful punchy flavour. I ate most of this with a spoon and then tore off hunks of bread to mop up all the spiced juices from the bottom of the bowl. A fantastic stew, perfect for this time of year; a dish full of summer flavours.
What a lovely summer stew. Very healthy and super tasty!
Caroline – these beans look amazingly delicious! I love green beans with tomatoes and I love that you’ve added chile and cumin – my favorite spices!
A delicious and healthy summer veggie stew!
Either we call them something else or I have never seen runner beans, but the recipe looks wonderful!
Hi Caroline!
This runner bean stew looks so yummy, and very healthy. Thanks for sharing, I’ll try it out this summer.
i’ve never had runner beans before! i need to get on it. love how veggie filled this stew sounds!
I always look forward to bean season, too. Love them! And never met one I didn’t like. Terrific recipe — thanks.
it is so cold here that this stew would go down a treat. I recently used parmesan flavoured oil with beans and it added such a great dimension of flavours.
Just in time, beginning tomorrow I’ll start to pick my runners. I love the combination of the tomato, beans and green beans. The bread for sopping up the juice sounds mighty good as well. Might even try your Runner Bean and Tomato Stew over some brown rice. Thanks for a great garden-fresh recipe.
We are huge runner fans and this is just ideal to make ! Thank you so much !
what a hearty stew! i’ve never tasted fresh oregano and am curious about it! i love beans in all shapes, sizes, and dishes and would have at least two bowls of this. 🙂
This – or a variant- has been a favorite for so many years! Although we always call them broad beans – now I know what a runner bean is!
We usually get all kind of beans in winters. and runner beans are our favorite veggie and we have our traditional curry recipe as well.
I am glad you made it and liked it. We usued to enjoy this curry with steamed rice. Loved it ..
I haven’t had runner beans in an age! This is a lovely late summer stew.