Hello, Plant Based Peoples!  Spring is almost here! Today is March 21, my mom’s birthday. She passed right before I met Mr. FBBQ. She was in denial about my plant-based diet. Not sure why, but she always tried to feed me meats. It’s a bit ironic, because the meats we ate when I was a child probably contributed to my anti-carnivore diet. Steaks were overcooked and rubbery. There were a lot of processed foods. Hamburger was disguised as Hamburger Helper. Remember Mr. FBBQ’s Braunschweiger post? We ate a lot of that. Not smoked, rather drowned in ketchup. Starting to see a pattern? Regardless, she was a great mom and I miss her every day.
Anyway, I thought I’d squeeze in one more winter recipe before the flowers start blooming!  This one was interesting.  A lot of things went wrong with it.  I am not sure what makes this Italian either, other than the Italian seasoning.  Other than that, our ingredients are mushrooms, diced tomatoes, a red pepper (no rainbow this time), onion, garlic, a carrot, vegetable broth, butter beans, sweet potato, yellow potato, and a bay leaf.Â
To start, I had to look up what butter beans were. They are lima beans. Apparently, they are called butter beans in the UK and are a huge hit with the British. This, of course, made me have to talk with a British accent for the day. That is highly insulting to the British, as my accent is horrible. So, if I have any followers from across the pond, my sincerest apologies.
I could not find lima beans at the store I went to. All the Brits probably shopped before me and bought them all. Or there is a product shortage. I like my theory better. Anyway, I lucked out and had some dry baby lima beans in the pantry. I used those, along with some dry navy beans and dry northern beans. Figured I would throw a little white bean mix into this stew.
As you know, you have to soak dry beans for about 24 hours prior to use. I didn’t soak these beans long enough. The final result was harder-than-I-prefer beans in this stew. Not inedible, just not ideal.
I didn’t defrost enough vegetable broth (I keep broth frozen, which really comes in handy). I had to soak a container in hot water to reach the appropriate level of brothness (not a word) for this stew.
I successfully chopped the onion, garlic, pepper, and carrot (a much better carrot than last time picked out by Mr. FBBQ). I also successfully sauteed these vegetables and added the diced tomatoes, the Italian seasoning, the (sort of hard) beans, and the (eventually de-iced) broth. But wait! I know what you’re thinking. I said mushrooms above. I sure did. I also totally forgot about the mushrooms until this entire dish was complete and I was already eating it. I still added them to the remainder of the stew, but it just wasn’t the same.
Lastlly, I steamed the potatoes too long and they ended up mushy. Mushed potatoes. Add those to the pot of failure. I think I will re-name this dish Non-Italian Mushed Potato Crunchy Bean Sludge. I joke. It wasn’t that bad. But, I have to have some fun with it! I’m going to fail on these recipes some time!
Not forgetting the bay leaf (whew! This never would have worked without the bay leaf!) I added that and served this up with some toasty (keeping with the theory) Italian bread.
Hopefully, if you try to make this you are more successful than I.
Thank goodness Spring is coming. Salads are easy. Usually.
