Bacon and white bean stew
Miguel's quick budget bean stew is creamy, salty and hearty. It's also really flexible, so if you want to switch the beans or vegetables, feel free.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
- 8–12 rashers smoked streaky bacon (about 180g/6oz), cut into 2cm/¾in pieces
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 x 400g tins cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 chicken stock cube
- 100g/3½oz young spinach leaves, roughly 4 large handfuls (or 1 small savoy cabbage, trimmed and shredded)
- salt and black pepper
Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and fry the onion for about 3 minutes or until starting to soften and colour, stirring regularly. Add the bacon and continue to fry for 2 minutes more, or until lightly browned. Scatter over the garlic and fry for 1 minute, stirring regularly.
Add the cannellini beans, season with salt and pepper and fry for 2 minutes, stirring.
Crumble over the stock cube and stir in 600ml/20fl oz water. Bring the liquid to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally (if using cabbage instead of spinach, add it at this point).
Add the spinach and cook for 1–2 minutes or until well wilted, stirring. Season with pepper and serve.
Recipe Tips
You can use defrosted frozen spinach in this bean stew, if you have some in the freezer. Any tinned beans will work as a substitute: haricot beans, butterbeans, pinto beans and mixed beans are all really good. You can double the recipe and enjoy leftovers for lunch, too.
In November 2023 this recipe was costed at an average of £4.46 (using spinach) and £4.04 (using cabbage) when checking prices at four UK supermarkets. This recipe is designed to be made in conjunction with a low-cost store-cupboard, for more details click here to see how our budget recipes were costed.