Red Kidney Bean Stew

[nealstar]

I've been getting nutrition coaching from BBM for a few months in order to cut BF. As calories have steadily dropped, but protein and fiber targets have stayed high, I've struggled a bit for whole food, non-oatmeal things to help round out my meals. My guts tolerate beans just fine, and I've got a bean stew that my wife likes. I dug into bean macros last week, and for my goals, dark red kidney beans have a very good blend.

Here's a version of the stew I made this weekend. It's made in the usual way, and contains roughly:
3 regular can, Dark Red Kidney Beans (UN-drained)
32 oz. box of Chicken Stock
1 whole bunch Coriander Leaves, chopped (added near the end; NOT a garnish)
4-8 cloves Garlic chopped
1 large yellow Onion chopped
1 large Jalepeno Pepper seeded, cored and chopped
3/4 - 7/8 oz. Vegetable Oil
zest of one lemon or lime
salt, pepper, and white vinegar to taste

If you include the liquid (meaning serve it with a ladle), that nets you roughly 12, 8 oz. servings at:
150-170 calories
~25 g Carbs
~3 g Fat
~8 g Protein
~8 g Fiber

I pair this with some kind of lean protein cooked in a fashion that minimizes added fat. I slow poached 6 lbs. of chicken breast in court bouillon (no fat added) last weekend, roughly shredded it and stored it in the cooking liquid. An 8 oz. portion of the above and 8 oz. of the poached chicken get me WAY closer to my Protein and Fiber goals than to my Carb and Fat goals. Meaning I've got room for booze, basically. Also, the bean stew works really well as a moistening sauce for the lean protein. This is working especially well with the lightly shredded chicken, as it tends to catch and hold the bean thickened liquid.

Thought I'd share.

[KyleSchuant]

Those Blue Zone guys are of the opinion that the longest-lived people eat a cup of beans a day. This looks good for that.

[Fzt]

When I'm good with my diet (which I will get back on after the holidays) I have a similar sort of thing in my heavy rotation with:
1 pound dried black beans
1 onion
1 head of garlic
lots of bay leaves (I put them in a tea ball)
1 stick of mexican cinnamon
1 halved orange
2-4 dried chilies (ancho, colorado etc), discarding stem, keeping seeds (if you like some heat)
1-1.5L water (higher end gets a soupier consistency, lower end gets a more condimenty consistency
15-20g salt to start

I put the water (if you're doing a larger batch you can put some in the pot and start to get it boiling) and the salt and chilies in the blender, blend until pretty smooth, add the onions and garlic, blend again until no large chunks remain. Then I put everything in the pressure cooker and cook at full pressure for 20 minutes, pull out the orange, bay leaves and cinnamon then adjust seasoning. You could do the same thing in a normal pot, it just takes longer. It's super easy, and you can just heat some up from the fridge and use it to poach frozen chicken directly for a quick meal with good macros.

[nealstar]

@Fzt I like the idea of orange and dried chile, especially in winter when some of the fresh stuff I'm using would normally be out of season. Thanks for that!

[nealstar]

@Fzt I did up a pot of this last night subbing orange juice, orange peel, and dried chili for the cilantro and raw jalepeno. It tastes quite good, although it loses some visual appeal without all the green to offset the pale white of the poached chicken and the broth that's tinted vaguely purple by the kidney beans.

[rjharris]

coriander *leaves*? huh. i've never seen those, though maybe i just haven't noticed them. do they give the same flavor as ordinary coriander seeds or is it different?

[heidikay]

coriander *leaves*? huh. i've never seen those, though maybe i just haven't noticed them. do they give the same flavor as ordinary coriander seeds or is it different?

Coriander leaves are cilantro

[rjharris]

coriander *leaves*? huh. i've never seen those, though maybe i just haven't noticed them. do they give the same flavor as ordinary coriander seeds or is it different?

Coriander leaves are cilantro

well fuck me, i guess i should have googled it before i posted. thanks for the info.

[nealstar]

@rjharris Yeah, I actually don't know why I wrote it that way. I usually say cilantro. I've been reading and watching a lot of British cooking content so maybe it crept in. Thanks @heidikay for jumping in.

One thing on the @Fzt inspired "winter" variation: it occurs to me that a few full or half slices of carrot might help with the visual appeal.