Anna Ansari's LOBIO Georgian Bean Stew
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Category
Stew
Servings
4-6
Prep Time
20 minutes
Stove Time
40 minutes
We are pleased to feature a second recipe from Anna Ansari’s sumptuous book - Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing
“As our hosts began to set the long table for our evening supra – the Georgian term for feast – the vista was otherworldly. Rolling green hills leading to snow-capped Caucasus mountains. A stone wall.
A trio of young foxglove trees. Pink oleander bushes. A puppy underfoot. Cats lounging on the grass. A weathered wheelbarrow. An old red Lada parked under a walnut tree. And rows of grape vines.
Kakheti, in northeastern Georgia, is the cradle of the country’s wine culture, and is also where I had my first taste of lobio, a simple bean stew about which my two Georgian friends, Maka and Kristo, had much to say.”
Credit: Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing by Anna Ansari. DK RED, 9 October. RRP £27
PURCHASE THE BOOKHERE
Anna Ansari
Ingredients
- 250g (9oz) dried kidney beans, soaked overnight, then drained and rinsed
- 1 onion, quartered
-
3 garlic cloves (1 minced, 2 whole)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1¾ tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
- ½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
-
20g (¾oz)chopped fresh parsley, dill, or coriander (or a combination of all three)
Directions
Add your drained and rinsed beans to a large pot for which you have a lid. Pour in enough water to cover the beans by 5cm (2in), then place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes at the boil before reducing the heat to low.
Add one onion quarter, two whole garlic cloves, and the bay leaf, then bring to the boil again. Place the lid fully on your pot, then transfer your pot to the Wonderbag and leave to slow-cook for 2-3 hours, or until your beans are tender, checking on them occasionally and adding 1 teaspoon of the salt when they reach a just tender/ al dente firmness. Note that the cooking time depends on the type and age of the beans.
While your beans are cooking, finely dice the remaining onion quarters. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over a medium–high heat. Add the diced onion, along with ¼ teaspoon of the salt. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the onion, stirring occasionally, for 8–10 minutes, or until it is soft and golden.
Add the minced garlic, ground coriander, thyme, chilli flakes, and black pepper. Stir and cook for 60 seconds, or until fragrant. If necessary, take the pan off the heat and set aside while you wait for your beans to finish cooking.
Once your beans are ready, drain them from their pot, making sure to reserve the cooking water. Discard the garlic, onion, and bay leaf.
Add half the beans and 125ml (generous ½ cup/ 4fl oz) of the bean cooking water to the pan with the onions and spices. Use the back of a fork or a wooden spoon to mash the beans, water, and onions into a paste. Add the remaining ½ teaspoon salt to your bean paste, along with your chopped fresh herbs.
Place over a medium heat and cook for 5–7 minutes so that everything warms up and the flavours meld. Mash any intact beans you encounter – or don’t. It’s up to you.
Return your whole, intact beans to their cooking pot, then add the maybe-mashed bean, onion, and herb mixture, and stir everything to mix. Place over a medium heat and begin adding the bean cooking water, 100ml (6½ tbsp/3½fl oz) at a time, until the contents of your pan reach your desired consistency. You can use water instead of the bean cooking water if you don’t have enough of the latter, or if you accidentally tossed it, or if you (gasp!) used canned beans instead of dried ones. Cook for 5–7 minutes more, or until the lobio is nice and warm and begging to be eaten.
Recipe Note
“These beans are excellent when eaten the traditional way as a loose, soupy stew, but I also like them a bit stodgier, almost refried bean-like in texture, and eaten as a dip or slathered across a piece of toast, topped with a slice of tomato, flaky sea salt and some more fresh herbs. If you don’t have kidney beans, you can use whatever you enjoy or have on hand, other than black beans. I know the beans in the photo opposite might look like black beans, but I assure you they’re just very well-cooked kidneys.”
