Flageolet Bean & Millet Stew

Standard / by / January 4, 2012 / 25 Comments

I can’t believe that I had eleven days off from work!  But now I’m back at it, and how, but I was prepared.  Last weekend I made a point to do some bulk cooking so that I could enjoy hearty, healthy meals all week.

  • Grain 1: Brown Rice + Barley (1 cup each), 3 cups of water, a bit of avocado oil, 2 pinches of salt and a dash of cinnamon. Mix all in the rice cooker and cook on the brown rice setting. I’ve been enjoying steamed veggies with this grain mix.
  • Grain 2: Steel cut oats + Amaranth (1 cup each), 3 cups of water, 1 tablespoon Earth Balance.  Mix all in the rice cooker and cook on the brown rice setting. I reheat this with frozen fruit and a splash of almond milk for breakfast. Mmm Mmm.
  • Lentils:  1 cup brown lentils, 2 tablespoons yellow miso, mixed in one cup of hot water + one additional cup of water. Mix all in the rice cooker and cook on the brown rice setting. When finished, fluff the lentils and stir in a splash of Shoyu sauce. I use these in “bowl” meals (with steamed veggies and grains) and I’ve also added the to veggie broth and about 1/4 cup of fresh salsa for a super-quick soup.

Clearly, the rice cooker needed a break. So I pulled out the pressure cooker for the next dish, which included beans and grains.

Flageolet Bean & Millet Stew

by JL goes Vegan

Keywords: pressure cooker, side, entree, soup/stew, vegan

Don’t be alarmed about the lack of measurements; I made this stew intuitively and suggest that you do the same. Use as much or as little of each ingredient as you like!

Ingredients

  • Olive oil
  • Shallots
  • Parsnip, diced
  • Apple (I used a Gala), cored and diced
  • Golden beet, diced
  • Diced tomatoes (canned, I used about 1.5 cups)
  • Flageolet beans (I think I used 1.5 – 2 cups), dry, soaked for 1 hour, rinsed and drained
  • Millet, dry (I used 1/2 a cup), rinsed and drained
  • Vegetable broth
  • Water
  • Bay leaf
  • Fennel seed
  • Thyme (dry)
  • Sweet Basil (dry)
  • Ground black pepper
  • Lemon juice

Instructions

  • Heat olive oil on medium high in the pressure cooker (uncovered)
  • Add shallots and saute for just a few minutes
  • Add parsnips, beets and apple and saute for 3 – 5 minutes
  • Add beans, millet, diced tomatoes and spices (I used 1 t each)
  • Cover with about 3 inches of liquid, I used a combo of vegetable broth and water
  • Lock pressure cooker lid into place and bring to pressure
  • Cook at pressure for 12 minutes
  • Allow pressure to release naturally
  • Remove the lid, away from you
  • The beans will most likely still need to cook up a bit; place the uncovered pressure cooker back on the burner and turn the heat to simmer. Add fresh lemon juice, stir and then taste to determine the need for salt. This is where I was pleasantly surprised–there was no need for salt! (Your taste may vary.)
  • Simmer until beans are tender.
  • Serve and enjoy.
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This subtly sweet but oh-so-savory stew is delicious served over a bed of raw baby spinach. The piping hot stew gently “steams” the spinach in the bowl and the result is a hearty, filling, warm meal.

Oh, my.

This stew is omnivore approved — and the resident meat-eater also opted to enjoy it without salt. So flavorful!

I always say that a few hours in the kitchen over the weekend is time well spent because I have such wonderful foods to enjoy throughout the week.  How about you? Did you do any bulk cooking over the weekend? I could always use more ideas!

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25 thoughts on “Flageolet Bean & Millet Stew”

  1. I’m with the intuitive cooking!!! I only started measuring when I started blogging! This looks hearty and comforting… just what I need in this freezing cold weather! And I DID do bulk cooking over the weekend… Hopping John, roasted broccoli, and roasted carrot pesto + cashew cream sauce and pasta! 😀

  2. Wow, this looks hearty and healthy and just what is needed for the weather we are having here in FL.  I made a veggie taco soup that I put on top on of fresh spinach.  Looks similar.  I like that you added the millet for more protein.  Happy New Year to you.

  3. This looks delish! I love serving stew over fresh spinach for the steamed effect… works like a charm, doesn’t it? 🙂 And my kids never complain. Bonus.

    …now that I’m inspired for warm foods, I’m off to fill up my slow cooker. Happy New Year, JL!

    1. I love picking up random beans at the health food store!  That’s hot I found Eye of the Goat beans and Black Chickpeas. So fun!

  5. I am a major bulk cooker, but nothing that exciting, mostly beans. Oh yes, I do also make big batches of applesauce in the crockpot and eat half of it during the week and freeze the rest. Homemade applesauce freezes quite nicely, I picked up this tip from the lady who sells apples at the farmers’ market and tried it myself. I just defrost it in the fridge when I want more. 

  7. Just as I was reading through the first three bullets, I was thinking “man, her rice cooker gets as much use as mine – I wonder if I am supposed to give mine a break some days” and then the next thing I read is how yours needed a break 🙂 Too funny.  I too do bulk cooking, especially of the beans and lentils variety, though I am tweaking a recipe for a no-barley yet chewy-like-barley combo of buckwheat quinoa made, in, you guessed it, my rice cooker. 

    1. One Sunday, as I rinsed the rice cooker pot and added more goodies and tried to start the cooker it went on strike.  I think it was thinking “seriously? can I just cool down for a minute?!”  🙂

      I’m anxious to see your buckwheat quinoa creation!

  8. I don’t have a pressure cooker.  How long would I have to cook this in a regular pot?

    1. Marcia, great question! I recently admitted I don’t make beans stove top so I put a call out to my fabulous readers who rallied with a variety of tips, which you can find here:  https://jlgoesvegan.com/alternative-ways-to-make-beans-bread-and-crackers-or-why-i-consider-blogging-a-community/ 

      I did Google Flageolet beans and it seems that cooking time is close to 2 hours.  It appears that beets can take up to 45 minutes and millet about 25 minutes (all of this is from googling, this is now how I cook any of these things!)  If you have a crock pot/slow cooker, you might still be able to do this as one pot If not, I would suggest making the beans separately and then, in one pot begin with coking the root veggies and at the half-way point add the millet and cooked beans. Just my uneducated guess!

      Readers, if you have other suggestions, please chime in!

      1. Thanks…I, too, am a googler but I appreciate the help!  I’ll have to give dry beans a try!

  9. You know, I have never actually cooked with or eaten millet. I only
    bought it recently for the first time, and then to fill a neck pillow!
    However I keep hearing good things about it. I have a mushroom-millet
    soup bookmarked and this sounds fabulous too. Love the protein in it.

    1. Millet is a real favorite of mine. It’s a great way to get a healthy grain into my diet but it’s now overly heavy and definitely doesn’t overpower everything else in the dish. I’ve used it in a few porridge recipes, too. YUM>

  10. Love that you didn’t use measurements – hooray for intuitive cooking, I’ve only just started recording measurements for blogging purposes.  Looks delish 🙂

    1. Lou, I think you are like a lot of us — we did whatever we wanted in the kitchen, then started blogging are realized that people want guidance — I’m trying to strike a balance here on the blog so that people who are new to vegan cooking have precise recipes but also some ambiguous recipes to demonstrate how fun vegan cooking is by just preparing what you love and what have around you.

  11. This looks delicious!  I have a bag of Flageolet beans in my cupboard – so finally, a recipe for them.  I am a big fan of bulk-cooking on the weekends.  Sunday I made a big pot of Rustic Mushroom Barley Soup.  

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