These hearty Spanish Beans in a tomato sauce are made mostly of store cupboard staples and it is a budget friendly, healthy meal that is easy to make vegan. A slightly sweet and smoky tomato sauce, with protein packed butter beans and a green boost from with spinach. All cooked in one pan and ready in under 20 minutes.
This hearty, but healthy, Spanish Bean Stew is just 380 calories for a big comforting bowl and is delicious as a main meal with some chunks of crusty bread, or as a side as part of a tapas spread. Once you have the intense smoky sauce perfected, this is easy to adapt with other ingredients like chicken or prawns.
If you are looking for other ways to use beans, then why not try our Butter Bean Soup, Mexican Beans on Toast, or Three Bean Curry?
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- Ingredients needed
- Step by step
- Why should you try it?
- What are Spanish beans?
- Health benefits of butter beans
- Variations
- Budget tip
- What to serve with Spanish Beans
- Storage
- FAQs
- Extra tips
- More Spanish recipes
- Recipe
- Feedback
Table of Contents
Ingredients needed
A full ingredients list with measurements is in the recipe card below.
Why should you try it?
What are Spanish beans?
Spanish beans are large beans like butter beans (which we have used in this recipe) or lima beans in a thick and rich smoky tomato sauce. It has all the flavours you know and love from Spanish food.
The sauce is made with a base of shallots and garlic (heavy on the garlic) and then chorizo to give it a tonne of flavour (but this is optional and can be left out if you want to make it vegan.
The tomato sauce is then built up with canned tomatoes, a generous amount of paprika to intensify that smoky flavour and some olives for extra saltiness.
We then stirred through some spinach at the end, as it’s always good to give a dish a green veggie boost if you can.
Health benefits of butter beans
Butter beans, also known as lima beans, are native to South America and they have been cultivated for at least 9,000 years. Larger than most other beans, butter beans have a creamy and buttery texture when cooked which is where they get their name from.
Butter beans are super nutritious too. They contain both soluble and insoluble fibre, which will help keep you fuller for longer. This is a hearty and filling soup, thanks to the beans. Butter beans are also a great source of vegan fibre, vitamin B9 (folate), iron, potassium, magnesium, calcium and zinc.
Variations
The great thing about this dish is that you can add any vegetables to it. You could add courgette (zucchini) mushrooms, aubergine (eggplant) or even sweetcorn. Really, anything that you have in your fridge that might need using up. It’s a great fridge raid meal.
Whilst it doesn’t need it, you could add some grated parmesan on top before serving, or even some crumbled feta. If you wanted to make it vegetarian, then leave out the chorizo. You might want to add a little extra paprika for more smokiness.
What to serve with Spanish Beans
This is search a hearty meal all in itself, it doesn’t really need to be served with anything. If you are making the portions smaller so extra people can have some, then you could serve with some chunks of crusty bread and a nice green salad. We also like it with our Easy Homemade Flatbreads or Naan Breads.
Potatoes are always a good side dish and here are some of our recipes that will go perfectly with this:
- Air Fryer Potato Wedges
- Hasselback Potatoes
- Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes
- Easy Roast Potatoes
- Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes
- The BEST Greek Potatoes
FAQs
More Spanish recipes
If you’ve tried this chorizo and bean stew, or any other recipe on the blog, then let us know how you got on in the comments below, we love hearing from you!Tag us in your creations on Instagram @hungryhealthyhappy – we love sharing photos when people make our recipes. You can use the hashtag #hungryhealthyhappy too.
Recipe
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