Beef with Peppers and Cannellini Beans

Beef with Peppers and Cannellini Beans; the perfect combination of tender, succulent beef, cooked slowly over a low heat with roasted red peppers and soft beans in a rich aromatic sauce provides rich glorious flavours that work perfectly in this dish.   

Beef with Peppers and Cannellini Beans is a great dish for those of you who like using a slow cooker.

The secret to this recipe is the herbs and spices that bring the flavours together. They elevate the dish, and turn what would be a lovely comforting stew into something with a little more excitement.

The quantities given in this recipe will provide a good meal for up to about 6 people

Preparation time about  20 – 30 minutes

Cooking time about 2 – 2 ½ hours

Ingredients

• 1kg stewing beef – cut into about 3cm cubes
• a little vegetable oil for frying
• 1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
• 3 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated
• 6 large ripe tomatoes or 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp paprika ( sweet not hot)
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• salt and pepper
• 750 ml water – or more if necessary
• 3 stock cubes
• 1 jar char-grilled red peppers – drained and cut into slices about 2cm wide
• 2 cans cannellini beans
• juice of a lemon
• a bunch of fresh coriander (chopped)

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How to make your Beef with Peppers and Cannellini Beans

First sear your meat

Searing the meat, is basically frying it to brown it. This gives it a lovely rich colour which enhances its appearance. But more importantly it locks in the juices to ensure maximum flavour of the meat. The actual process itself also creates another layer of flavour.

To sear (brown) the meat. Put a large frying pan over a high flame on the stove to heat up.  When it is sizzling hot, fry about 10 pieces of meat at a time in just a drizzle of oil.

*If you add too much meat at one time the temperature of the pan will drop and rather than of browning the meat they will start to loose moisture and instead just start to boil and go more of a grey colour.

When one batch of meat is browned take it out and put them into a large pan and continue to fry the next few pieces.

De-glaze the pan

Once all the meat is browned add a little water to the frying pan to de-glaze the pan (to get all the tasty juices off the side of the pan). And then add this to the meat.

Add your onions and garlic

Put the large pan containing the meat over a medium flame on the hob.

Add the ghee and the onions and sauté them until they begin to soften, then add the garlic.

Add your tomatoes and spices

Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, cumin, paprika, chilli flakes, water and crumbled stock cubes.  Then season to taste with salt and pepper. You can also add the chopped stalks of the coriander at this point if you wish – but don’t add the fresh leaves until the end of cooking.

Add enough water to the pan to ensure all the meat is covered with liquid.

Bring the mixture to the boil and then reduce the heat down to a low simmer. 

Simmer for about 2 hours

Cover the pan and continue simmering for about two hours. Checking it about every half hour to make sure it has adequate liquid.

After about 1 hour & 45 minutes, add the cannelini beans and the red peppers to the pan.

After the meat has been cooking for about 2 hours it should be about ready.  To check if the meat is cooked, get a piece of meat out of the pan and put it on a plate, if it’s ready you should be able to cut through it easily with just a spoon.

Add the lemon juice and remove from the heat.

Before serving your glorious beef with peppers and cannellini beans

Sprinkle the chopped coriander into your beef with peppers and cannellini beans, just before serving to ensure it doesn’t lose its freshness or colour.

Enjoy

*As an alternative, this is wonderful served as a really substantial soup, as a lunch or supper dish.  In which case you would follow the same recipe, but use only half the quantity of meat and you could serve it with a big chunk of warm, crusty bread. 

*As with most stews, this dish could be prepared the day before. In which case, just add the red peppers and cannellini beans when you heat it up and allow them to heat through.

Remember; add the coriander just before serving, to ensure it doesn’t lose its fresh colour and aroma.

I do hope you love this recipe as much as my family do.

Let me know how you get on with it. And send me your photos as always.